Kenley
*KENLEY: Military aerodrome later civil aerodrome and gliding site
(Known as KENLEY COMMON in WW1)
Note: First picture by the author and taken through perspex.
Second picture (2013) from Google Earth ©
Military users: WW1: RFC/RAF Aircraft Acceptance Park
Training Squadron Station and Photographic Experimental Station
91 Sqdn (Sopwith Dolphins)
Note: These two pictures from postcards were kindly sent by Mike Charlton, who has an amazing collection. See - www.aviationpostcard.co.uk
I believe these pictures are of Hawker Woodcocks flown by 23 Squadron, but if anybody can kindly confirm this, the advice will be most welcome.
THE INTERWAR PERIOD
1918 to 1939: RAF Fighter Command
1919: RAF No.1 (Communications) Sqdn
3 Sqdn (Gloster Gladiators, Hawker Hurricanes)
17 Sqdn (Gloster Gauntlets)
23 Sqdn (Hawker Woodcocks)
37 Sqdn (Sopwith Snipes)
BATTLE OF BRITAIN STATION
*Battle of Britain RAF Sector Station 11 Group
64 Sqdn (Vickers-Supermarine Spitfires)
(10th July 1940)
615 Sqdn (Hawker Hurricanes)
(Both squadrons still based here 1st August 1940)
253 Sqdn (Hurricanes)
(1st September 1940)
616 Sqdn (Spitfires)
Later 66 & 452 Sqdns (Spitfires)
WW2: RAF Fighter Command 11 Group
3, 17, 258, 302 (Polish) & 615 Sqdns (Hawker Hurricanes)
66 & 611 (West Lancashire) Sqdns (Vickers-Supermarine Spitfires)
401 & 402, 412 & 416 (RCAF) Sqdns (Spitfires)
Note: The RCAF is of course the Royal Canadian Air Force.
THE POST WAR PERIOD
Gliding: From: ? 1997: RAF 615 VGS (gliding listed in 1973)
1981: 615 Sqdn Air Cadets Gliding School
Civilian gliding: From 1985 to -
Surrey Hills Gliding Club
Civil charter: Post 1945: British Air Transport
Pleasure flights: Post 1945: British Air Transport
Maintenance: Post 1945: British Air Transport
Location: SSE of Kenley, E of Old Coulsdon, NW of Caterham villages, just 3.5nm S of Croydon
Period of operation: 1917 to -
Note: RAF KENLEY closed as an operational base in 1974, but 615 VGS (Volunteer Gliding School) remained. Due to a serious hangar fire, which destroyed a WW1 era hangar and many gliders, no gliding took place in 1979, but resumed in 1980.
Site area: WW1: 174 acres 1234 x 777
Runways: WW2 in 1944:
03/21 1097x46 hard 13/31 914x46 hard
NOTES: During 1919 KENLEY became, it is reported and albeit rather briefly; the London terminal for passenger and mail flights mainly between here and Paris, but with other destinations too. What to me now seems quite extraordinary is the fact that the RAF operated these early ‘airline’ services using RAF aircraft with RAF crews. They operated these services from other aerodromes too, (like HAWKINGE, LYMPNE and DOVER in KENT), while the authorities organised a civil air transport system. The last of these services closed down at KENLEY in October 1919. This does raise one question. HOUNSLOW HEATH opened as a Customs Approved Airport in either July or August 1919. But KENLEY does not feature as being a Customs approved Airport. Therefore, in the latter stages, were aircraft departing from here required to land at LYMPNE or DOVER to clear Customs?
ANOTHER ERA
When WW1 came to a close the newly formed RAF had something like two hundred and eighty squadrons operational. Within a couple of years or so this was reduced to just thirty squadrons, and, they still had the British Empire to defend! As Patrick Bishop says in his book Wings: “Demobilization was swift and devastating.” Of the over seven hundred and fifty flying sites established around the UK alone – some being not much more than fields with a windsock of course – the majority of these vanished too. KENLEY was one of those aerodromes which did survive and even the survival of the newly formed Royal Air Force was far from assured at that time.
During the late 1920s and early 1930s No.32 squadron operated Armstrong Whitworth Siskin fighters here. However I came across an interesting note that in 1920, (and possibly later?), KENLEY was used for transporting VIPs which suggests the existence of some sort of transport/communications Flight or Squadron being based here? Another source says the Prince of Wales aircraft were looked after here, but I’d thought only NORTHOLT did this?
The last Empire Air Day air show was held in May 1939.
THE WW2 ERA
I came across a mention in The Few by Alex Kershaw that 66 Sqdn were, according to one veteran of the squadron; “…a truly motley throng consisting of young men from every walk of life. Regular air force officers, sergeant pilots who had been in peacetime dockhands, clerks, motor-mechanics, there was even an ex-dirt-track motorcycle expert with us.” Plus we now know Pilot Officer Hugh William Reilley was actually an American citizen. “It was assumed he was Canadian because he had travelled on a Canadian passport and kept his true nationality secret from even his fellow pilots in 66 Squadron.”
From Patrick Bishop in his book Wings comes another story during the ‘Battle of France’ which ended up with the famous retreat from Dunkirk: “Flying Officer Maurice Stephens, a Cranwell graduate, had flown off from Kenley with the rest of 3 Squadron just after midday on the day of the German attack. He bumped down on the grass at Merville, and old RFC base, to see that, despite all the time the defenders had had to prepare, confusion reigned. ‘On the far side of the airfield another Hurricane squadron had just arrived,’ he wrote. ‘There was feverish activity as pilots and ground crew sorted the mass of equipment which had been hastily unloaded from the transport aircraft.’ They ‘snatched a hasty lunch of bully beef and biscuits, with the inevitable mug of strong, over-sweet tea.’
“Then, over the field telephone came an order for a flight of six aircraft to patrol a line between Maastricht and Bree in Belgium, where the German forces were expected to attempt the breakthrough into France. There was only one map available, which was given to the flight commander; the other pilots were expected to follow him. They saw nothing ‘except roads packed solid with the pathetic stream of refugees. It was to become a depressingly familiar sight. Back at Merville they were refuelling when a formation of Heinkel 111s appeared and began dropping bombs. ‘We took off in whatever direction we happened to be pointing, hoping to catch the Heinkels,’ Stephens wrote. ‘It was hopeless. There was no radar, no fighter control at all. We were just wasting aircraft and hazarding aircraft in the hopes of finding our quarry in the gathering darkness.’
“They kipped in a Nissen hut at the airfield and awoke at dawn to take to the skies, pitting themselves against an enemy that swept forward with all the inexorability of a force of nature. This time events were more satisfactory. Stephens was patrolling with five other 3 Squadron Hurricanes between Saint-Trond and Diest in Belgium. They realized now that the absence of radar and ground control made little difference as ‘the scale of enemy air activity was so great that the odds were very much in favour of making contact.’ Sure enough, ‘suddenly we spotted about sixty tiny black dots…flying west like a swarm of midges. The next moment we were among them – Stukas, with an escort of about twenty Me 109s.’
Before I learnt to fly I would have considered these odds, 10-1, as being suicidal. But, although far from ideal, in terms of all the pilots surviving to tell the tale, the fact is that the enemy aircraft got in each others way to a large extent. As Mr Bishop states: “The British fighters put up a terrific fight against the Luftwaffe, inflicting more casualties than they suffered. But the numbers were overwhelmingly against them and the impressive paper strength of their allies in the Armée de l’Air was illusory.”
It appears that Hugh ‘Stuffy’ Dowding, was not at all in favour of the RAF, let alone his Fighter Command, taking place in this campaign at all – and he was quite correct. Squadrons such as No.3 at KENLEY would have been far better kept back to resist the inevitable onslaught on their own country. It seems to beg the question as to whether the British government, the chiefs at the Air Ministry and the military High Command, had been taking any notice at all regarding the large quantities of ‘intelligence’ that had been coming in for years, that clearly indicated that the combined German military ‘machine’ was unstoppable when invading over a land mass. Further research on this subject appears to reveal that the main problem came at the highest level, with Churchill still anxious to appease the French, who were of course still our Allies. They were pleading for more and more British involvement, especially from the RAF.
I’d now list KENLEY as being one of the ‘forgotten’ Battle of Britain stations? Nearby BIGGIN HILL seems to get all the “glory” these days.
THE POST WAR ERA
On the 12th June 1949 the Surrey Air Pageant was held which included, a major attraction in those days, a display by RAF jet aircraft! These appear to have been Meteor F.3s from WEST MALLING in KENT.
Civil gliding centre for many years well after WW2. In 1977 a Fournier RF.4D of the 615 Flying Group was flying here plus a privately owned Fournier RF-5 G-AYZX it seems.
AND FINALLY
This rather sad view of KENLEY was provided by Mr Graham Frost, taken on the 22nd June 2024. Not a glider to be seen on that day.
lawrence hole
This comment was written on: 2015-10-03 09:59:42Kenley should be spelt with an "e" in your airfield title. Otherwise an interesting website.
Reply from Dick Flute:
Many thanks for spotting the typo. Regards, Dick
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