page_title: RAF Tangmere
section_title: Second World War
hierarchical_section_title: RAF Tangmere / History / Second World War
caption_attribution_description: A line of Supermarine Spitfire Mark VBs of No. 131 Squadron RAF, being prepared for a sweep at Merston, a satellite airfield of Tangmere, West Sussex.
context_page_description: RAF Tangmere was a Royal Air Force station located in Tangmere, England, famous for its role in the Battle of Britain. The famous Second World War aces Wing Commander Douglas Bader, and the then inexperienced Johnnie Johnson were stationed at Tangmere in 1941.
context_section_description: As war threatened in the late 1930s, the fighter aircraft based at Tangmere became faster, with Hawker Furies, Gloster Gladiators, and Hawker Hurricanes all being used. In 1939 the airfield was enlarged to defend the south coast against attack by the Luftwaffe, with Tangmere's only hotel and some houses being demolished in the process. The RAF commandeered the majority of houses in the centre of the village, with only six to eight families being allowed to stay. The village would not resume its status as a civilian community until 1966.
  In August 1940 the first squadron (No. 602 Squadron RAF) of Supermarine Spitfires was based at the satellite airfield at nearby Westhampnett, as the Battle of Britain began. By now the villagers had mainly been evacuated, and extensive ranges of RAF buildings had sprung up.
  The first, and worst, enemy raid on the station came on 16 August 1940 when hundreds of Stuka dive bombers and fighters crossed the English coast and attacked Tangmere. There was extensive damage to buildings and aircraft on the ground and 14 ground staff and six civilians were killed. However the station was kept in service and brought back into full operation.
  Throughout the war, the station was used by the Royal Air Force Special Duty Service when 161 (Special Duty) Squadron's Lysander flight came down to do their insertion and pick-up operations into occupied Europe. The SOE used Tangmere Cottage, opposite the main entrance to the base to house and receive their agents. Today the cottage sports a commemorative plaque to its former secret life.
  Later in the war, as the RAF turned from defence to attack, Group Captain Douglas Bader, the legless fighter ace, commanded the Tangmere wing of Fighter Command. Today he is commemorated by a plaque outside the former Bader Arms public house, now a Co-operative Food outlet in the village. 616 Squadron, which included Johnnie Johnson and Hugh Dundas, arrived at Tangmere in late February 1941. Johnson went on to become the highest scoring Western Allied fighter ace against the Luftwaffe.
  Many of those killed at the base, from both sides in conflict, are buried in the cemetery at St Andrews Church, Tangmere, today tended by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. American RAF pilot Billy Fiske who died at Tangmere in 1940 was one of the first American aviators to die during the Second World War.
caption: A line of Supermarine Spitfire Mark VBs of No. 131 Squadron RAF, being prepared for a sweep at Merston, a satellite airfield of Tangmere
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