Royal Air Force Flowerdown or more simply RAF Flowerdown 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 ...

station located in

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

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 Royal Flying Corps (RFC) School for Wireless Operators moved from Farnborough to Flowerdown, later RAF Flowerdown in 1918. From April 1926 the Electrical and Wireless School, part of 23 Group, Inland Area, was located at Flowerdown. The apprentice training school moved from Flowerdown to Cranwell in 1929 and the

RNAS The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...

moved into Flowerdown which remained as a wireless station until 1956. It was never an airfield but it was bombed twice in one week. During 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 opposi ...

, Flowerdown was one of a number of listening stations around the country that fed information into

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years followin ...

with staff working 12-hour shifts listening to Morse code which was then used to decipher the German codes. In 1956 the site was taken over by

GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Uni ...

's Composite Signals Organisation as a large HF

listening station A radio listening station (also: listening post, radio intercept station or wireless intercept station, W/T station for wireless telegraphy) is a facility used for military reconnaissance, especially telecommunications reconnaissance (also kno ...

. It closed in the late 1970s. In 1986 the site became the new depot for the Light Division when they moved from

Peninsula Barracks The Peninsula Barracks are a group of military buildings in Winchester, Hampshire. History The barracks, which were originally known as the Upper Barracks, Winchester, were built in the early 20th century on the site of King's House, an unfini ...

, Winchester and was named Sir John Moore Barracks. The barracks went on to become the home of the

Army Training Regiment An Army Training Regiment (ATR) provides Basic Training for elements of the British Army. History The British Army also used to have Army Training Regiments at Bassingbourn (closed in 2012), Harrogate (renamed the Army Foundation College), and Li ...

, Winchester.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flowerdown Royal Air Force stations in Hampshire Y service