RFC/RAF Lympne 1916 to 1919.
The airfields site on the western side of Lympne village was chosen in March 1916 to replace the airfield of The Machine Gun School, Hythe, which was prone to waterlogging. By October 1916 the work was well under way, with Lympne Castle becoming the officers mess. The airfield was soon busy with the aircraft of The School of Aerial Gunnery, Hythe (ex Machine Gun School), In January 1917 this became No. 1 (Auxiliary) School of Air Gunnery, part of which operated from Lympne as the Advanced Air Firing School. This remained at Lympne until late February 1917.
In January 1917 Lympne was designated No. 8 Aircraft Acceptance Park, this being responsible for ferrying RFC aircraft to and from France. A spur from Westenhanger railway station allowed delivery of crated aircraft to Lympne for final assembly.
On the 25th May 1917 Lympne was bombed in the first Gotha raid of the war, three 50kg and nineteen 12
1/2kg bombs landing on and around the airfield, causing little damage and no casualties. The Gothas then flew on to Folkestone where they caused many deaths. Between the 25th May and 22nd August 1917, the time of the daylight Gotha raids, Lympne was required to fly as many anti-Gotha patrols as possible with whatever suitable aircraft they had at hand. They saw little success.
By January 1918 the airfield had been designated a 1st Class Landing Ground with No. 50 (Home Defense) Squadron using it as an emergency landing ground.
In February and March 1919 the cadres of Nos 108 and 102 Squadrons arrived at Lympne from France. Both were disbanded in early July. On the 16th July 1919 No. 120 Squadron moved to Lympne from Hawkinge. Equipped with Airco DH9s they continued the cross-Channel British Forces air mail service they had begun at Hawkinge until late August. The squadron was disbanded 21st October 1919.
With the airfields of Hawkinge and Lympne close to each other, the Air Ministry chose to turn Lympne over to civilian use in August 1919.
Photos from
Australian War Memorial.A. Lympne, September 1917. Royal Aircraft Factory RE7s with towed gunnery targets.
B. March 1918. Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin C3864 of No. 79 Squadron.
C. December 1917. RAF RE7, serial No. 2415.
D. Pilots of No. 69 Squadron standing next to their RAF RE8 aircraft. The squadron arrived at Lympne on the 24th August 1917 and departed for France on the 9th September. In January 1918 the squadron became No. 3 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps.
E. March 1918. Group portrait of A Flight pilots of an unidentified RFC squadron. Left to right: second row: Barrett, Finlay, Lamb, Dormer, Callender, W C Sidaway (Australian), Thompson, Bismore; front row: Taylor.
