RAF Chailey

Royal Air Force Chailey or more simply RAF Chailey is a former Royal Air Force advanced landing ground close to the village of Chailey near Burgess Hill in East Sussex during the Second World War. It was an example of an Advanced Landing Ground (ALG),^[2] a type of simple, temporary airfield designed to support the invasion of continental Europe.

RAF Chailey
Chailey, East Sussex in England
Site information
Type	RAF advanced landing ground
Code	AJ[1]
Owner	Air Ministry
Operator	Royal Air Force
Controlled by	RAF Second Tactical Air Force * No. 84 Group RAF RAF Fighter Command No. 11 Group RAF[1]
Location
RAF Chailey Shown within East Sussex Show map of East Sussex RAF Chailey RAF Chailey (the United Kingdom) Show map of the United Kingdom
Coordinates	50°57′19″N 000°03′20″W
Site history
Built	1943 (1943)
Built by	RAF Airfield Construction Service
In use	June 1943 - January 1945 (1945)
Battles/wars	European theatre of World War II
Airfield information
Elevation	32 metres (105 ft)[1] AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 00/00  Sommerfeld Tracking 00/00  Sommerfeld Tracking

RAF Chailey memorial at the Plough public house, Plumpton

History

The airfield was on the site of Bower Farm, and was surveyed and commenced in 1942 by Fighter Command with the intention of creating a fighter station as part of the expansion following the Battle of Britain. It was not laid out until 1943, by which time the strategy was different and it was passed to the RAF Second Tactical Air Force to become an operating station for the invasion of continental Europe, codenamed Operation Overlord.^{[citation needed]}

In order to construct the airfield, the RAF demolished the local pub, 'The Plough', which was at the end of the runway, and reconstructed it about half a mile away near Plumpton, and this is now the site of the RAF Chailey memorial.^[3]

RAF Chailey hosted No. 131 Airfield RAF which became No. 131 (Polish) Wing,^[4] with three squadrons: 302,^[5] 308^[6] and 317.^[7])

The station's officer commanding was the highest ranking Pole in the RAF, Group Captain Aleksander Gabszewicz.^{[citation needed]}

The airfield was also host to No. 1312 Mobile Wing RAF Regiment^[4]

The airfield was de-requisitioned in 1945 and returned to farm use.^[4]