RAF Merston

53.9633, -1.2992 — view on OpenStreetMap ↗

About

RAF Merston was a grass fighter satellite of nearby Tangmere, laid out in West Sussex near Chichester and operational from 1941. A long succession of fighter squadrons used it — British, Canadian, New Zealand and Polish units flying Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Typhoons — on air defence and cross-Channel sweeps in the years around D-Day. Flying ended in 1945, after which the Navy briefly used it for storage. The site has since returned to farmland.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including Merston — Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust and RAF Merston — 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. Supermarine Spitfire Mark VBs of No. 131 Squadron RAF undergo maintenance in their dispersal area at Merston, a satellite airfield of Tangmere, Sussex.
ⓘ licence & creditCrouch F W (Mr), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Fighter_Command,_1939-1945._CH5877.jpgView source & full licence →
Aerial photograph of Merston airfield the control tower and technical site are on the left (west), 21 September 1946. Photograph taken by No. 541 Squadron, sortie number RAF/CPE/UK/1751. English Heritage (RAF Photography).
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RAF_Merston_-_21_Sep_1946_Airphoto.jpgView source & full licence →
Group Captain A G Malan (second from left), Commanding Officer of No 145 (Free French) Wing discusses the operational situation on the morning of 'D-Day' with some of his pilots at Merston, Sussex. On the left stands Free French pilot, Lieutenant Raoul Duval; second from the right is the Wing Leader, Wing Commander W V Crawford-Compton; third right is Commandant C Martell, Commanding Officer of No. 341 (Free French) Squadron RAF.
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer : Daventry B J (F/O) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Malan_and_RAF_officers_D_Day_IWM_CL_29.jpgView source & full licence →
Wing Leader, Wing Commander W V Crawford-Compton
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer : Daventry B J (F/O) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Commandant_C_Martell.jpgView source & full licence →

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