RAF Funtington

RAF Funtington was a wartime advanced landing ground in West Sussex, opened in September 1943 and laid out with two temporary runways of Sommerfeld track rather than concrete. Like the other coastal ALGs created across southern England, it was a deliberately spartan, semi-mobile base intended to push Allied fighter and fighter-bomber strength close to the Channel in the build-up to the invasion of Europe.

The station served chiefly under the Second Tactical Air Force, with Nos. 83 and 84 Groups using it, and at times under Fighter Command’s No. 11 Group. Over its short life it hosted a remarkable number of squadrons flying Spitfire IXs, Hawker Typhoons and North American Mustang Is. Many of these units were Allied: a string of Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons, Norwegian squadrons (Nos. 331 and 332), and French, Belgian, Polish and New Zealand fliers all operated from the field at various points.

In the weeks around D-Day the airfield supported sweeps, armed reconnaissance and escort work over France, including cover for anti-shipping and anti-U-boat patrols along the coast. With the campaign moving inland, Funtington’s usefulness faded, and the site was derequisitioned in December 1944. The land afterwards returned largely to farming, with part of the area later given over to a research establishment.