RAF Lympne

51.0811, 1.0185 — view on OpenStreetMap ↗

About

RAF Lympne stood on the cliffs above Hythe in Kent and had been a flying ground since the First World War. In the Second it served as a forward fighter strip in No. 11 Group, close enough to France to be a first port of call for damaged aircraft; it was bombed and put out of action during the Battle of Britain in August 1940 before reopening. Dozens of squadrons — British and Allied — rotated through it, flying Spitfires, Hurricanes and Typhoons. After the war it returned to civil flying before closing in the 1980s.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including Lympne — Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust and RAF Lympne — 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- Air Defence of Great Britain (adgb), 1943-1944. Belgian ground crew refuelling Supermarine Spitfire Mark XIVE, RM764 'MN-M', of No. 350 (Belgian) Squadron RAF at Lympne, Kent.
ⓘ licence & creditGlemser (Plt Off), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force-_Air_Defence_of_Great_Britain_(adgb),_1943-1944._CL1360.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force- Air Defence of Great Britain (adgb), 1943-1944. Flying Officer F "Fifi" Verpoorten of No. 350 (Belgian) Squadron RAF starts up his Supermarine Spitfire Mark XIV at Lympne, Kent, for an early morning sortie over Holland. The aircraft still bears the unit codes of No. 130 Squadron RAF, having been recently transferred from that unit.
ⓘ licence & creditGlemser (Plt Off), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force-_Air_Defence_of_Great_Britain_(adgb),_1943-1944._CL1354.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force 1939-1945- Fighter Command Typhoon IB R8752 of No 1 Squadron, written off after crash-landing in a field near its base at Lympne on 2 June 1943. Flight Sergeant W H Ramsey hit a telegraph pole over France, but managed to bring his badly damaged aircraft home.
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_1939-1945-_Fighter_Command_CH18509.jpgView source & full licence →
ⓘ licence & creditPeter Jeffery / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lympne_Airfield_-_geograph.org.uk_-_4176592.jpgView source & full licence →
Aircraft of the Royal Air Force, 1939-1945- Supermarine Spitfire. Spitfire F Mark XIV, RM619 ‘AP-D’, taxying to the perimeter track at Lympne, Kent for an early morning patrol over Holland. Although still displaying the unit code letters of No. 130 Squadron RAF, RM619 had in fact been transferred to No. 350 (Belgian) Squadron RAF.
ⓘ licence & creditGlemser (Plt Off), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aircraft_of_the_Royal_Air_Force,_1939-1945-_Supermarine_Spitfire._CL1353.jpgView source & full licence →

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