RAF Hawkinge

RAF Hawkinge stood on the cliffs above Folkestone in Kent, the nearest major British fighter airfield to occupied Europe and, for that reason, one of the most exposed stations in the country. In use since 1915, it served between the wars as a fighter base and in 1940 became a front-line field of No. 11 Group. During the Battle of Britain its grass was used as an advanced landing and refuelling ground for Spitfires and Hurricanes operating over the Channel and France, and its closeness to the enemy made it a priority target: German bombing in August 1940 was so heavy that the airfield had to be abandoned for a time. Over the war years more than forty squadrons used Hawkinge, among them Canadian, Australian, Czechoslovak, Belgian and Dutch units, alongside air-sea rescue flights whose Walrus amphibians plucked downed airmen from the sea.

Flying continued after the war as a gliding and cadet-training centre, and the station finally closed at the start of the 1960s. Most of the site has since been built over with housing, but part of the old airfield is preserved as the Kent Battle of Britain Museum. The local churchyard holds the graves of scores of airmen, a quarter of them killed in the summer of 1940.