Royal Air Force Woodchurch or more simply RAF Woodchurch is a former

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

Advanced Landing Ground located in

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. The airfield is located approximately west of Ashford; about southeast of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Opened in 1943, Woodchurch was a prototype for the type of temporary Advanced Landing Ground type airfield which would be built in France after D-Day, when the need for advanced landing fields would become urgent as the Allied forces moved east across

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and

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. It was used by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces. It was closed in September 1944. Today the airfield is a mixture of agricultural fields with no recognizable remains.

History

The following units were here at some point: * No. 128 Airfield RAF * No. 231 Squadron RAF * No. 400 Squadron RCAF *

No. 414 Squadron RCAF No. 414 Squadron RCAF is a Royal Canadian Air Force squadron. It is currently located in Ottawa and conducts electronic warfare support training for other units in the Canadian Armed Forces. History World War II On 13 August 1941, No 414 Army ...

* No. 2809 Squadron RAF Regiment The USAAF Ninth Air Force required several temporary Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) along the channel coast prior to the June 1944 Normandy invasion to provide tactical air support for the ground forces landing in

USAAF use

While under USAAF control, Woodchurch was known as USAAF Station AAF-419 for security reasons, and by which it was referred to instead of location. Its Station-ID was "WC".

373rd Fighter Group

In the first week of April 1944, the

373d Fighter Group The 373rd Fighter Group is an inactive United States Army Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with First Air Force stationed at Mitchel Field, New York. It was inactivated on 7 November 1945. During World War II the group was assigned to Ni ...

arrived from

Richmond Army Air Base Richmond International Airport is a joint civil-military airport in Sandston, Virginia, United States, an unincorporated community (in Henrico County). The airport is about 7 miles (11 km) southeast of downtown Richmond, the capital of ...

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operating Republic P-47 Thunderbolts. Operational fighter squadrons and fuselage codes were: * 410th Fighter Squadron (R3) *

411th Fighter Squadron 411th may refer to: *411th Bombardment Group, inactive United States Air Force unit *411th Bombardment Squadron, part of the 6th Air Mobility Wing at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida *411th Civil Affairs Battalion (United States) (Tactical), civil a ...

(U9) *

412th Fighter Squadron 41 may refer to: * 41 (number) * one of the years 41 BC, AD 41, 1941, 2041 Art and entertainment * 41 (film), ''41'' (film), a 2007 documentary about Nicholas O'Neill, the youngest victim of the Station nightclub fire * ''41'', a 2012 film by Glen ...

(V5) The 373d Fighter Group was part of the 303d Fighter Wing,

XIX Tactical Air Command The XIX Tactical Air Command is an inactive United States Air Force unit. The unit's last assignment was with the Ninth Air Force based at Biggs Field, Texas, where it was inactivated on 31 March 1946. During World War II, the mission of th ...

. Movement to France took place in late July and most of the personnel and aircraft had left for Tour-en-Bessin (ALG A-13) by the 31st. Woodchurch did not miss out as a haven for disabled bombers. On 29 June, a 458th Bomb Group Liberator landed without its nosewheel down, causing irreparable damage to the aircraft and urgent work for the runway repair crew, and another ailing B-24 put down safely on 19 July.

Current use

The area was fully returned to agriculture by the following year. Today, there is no physical evidence of the airfield, as the land has been redeveloped into either agricultural fields or meadows. The only way which the location of RAF Woodchurch can be determined is by comparing the road network on aerial photos of the airfield when it was active to the road network today. However, a privately owned airstrip does run parallel to the original main runway (01 - 19) and some evidence of the original dispersal standings can be seen from the air.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * Freeman, Roger A. (1994) UK Airfields of the Ninth: Then and Now 1994. After the Battle * Freeman, Roger A. (1996) The Ninth Air Force in Colour: UK and the Continent-World War Two. After the Battle * Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. .
USAAS-USAAC-USAAF-USAF Aircraft Serial Numbers--1908 to present

External links

Aerial Photo of RAF Woodchurch from Multimap.Com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodchurch Airfields of the IX Fighter Command in the United Kingdom Royal Air Force stations in Kent