page_title: RAF Andover
section_title: 1939 to 1945
hierarchical_section_title: RAF Andover / Airfield history / 1939 to 1945
caption_attribution_description: English: A Bf 110G-4 Night fighter at the RAF Museum in London. The antennas on the nose are of a FuG 220 Lichtenstein SN-2 radar set (ITU-classificatio: Radiolocation land station in the radiolocation service). Clearly visible are the openings for two 20mm cannons in the lower nose and two 30 mm cannons in the upper nose.
context_page_description: RAF Andover is a former Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force station located 2 miles west of Andover, Hampshire and 15.1 miles north east of Salisbury, Wiltshire, England.
  The airfield has a notable place in history, being the site of both the first attempt to develop a viable long-range electronic navigation system, during the First World War, and also of the first British military helicopter unit and first European helicopter flying training school, during the Second World War.
  RAF Andover was also used before and after the Second World War for a variety of other aeronautical research and flight testing. The RAF Staff College, Andover was founded here in 1922, the first college to train officers in the administrative, staff and policy aspects of running an air force.
  RAF Andover saw action during the Second World War. Corporal Josephine Robins, one of only six members of the WAAF to win the Military Medal during the War, won her award for courage while rescuing people during an air-raid on the airfield in the Battle of Britain.
  Three squadrons of the Royal Canadian Air Force were formed at RAF Andover.
context_section_description: During the Second World War, RAF Andover was the headquarters of RAF Maintenance Command. It was also used by several operational flying training units and as an operational fighter station by the United States Army Air Forces.
  The Air Transport Auxiliary's (ATA) Central Ferry Control was also based at RAF Andover. A civilian organisation that unusually for the time included female pilots, the ATA ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factories, assembly plants, transatlantic delivery points, Maintenance Units (MUs), scrap yards, and active service squadrons and airfields. Central Ferry Control allocated the required flights to all ATA Ferry Pools.
  RAF Andover was one of four airfields in Hampshire to be given a decoy site in 1940, to deceive enemy aircraft into attacking a spurious target. Andover's decoy site was at Hurstbourne Tarrant, and was a type 'K' decoy site with fake aircraft and buildings. From September 1940, fake machine gun posts were added to Hurstbourne Tarrant.
  RAF Andover was attacked twice by the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. At 1700 hours on 13 August 1940, approximately 12 high explosive bombs were dropped by Junkers Ju 88s of III Staffel, Lehrgeschwader 1, of Luftflotte 3, from Châteaudun in France. The Station Headquarters and officer's quarters were extensively damaged. One aircraft on the station was also damaged. Casualties were two killed. The following day, on 14 August 1940, RAF Andover was attacked again, about 15 high explosive bombs being dropped which destroyed a transmitting set in the centre of a group of radio masts, and killing a civilian radio operator.
  Corporal Josephine Robins, a Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) telephone operator at RAF Andover was awarded the Military Medal for her courage during these raids. The citation for the award, printed in The London Gazette of 20 December 1940, stated that: "Corporal Robins was in a dug-out which received a direct hit during an intense enemy bombing raid. A number of men were killed and two seriously injured. Though dust and fumes filled the shelter, Corporal Robins immediately went to the assistance of the wounded and rendered first aid. While they were being removed from the demolished dug-out, she fetched a stretcher and stayed with the wounded until they were evacuated. She displayed courage and coolness of a very high order in a position of extreme danger". Corporal Robins' Military Medal was one of only six such awards of this medal made to members of the WAAF in the entire Second World War.
  It was thought at the time that these air raids were attempts to attack the important 11 Group Fighter Command Sector Station nearby at RAF Middle Wallop, but German records make it clear that RAF Andover was the intended target, as the Luftwaffe thought wrongly that it was an operational bomber station. In 1941 RAF Andover was attacked twice, causing heavy damage to one hangar, which had to be demolished.
  In June 1941 No. 2 School of Army Co-operation at Andover was re-designated as No. 6 Operational Training Unit (OTU). It was equipped with Bristol Blenheims and operated within No. 17 Group, Coastal Command. Its task was to re-train Westland Lysander pilots onto Bristol Blenheim Mk. Vs used in the ground attack role, serving primarily in the used primarily in the Middle East and Far East. No 6 OTU was absorbed into No. 42 OTU on 18 July 1941, moving to RAF Ashbourne in October 1942.
  From February through July 1944, Andover was used by fighter squadrons (the 401st, 402nd, and 485th squadrons of the 370th Fighter Group) of the 71st Fighter Wing of the Ninth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces, flying Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft. Flying from RAF Andover, the 370th dive-bombed radar installations and flak towers, and escorted bombers that attacked bridges and marshalling yards in France as the Allies prepared for the invasion of the Continent. The 370th also provided cover for Allied forces that crossed the English Channel on D-Day and flew armed reconnaissance missions over the Cotentin Peninsul
caption: A captured Bf 110 G-4 night fighter once based at RAF Andover, now in the RAF Museum.
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