RAF Hurn

RAF Hurn opened in July 1941 in Dorset, a few miles north of Christchurch, and served as much as a transport and staging field as a fighter station. From here aircraft set out on the long ferry routes to North Africa and Italy, skirting neutral airspace. The airfield filled with squadrons in the run-up to the Normandy invasion of June 1944, among them a shifting array of RAF and Royal Canadian Air Force fighter wings, and in the late summer the American 397th Bombardment Group brought its B-26 Marauders here before moving to the Continent. Handed back from operational RAF use in October 1944, Hurn went on to a long civil career: it is now Bournemouth Airport, with an adjoining aviation business park, and remains an active flying field.