RAF Castle Camps was listed as being in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

as it is close to its namesake Cambridgeshire village. It is very near the

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

border and the airfield straddled the

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

and

county border. Construction of the station was started in September 1939. It opened as a satellite of

RAF Debden Royal Air Force Debden or more simply RAF Debden is a former Royal Air Force station located southeast of Saffron Walden and approximately north of the village of Debden in North Essex, England History The airfield was opened in April 1937 ...

in June 1940 and became a satellite of

RAF North Weald North Weald Airfield is an operational general aviation aerodrome, in the civil parish of North Weald Bassett in Epping Forest, Essex, England. It was an important fighter station during the Battle of Britain, when it was known as the RAF Stati ...

in July 1943. During the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

, one of the units operating from Castle Camps was 85 Squadron, whose

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

s were commanded by Peter Townsend. The airfield was used by numerous squadrons throughout the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1945, it was commanded by

ace

Tim Vigors Wing Commander Timothy Ashmead Vigors, (22 March 1921 – 14 November 2003) was a Royal Air Force fighter pilot and flying ace during the Second World War, in which he fought in the Battle of Britain and in the Far East. In civilian life, Vigors ...

.Tim Vigors, "Life's Too Short to Cry", p. 235 It closed in January 1946.

Operational Units and Aircraft

The following units were also here at some point: * No. 25 (Base) Defence Wing RAF (March – May 1944) * No. 85 Group Communication Squadron RAF (May – June 1944) * No. 149 Airfield RAF (March – April 1944) * No. 2771 Squadron RAF Regiment * No. 2887 Squadron RAF Regiment

Current use

The site has reverted to agricultural use. However the outlines of portions of the runways in the fields (when viewed on Google Earth), can still be seen and some of the perimeter roads are even now in use as farm tracks. Some of the airfield buildings are still present and being used by local farms and industry.

References

Citations

Bibliography

*Brazier, Roy (2011) History of RAF Castle Camps: a Unique Airfield, 1940–47. * * *

External links

Castle Camps Village, Airfield webpage
*Hawker Tempest Page

*605 Squadron Website
History of 605 Squadron
*Polish Squadrons Remembered

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castle Camps Royal Air Force stations in Cambridgeshire Royal Air Force stations in Essex Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom