Second World War RAF Culmhead was a typical three-runway fighter airfield, with
blast pens built around the site along with ten
blister hangars. Who used the airfield first and why is a mystery, the story is told by David Berryman: "
The first aircraft to land at the new airfield did so when it was unfinished, arriving early one morning. Its pilot approached Mr Long, a roller driver, who was just getting up steam, but neither could understand one another, and when the pilot sprinted back to his aircraft and took off. Long realised that it was probably a German bomber that had landed in error". (Berryman 2009, 98) The airfield was occupied by
No. 2 Polish Wing of the
Polish Air Force.
No. 616 Squadron RAF tested them Culmhead before deploying them for their first operational sortie on 27 July from
RAF Manston when it intercepted
V-1 flying bombs launched against southern England.
Postwar use From the 1950s, the site was partially reused as Composite Signals Organisation Station (CSOS) Culmhead, performing signals research functions, operated under the aegis of
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), with a cluster of buildings covering some 4.4 hectares being constructed approximately in the centre of the former airfield. It was closed in this role in 1999. ==References==