RAF Martlesham Heath

RAF Martlesham Heath USAAF Station 369
Located Near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England
Martlesham Heath Airfield - 9 July 1946
Coordinates	52°03′29″N 1°15′58″E / 52.058°N 1.266°E / 52.058; 1.266
Type	Military airfield
Code	MH
Site information
Owner	Air Ministry
Controlled by	Royal Flying Corps  Royal Air Force  United States Army Air Forces
Site history
Built	1917
In use	1917-1963
Battles/wars	European Theatre of World War II Air Offensive, Europe July 1942 - May 1945
Garrison information
Garrison	RAF Fighter Command Eighth Air Force
Occupants	Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment No. 11 Group RAF 356th Fighter Group Armament and Instrument Experimental Unit

Royal Air Force Station Martlesham Heath or more simply RAF Martlesham Heath is a former Royal Air Force station located 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south west of Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. It was active between 1917 and 1963, and played an important role in the development of Airborne Interception radar.

Martlesham Heath was first used as a Royal Flying Corps airfield during World War I. In 1917 it became home to the Aeroplane Experimental Unit, RFC which moved from Upavon with the site named as the Aeroplane Experimental Station which became the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) in 1924. The A&AEE carried the evaluation and testing of many of the aircraft types and much of the armament and other equipment that would later be used during World War II.

No. 22 Squadron RAF and No. 15 Squadron RAF were present during the 1920s. No. 64 arrived in the 1930s.

The A&AEE moved to RAF Boscombe Down on 9 September 1939 at the outbreak of World War II and Martlesham then became the most northerly station of No. 11 Group RAF, Fighter Command. Squadrons of Bristol Blenheim bombers, Hawker Hurricanes, Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Typhoons operated from this airfield, and among the many pilots based there were such famous men as Robert Stanford Tuck, and Squadron Leader Douglas Bader, there as Commanding Officer of 242 Squadron. Ian Smith, the post-war Rhodesian prime minister, was at Martlesham for a time.