The story of Battle of Britain fighter base RAF Tangmere in 100 objects

It explores an unparalleled collection of objects relating to the history of RAF Tangmere and all that those objects can tell us. It comes from authors Mark Hillier and Martin Mace.

On November 16 1916, Lieutenant Geoffrey Dorman took off from Shoreham in a Royal Aircraft Factory FE2b with the intention of heading west along the south coast to the airfield at Gosport. Not long into the flight, however, a dense sea fog formed and as his engine was also ‘misbehaving’, Dorman decided ‘it would be best to try and land.’

Spotting a suitable area of farmland, Lieutenant Dorman put his aircraft down near the village of Tangmere. Evidently aware of what he had stumbled across, Dorman’s subsequent report on the incident included a suggestion that the site would be eminently suitable for an aerodrome. Within twelve months, construction had started – and so was born the legend of RAF Tangmere.

Over the years that followed, Tangmere became one of the best known and strategically most important fighter stations in the United Kingdom. From its connections with the highly-polished air displays given at various RAF pageants in the 1920s and 1930s through to numerous royal visits and its role in the post-war record-breaking speed flights or as a Cold War air-sea rescue base, Tangmere was a vital part of the nation’s defences.

It is, however, for its service on the front line in the Second World War that Tangmere is best remembered. Not only was the airfield itself bombed and blitzed, its aircraft and pilots also found themselves in the thick of the fighting in the Battle of Britain before turning to an increasingly offensive role whilst led by Wing Commander Douglas Bader. Operation Jubilee, the Combined Operations raid on Dieppe and the D-Day landings in 1944 all required RAF Tangmere to play its part.

As well as overt offensive sorties, Tangmere was involved in the secretive world of covert warfare, when, during the full moon periods, ‘A’ Flight of 161 (Special Duties) Squadron would move its Lysanders forward to Tangmere. As well as delivering SOE agents, wireless operators, wireless equipment and weapons to assist the Resistance, these aircraft often returned with agents, VIPs and even Allied escapers and evaders.

It’s all a story Mark and Martin bring to life through the objects we still hold. A particularly grim aspect is the huge number of fatalities caused by engine failure and other mishaps in those early days, days when, as Mark says, flying was more art than science. As Mark says, in World War One, Allied aircrew losses were more than 14,000 of which around 8,000 were lost because of aircraft falling apart, engine failure or other misfortunes.

“Martin and I wanted to show the history of the airfield through artefacts and show how interesting it can be if you allow yourself to go down a rabbit hole by looking at a photograph or maybe a log book. That was our way into it.

“We have set it out chronologically from its inception, how it developed and its history through to its closure in the 1970s when the RAF wanted to pull back up to the Midlands. To have a fighter station on the south coast wasn't needed when the enemy was not in France or Germany any more but closing it was quite controversial. A lot of high-ranking officers thought that it was a tragedy to close RAF Tangmere because it was so famous, because it was a jewel in the crown. They thought that it was a travesty to close it after it had had such an illustrious career.”