Headcorn

 

Site rep: Andy Boxall
Site email: TBA

Flying Days: 7 days a week all types - (no turbines at the weekends or Wednesdays)
Remember to collect the radio from traffic control office before flying (very important)



Headcorn (Lashenden):

 

  Lashenden had the advantage of being a site for a pre-war airfield, but much construction still had to be carried out to make the site suitable for military aircraft. The Spitfires of 127 Wing, comprised of 403 and 421 Squadron RCAF and led by the legendary Wing Commander James ‘Johnnie’ Johnson (by the end of the war the top scoring RAF pilot in Northwest Europe) arrived on the 6th of August 1943, nominally to test that the airfield would be satisfactory, but also to give something of a small boost to the Spitfire’s somewhat limited operational range. At the end of August they moved to Headcorn (now Egerton) to similarly prove the suitability of that field.

  The airfield was unused through most of winter but USAAF engineers began moving in and bolstering the various dispersals in anticipation of the arrival of the 9th Air Forces 354th Fighter Group, who duly moved in on the 17th April 1944. The 354th (made up from the 353rd, 355th & 356th Fighter Squadrons) were better known as ‘The Pioneer Mustang Group’ thanks to them being the first unit to receive the new Merlin-engined P-51B Mustangs, allowing the 354th to undertake extremely long range and high altitude missions to escort and protect the heavy daylight bomber raids, which they did often. Closer to D-Day they also engaged in dive-bombing and strafing of enemy positions. On 6th June, D-Day itself all three squadrons operated independently, engaged in a mixture of close air support missions and fighter sweeps from 0200 to dusk.

  The 354th FG were only ever based at Lashenden until airfields on the continent became available, and they duly advanced to French ALG A2 (Criqueville) on the 22nd June of 1944. Lashenden was not to home further units of any allied air force and thanks to the requirements of new airfields being constructed almost daily on the continent, all the steel matting was ripped out and transported to France. Lashenden was duly closed.

   The current airfield was opened in the 1960s and still uses the approximate positions of the WW2 runways.