RAF Honiley

52.3570, -1.6602 — view on OpenStreetMap ↗

About

RAF Honiley stood near Wroxall in Warwickshire, about seven miles south-west of Coventry, and opened in August 1941 as a Fighter Command station in No. 9 Group charged with the night defence of the industrial Midlands. A long succession of day- and night-fighter squadrons passed through, flying Hawker Hurricanes, Supermarine Spitfires, Bristol Beaufighters and de Havilland Mosquitoes, while the station also housed an operational training unit and, for a time, the USAAF’s 416th Night Fighter Squadron. After the war it took on a signals role and was home to a re-formed auxiliary squadron and a Fleet Air Arm unit until flying ended in the late 1950s. The RAF gave it up in 1958; the site later became a vehicle proving ground and is today used by Jaguar Land Rover as its “Fen End” facility, closed to the public.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including Honiley — Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust and RAF Honiley — Wikipedia. The text is original and has been written from factual source material; no source text has been copied unless specifically quoted and attributed.

Photographs

Royal Air Force Fighter Command, 1939-1945. RAF armourers clean the barrel of a Hispano cannon removed from a Bristol Beaufighter NF Mark VI of No. 96 Squadron RAF, as WAAFs unload boxes of 20mm cannon shells by the aircraft at Honiley, Warwickshire.
ⓘ licence & creditCrough F W (Fg Off), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Fighter_Command,_1939-1945._CE23.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Fighter Command, 1939-1945. RAF armourers loading belts of 20mm Hispano cannon shells into a Bristol Beaufighter NF Mark VI of No. 96 Squadron RAF at Honiley, Warwickshire.
ⓘ licence & creditCrouch F W (Fg Off), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Fighter_Command,_1939-1945._CE21.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Fighter Command, 1939-1945. A WAAF corporal checks a delivery of 20mm Hispano cannon shells before they are loaded into a Bristol Beaufighter NF Mark VI of No. 96 Squadron RAF at Honiley, Warwickshire.
ⓘ licence & creditCrouch F W (Fg Off), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Fighter_Command,_1939-1945._CE16.jpgView source & full licence →
Aerial view of RAF Honiley, looking east to west.
ⓘ licence & creditHarvey Milligan / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RAF_Honiley_(2014).jpgView source & full licence →
Bristol Beaufighter Mk VIF of No. 96 Squadron RAF being re-armed at Honiley, Warwickshire, 23 March 1943. Beaufighter VIF V8748/ZJ-R of No. 96 Squadron being re-armed at Honiley, 23 March 1943. The armourers are feeding belts of ball and high-explosive incendiary ammunition into the magazines of the aircraft's four 20mm Hispano cannon.
ⓘ licence & creditCrouch F W (Fg Off), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bristol_Beaufighter_Mk_VIF_of_No._96_Squadron_RAF_being_re-armed_at_Honily,_Warwickshire,_23_March_1943._CE22.jpgView source & full licence →

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