The 1940 airfield

You are now looking in the direction of the airfield: the concrete foundations of today’s Hangar 1 being the location of the start of one of the main concrete runways constructed in 1941. At the time of the Battle, the airfield was entirely a grass surface: ideal for the single-seat fighters and twin-engined aircraft operating from here. If the wind was blowing toward you, aircraft would take-off into wind, in the direction you are facing. In 1940, aircraft would have been seen getting airborne from this point: the middle of the airfield where they would have left the ground, being in the distance – where today’s housing and residential flats now stand.