Military Airfields of Britain: Southern England

Ken Delve

• Publisher: Crowood
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781847973320
• Topic: Tecnologia e ingegneria
• Subtopic: Aviazione

Entries cover every military airfield within the counties, from WW1 to the present day and comprise: Brief history of the airfield, construction and use including decoy sites; comprehensive list of flying units with dates and aircraft types; list of HQ units based at the airfield; details of memorials; maps and plans of almost every airfield; location details; selection of period photographs. The airfields of Southern England like Biggin Hill, Kenley and Hawkinge played host to the greatest part of the action of the Battle of Britain. Farnborough, birthplace of British aviation, lies in Hampshire and many regional airfields played host to vital anti-submarine patrols during WW1.

Abbreviations

All aspects of military aviation are crammed with abbreviations, especially when it comes to the designations of units. The following abbreviations have been used in this series, especially in the unit tables. This list is by no means exhaustive - at a rough estimate a complete list would run to 20,000-plus abbreviations! However, it does include the abbreviations most relevant to this series. There is an element of logic the reader can apply where an abbreviation is not listed; for example, ‘CU’ is most commonly used for Conversion Unit, hence a WCU could be a Wellington Conversion Unit. The down-side of this logic is that it could also be Washington or Wessex and so context - i.e. which is most likely - must also be taken into account.

AAC	Army Air Corps
AACU	Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit
A&AEE	Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment
AAF	Auxiliary Air Force
AAP	Aircraft Acceptance Park, Air Ammunition Park
AAS	Air Armament School
AASDF	Anti-Aircraft Special Defence Flight
ABTF	Air Bomber Training Flight
AC	Army Co-operation
...