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

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

located west of

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Andov ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

. Opened in 1942, it was used by both the

and

United States Army Air Forces 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 ...

. During the war Thruxton was used primarily as a combat fighter airfield. However, paratroops who participated in the Bruneval raid (

Operation Biting Operation Biting, also known as the Bruneval Raid, was a British Combined Operations (United Kingdom), Combined Operations Raid (military), raid on a German coastal radar installation at Bruneval in northern France, during the Second World War, ...

) in which German radar technology was captured took off from here in

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley was a British medium/heavy bomber aircraft of the 1930s. It was one of three twin-engined, front line medium bomber types that were in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) at the outbreak of the World W ...

bombers on the evening of 27 February 1942. Also, gliders used in the

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

operated from here. After the war it was closed in 1946. Today the site is occupied by the

Thruxton Circuit The Thruxton Circuit is a motor-racing circuit located near the village of Thruxton, Hampshire, Thruxton in Hampshire, England, United Kingdom, about north of Southampton. It has hosted motorsport events including the British Touring Car Ch ...

. It remains an active aerodrome at the same time, now named Thruxton Aerodrome.

History

While under

(USAAF) control, it was known as USAAF Station AAF-407 for security reasons, and by which it was referred to instead of location. Its station-ID was "TX". Thruxton was transferred to the USAAF Ninth Air Force on 3 January 1944. On 1 March the

366th Fighter Group 366th may refer to: * 366th Bombardment Squadron, inactive United States Air Force unit * 366th Division (IDF), also known as the "Path of Fire" Division, a reserve armored division of the IDF * 366th Fighter Squadron, inactive United States Air Fo ...

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 were transferred to the airfield from

RAF Membury Royal Air Force Membury or more simply RAF Membury is a former Royal Air Force List of former Royal Air Force stations, station built in the civil parish of Lambourn in Berkshire, England, approximately north-northwest of Hungerford. The airfie ...

. Operational squadrons of the group were: * 389th Fighter Squadron (A6) * 390th Fighter Squadron (B2) *

391st Fighter Squadron The 391st Fighter Squadron is part of the 366th Fighter Wing at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. The squadron participated in combat missions in World War II and the Vietnam War, provided air defense in Korea and Japan from 1968 to 1971, an ...

(A8) The 366th 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 D ...

71st Fighter Wing The 71st Fighter Wing (71 FW) is a disbanded unit of the United States Air Force, last stationed at Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri. It was withdrawn from the Missouri Air National Guard (MO ANG) and inactivated on 31 October 1950. This wing ...

IX Tactical Air Command The IX Tactical Air Command was a formation of the United States Army Air Forces. It fought in the European theater of World War II. Its last assignment was at Camp Shanks, New York, where it was inactivated on 25 October 1945. History Formed ...

. The group moved to its Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) at St. Pierre du Mont,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

(ALG A-1) on 17 June 1944 .

Units

The following squadrons were here at some point: The following units were here at some point:

Current use

Upon its release from military use, in 1947 the field was leased by the Wiltshire School of Flying, whose engineering arm designed and built numbers of the Thruxton Jackaroo - a four-seat conversion of the

de Havilland Tiger Moth The de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s British biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and built by the de Havilland, de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and other operators as a primary traine ...

. Over the next few years their training fleet was joined at Thruxton by substantial numbers of light aircraft. Flight training at the airfield is now provided by Western Air (Thruxton) Ltd at what is now known as Thruxton Airport. The southwest end of the former 02/20 secondary runway is now used as an aircraft parking ramp with the airport facilities also being built on the former runway. The northeast end of the runway still exists, but is largely abandoned, with parts of it also used for aircraft parking. The airport uses part of the former main 07/25 wartime runway for takeoffs/ landings. A grass runway was built parallel to the 12/30 secondary runway, the wartime concreted runway being in a deteriorating state and unused. Thruxton airfield is also the operational airfield for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance service.

Motorcycle racing The motorcycle sport of racing (also called moto racing and motorbike racing) includes motorcycle road racing and off-road racing, both either on circuits or open courses, and track racing. Other categories include hill climbs, drag racing and ...

started in 1950 with the famous

Thruxton 500 The Thruxton 500 was a motorcycle endurance race for production based road machines, covering 500 miles and ridden by a team of two riders per machine. The first event was a 9-hour race which took place in 1955, organized by the Southampton and Dist ...

motorcycle endurance race, followed by

cars A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...

in 1952. The runway and perimeter roads formed the original circuit until a new track was laid in 1968 utilizing the former airfield perimeter track At 2.356 miles (3.792 km), the new circuit uses only the perimeter road with the addition of a chicane called Club and a series of three tight corners called Campbell, Cobb and Seagrave. All of the loop and pan dispersal areas have been removed. There is no flying on race days but the airfield is used for flying during practice and test days on the motor circuit.

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. .
Thruxton Airfield
at www.controltowers.co.uk

External links

Photographs of RAF Thruxton from the Geograph British Isles project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thruxton Airfields of the IX Fighter Command in the United Kingdom Military units and formations established in 1941 Military units and formations disestablished in 1946 Parachuting in the United Kingdom Royal Air Force stations in Hampshire Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom