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Report - - Raf Kenley, Surrey - March 2015 | Military Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Raf Kenley, Surrey - March 2015

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monk

mature
28DL Full Member
visited with ridds last year sometime but never bothered with pictures, so a return trip with topcat seemed like a good idea, especially with it being a nice easy walk in, but oh no, the board fairys had been out in force since the last visit, which meant we had to think, which is not nice so early in the morning.

pretty stripped inside but a lot of interesting history attached to this place.

The RAF fighter base at Kenley, Surrey, played a vital part in the Battle of Britain. RAF Kenley was not that far south of London in flying-time and the defence of the city was the primary task for the pilots that were based at Kenley. As with many other Fighter Command bases dotted throughout southeast England, RAF Kenley was attacked by the Luftwaffe.


RAF Kenley was built during World War One when under the Defence of the Realm Act land that served as a golf course was requisitioned by the War Office and developed into a fully-fledged air base that served the Royal Flying Corps.


The land at Kenley was never returned to its previous use and throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s served as a RAF base. One of its most famous pilots pre-World War Two was Douglas Bader who flew Gloucester Gamecocks from the base.


As war approached in September 1939, RAF Kenley went onto a war footing. The runway had been lengthened and improved to accommodate the new fighter airplanes that Fighter Command was being provided with. In terms of take-off, a Mark I Hawker Hurricane proved to be underpowered for the length of the original runway and to compensate for this, the runway was lengthened. However, by the time of the Battle of Britain, the Hurricane had much greater engine power and the length of Kenley’s runway more than sufficed.


Units from the army defended Kenley and by the time of the Battle of Britain, Kenley had its own supply of 35,000 gallons of aviation fuel, 8,000 gallons of petrol, 2,500 gallons of oil and 1.25 million rounds of ammunition. Four Bofors guns protected the base.


The squadron most associated with Kenley was 615. It had helped protect soldiers being evacuated at Dunkirk. However, it soon became clear after this withdrawal that Britain faced the danger of being attacked itself. AsChurchill said: “The Battle of Britain is about to begin.” For a seaborne assault on the south coast of England, the German war machine needed complete mastery of the air. Therefore, Fighter Command had to be taken on.


Kenley became sector headquarters of No. 11 Group, Fighter Command. Based just a few miles south of Croydon, many foreign pilots would have been familiar with the siting of Kenley as it was not too far from the course required to land at Croydon Airport – then the premier airport for the city.


It was to be expected that Kenley would have been a target for Luftwaffe bombers. The worst attack against the base came on August 18th 1940. The attack started at 13.15 and resulted in four Hawker Hurricanes and one Blenheim being destroyed with four other aircraft damaged. Nine people at the base were killed and ten were wounded. Three hangars were destroyed and the base was without a communication system for hours. The runway was damaged but the craters were quickly filled in. RAF Kenley was ready for action within hours of the raid ending – except with one glaring issue. The raid had identified how vulnerable Kenley was to having its communication system destroyed – and the same was true for other Fighter Command bases. With no contact with Bentley Prior, headquarters for Fighter Command, RAF Kenley was effectively blind to what was going on across southeast England. To rectify this and ensure that there was never a re-occurrence a new communications centre was found away from the base at an empty butcher’s shop in Kenley village where it was assumed that it would be safe from attack.


After the end of the Battle of Britain, Kenley provided fighter support for bombers heading for occupied Europe. However, the escort role was limited in terms of range because of the amount of fuel each fighter carried. As the Allies became more offensive in terms of capability, the command role of Kenley was changed. RAF Biggin Hill took charge of No 11 Group.

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Oxygen Thief

Admin
Staff member
Admin
Can't believe they even bothered boarding it up to be honest. Especially as it seems they didn't even do a particularly good job :rolleyes:
 

monk

mature
28DL Full Member
yeah there about 2 years to late on that one, on another note this place was already trashed, fire damaged, tagged and stripped before any pictures of it went up :thumb
 

Ojay

Admin
Staff member
Admin
Bit of a tongue twister that @Ordnance :P

Thanks for the informed update as usual, it's always good to learn more about these military sites from someone in the know than have to wade through the WWW :thumb
 

Ordnance

Stay Safe
Staff member
Moderator
Oh, its sometimes just the case of knowing a fragment of information that is still very much augmented by the greater WWW where unless you know what to look for can take ages!
 

monk

mature
28DL Full Member
I thought of you when I posted that picture ordnance as we wasn't sure what it was, cheers for clearing that up.
 

Major-Clanger

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Fascinating place Kenley, thanks for the images. I went to prep' school nearby and used to visit regularly (just remember the big fire that brought down the hanger/control tower in the 1970s. I have at home the parade square flagpole/tabernacle that I've restored and use as a bench! I also still have a pair of Luftwaffe headphones that I found in the woods there in the 70s. I can only think they were a pilot's souvenir of a kill but not sure. Long may Kenley last, it certainly played its part in keeping us safe.
 

Grom

Camera Drowner
Regular User
Nice! I live right by this place. Used to spend a lot of time at the Aerodrome.
 

Slimsta

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
RAF Kenley is now gone. Someone set fire to it and it burned down 75% of it in the middle of the night. Security has been tightened there as it will now probably be accepted for building permission there for another housing estate.
 

Grom

Camera Drowner
Regular User
RAF Kenley is now gone. Someone set fire to it and it burned down 75% of it in the middle of the night. Security has been tightened there as it will now probably be accepted for building permission there for another housing estate.

Yep, this happened a few weeks back. It was a little suspicious as a company had only very recently applied for planning permission to build on the site, which happened to be a graded building.
 

Slimsta

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Yep, this happened a few weeks back. It was a little suspicious as a company had only very recently applied for planning permission to build on the site, which happened to be a graded building.

Yeah I believe this is what happened to. The company had been trying for years and kept getting denied so I guess they hired someone to do it. Same story I think for Cane Hill too, the company kept trying to get planning permission but no luck so it was burnt down and it's now a housing estate.
 

Ordnance

Stay Safe
Staff member
Moderator
Funny how many 'mystery arson attacks' happen to listed building where planning application had stalled o_O where the seat(s) of the fire is so well placed as well LoL
 
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