RAF Wartling was a
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 located near the village of Wartling in East Sussex. It was a Second World War and later Cold War
Ground Controlled Interception (GCI) station built to complement the nearby
Chain Home
Chain Home, or CH for short, was the codename for the ring of coastal early warning radar stations built by the Royal Air Force (RAF) before and during the Second World War to detect and track aircraft. Initially known as RDF, and given the off ...
station at
RAF Pevensey.
Second World War
Wartling became operational in 1941 and was used to control fighter aircraft and guide them towards approaching German aircraft. Originally based in caravans the station had a brick-built operations block that came into operation in July 1943. Wartling helped track and destroy 380 German V1 flying bombs. Although the nearby RAF Pevensey had closed in December 1945, Wartling remained open as one of the few remaining GCI stations in the South of England.
Cold War
With the threat of attack using nuclear weapons the station was used as part of the
ROTOR
ROTOR was an elaborate air defence radar system built by the British Government in the early 1950s to counter possible attack by Soviet bombers. To get it operational as quickly as possible, it was initially made up primarily of WWII-era syst ...
air defence radar system and a protected underground operations rooms was built at Wartling. Construction started at the end of 1951 but was not completed until February 1955. In 1956 a new Decca
AMES Type 80
The Air Ministry Experimental Station, AMES Type 80, sometimes known by its development rainbow code Green Garlic, was a powerful early-warning radar, early warning (EW) and ground-controlled interception (GCI) radar developed by the Telecommuni ...
search radar was installed to replace the earlier equipment. With the increased range of the Type 80 radar other radar stations in the South East began to close and in April 1958 it became a Master Radar Station responsible for all British airspace South of the Thames.
In 1959 it supplied the last known radar trace to accident investigators following the fatal crash of the prototype
Handley Page Victor
The Handley Page Victor was a British jet-powered strategic bomber developed and produced by Handley Page during the Cold War. It was the third and final ''V bomber'' to be operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF), the other two being the Vickers ...
B.2 serial number XH668. When other Master Radar Stations were modernised in the 1960s Wartling went out of use and finally closed on 3 December 1964. The site was sold in 1976.
See also
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List of former Royal Air Force stations
This list of former RAF stations includes most of the stations, airfields and administrative headquarters previously used by the Royal Air Force. They are listed under any former county or country name which was appropriate for the duration of ...
*
ROTOR
ROTOR was an elaborate air defence radar system built by the British Government in the early 1950s to counter possible attack by Soviet bombers. To get it operational as quickly as possible, it was initially made up primarily of WWII-era syst ...
References
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External links
rafweb.orgSubterranea Britannica RAF Wartling
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Wartling
Wartling is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. It lies between Bexhill and Hailsham, at the northern edge of the Pevensey Levels. The parish includes Boreham Street, north-east of Wartling on the A271 ...
Wartling
Wartling is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. It lies between Bexhill and Hailsham, at the northern edge of the Pevensey Levels. The parish includes Boreham Street, north-east of Wartling on the A271 ...
History of East Sussex