RAF Winkton

Royal Air Force Station Winkton USAAF Station AAF-414
Located Near Bransgore, Hampshire, United Kingdom
300px Winkton Airfield just over a year after it was closed January 1947. The outlines of the runway matting still evident on the land, with it being returned to agricultural use.
Map showing the location of RAF Winkton within Hampshire.
Coordinates
Type	Military airfield
Code	WT
Site information
Controlled by	United States Army Air Forces
Site history
Built	1943
In use	1943-1945
Battles/wars	European Theatre of World War II Air Offensive, Europe July 1942 - May 1945
Garrison information
Garrison	Ninth Air Force
Occupants	404th Fighter Group

RAF Station Winkton is a former World War II airfield in Hampshire, England. The airfield is located approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Christchurch; about 89 miles (143 km) southwest of London

Opened in 1944, Winkton was a prototype for the type of temporary Advanced Landing Ground type airfield which would be built in France after D-Day, when the need advanced landing fields would become urgent as the Allied forces moved east across France and Germany. It was used by British, Dominion and the United States Army Air Forces. It was closed in September 1944.

Today the airfield is a mixture of agricultural fields with no recognizable remains.

USAAF use

While under USAAF control, Winkton was known as USAAF Station AAF-414 for security reasons, and by which it was referred to instead of location. Its Station-ID was "WT".

404th Fighter Group

RAF Winkton saw the arrival of the USAAF 404th Fighter Group on 4 April 1944, the group arriving from Myrtle Beach AAF, South Carolina. The 404th had the following operational squadrons:

• 506th Fighter Squadron (4K)
• 507th Fighter Squadron (Y8)
• 508th Fighter Squadron (7J)

The 404th was a group of Ninth Air Force's 84th Fighter Wing, IX Tactical Air Command. It flew the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. On 6 July the 404th moved across the Channel to its Advanced Landing Ground at Chippelle (ALG A-5), France.

Civil use

With the Americans moving to France, Winkton airfield was returned to agricultural use in the fall of 1944. In January 1945, the airfield was officially closed. Today, the land is unrecognizable as a former airfield. It can only be located by comparing the road network on aerial photographs taken when the airfield was active to the current network.

In 2009, there exists a private grass runway owned by Mr.I.C.Reid, who hangars his Moth biplane there.

See also

• List of former Royal Air Force stations

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

• Freeman, Roger A. (1994) UK Airfields of the Ninth: Then and Now 1994. After the Battle ISBN 0-900913-80-0
• Freeman, Roger A. (1996) The Ninth Air Force in Colour: UK and the Continent-World War Two. After the Battle ISBN 1-85409-272-3
• Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-89201-092-4.

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• Built Only For Battle - The story of Station 414 of the 9th Air Force, Winkton ALG in Hampshire, United Kingdom
• New Forest Airfields - NFA2:Winkton ALG