Royal Air Force Bisterne or more simply RAF Bisterne 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) and ...

Advanced Landing Ground in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The airfield is located in the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

Bisterne Bisterne is a hamlet in the civil parish of Ringwood in the New Forest National Park in Hampshire, England. Its nearest town is Ringwood, which lies to the north. History Bisterne is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Betestre. It was posse ...

approximately south of Ringwood; about southwest of London. Opened in March 1944, Bisterne was a prototype for the type of temporary

Advanced Landing Ground Advanced Landing Grounds (ALGs) were temporary advance airfields constructed by the Allies during World War II during the liberation of Europe. They were built in the UK prior to the invasion and thereafter in northwest Europe from 6 June 19 ...

type airfield that would be built in France after

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

, when the need advanced landing fields would become urgent as the Allied forces moved east across France and Germany. It was used by the

United States Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

as a fighter airfield. It was closed late in the summer of 1944. Today the airfield is a mixture of agricultural fields with no recognizable remains.

History

Bisterne was used by the

No. 2774 Squadron RAF Regiment This is a list of units of the Royal Air Force Regiment. The RAF Regiment is the ground fighting force of the Royal Air Force and is charged mainly with protecting military airfields, among other duties. First formed in 1942 to protect the airfi ...

. Bisterne was known as USAAF Station AAF-415 for security reasons by the USAAF during the war, and by which it was referred to instead of location. Its USAAF Station Code was "BS". On 7 March 1944 the

371st Fighter Group 371st may refer to: * 371st Bombardment Squadron, inactive United States Air Force unit *371st Engineer Construction Battalion or 371st Engineer Battalion, activated as a Special Service Regiment in the United States Army in 1944 * 371st Fighter Gr ...

arrived . Equipped with

Republic P-47 Thunderbolt The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is a World War II-era fighter aircraft produced by the American company Republic Aviation from 1941 through 1945. It was a successful high-altitude fighter and it also served as the foremost American fighter-bombe ...

s, the 347th FG arrived from Richmond AAF

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Tactical squadrons of the group and squadron fuselage codes were: * 404th Fighter Squadron (9Q) * 405th Fighter Squadron (8N) * 406th Fighter Squadron (4W) The 371st was a group of

Ninth Air Force The Ninth Air Force (Air Forces Central) is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. It is the Air Force Service Component of United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), a joint De ...

70th Fighter Wing The 70th Fighter Wing (70th FW) is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the United States Air Forces in Europe, based at Neubiberg Air Base, Germany. It was inactivated on 25 September 1947. History Established ...

, IX Tactical Air Command. The 371st moved from Bisterne between 17 and 29 June 1944 to its

(ALG) at Beuzeville France (ALG A-6).

Current use

In 2004 a small memorial was dedicated by a former P47D pilot on the outskirts of Brixey's Farm yard barn at the end of the metalled bridleway eastwards off the B3347 at Kingston as a lasting memorial to the men and machines who flew from the wartime Bisterne airfield.

References

External links

Photographs of RAF Bisterne from the Geograph British Isles project

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bisterne Royal Air Force stations in Hampshire Airfields of the IX Fighter Command in the United Kingdom Military airbases established in 1944 Military installations closed in 1944 Ringwood, Hampshire

History

Current use

See also

References

Further reading

External links