RAF Friston

RAF Friston was a grass airfield on the South Downs of East Sussex, set on high ground above the cliffs between Eastbourne and Seaford. Used as a civil landing ground before the war, it was taken over by the Royal Air Force and developed during 1940 as an emergency landing ground, giving battle-damaged or short-of-fuel aircraft a clear coastal field to put down on before crossing the Channel. It came under Fighter Command and No. 11 Group, the formation responsible for the defence of south-east England.

From 1942 onwards Friston operated as a forward fighter station. Hawker Hurricanes of Nos. 32 and 253 Squadrons arrived in June 1942, and over the following two years a long succession of Supermarine Spitfire units passed through, among them Nos. 41, 64 and 131 Squadrons together with Polish, Belgian and Canadian squadrons. The airfield also hosted air-sea rescue work, with a rescue flight that became part of No. 277 Squadron, and later an air observation post unit flying Austers.

Activity peaked around the Normandy landings of June 1944 and the subsequent campaign against the V-1 flying bombs, when large numbers of aircraft were dispersed there. The station ran down after late 1944 and was relinquished in April 1946. The site was later used for gliding into the 1950s and has since returned to farmland.