RAF Christchurch USAAF Station AAF-416
Christchurch,Dorset in England
Christchurch Airfield - 4 March 1944. Christchurch was unusual as it was constructed on an existing airfield. However the airfield used before the war for club and commercial flying was too small to accommodate wartime aircraft so the airfield was expanded by building further runway areas to the south of the existing.
Site information
Type	Royal Air Force satellite station
Code	XC[1]
Owner	Air Ministry
Operator	Royal Air Force United States Army Air Forces
Controlled by	RAF Fighter Command 1941-44 *No. 10 Group RAF *No. 11 Group RAF RAF Transport Command 1945 *No. 46 Group RAF[1]
Location
RAF Christchurch Shown within Dorset Show map of Dorset RAF Christchurch RAF Christchurch (the United Kingdom) Show map of the United Kingdom
Coordinates	50°44′23″N001°44′22″W / 50.73972°N 1.73944°W /50.73972; -1.73944
Site history
Built	1935 (1935) & 1941
In use	1941 - 1946 (1946)
Battles/wars	European theatre of World War II
Airfield information
Elevation	6 metres (20 ft)[1]AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 00/00  Sommerfeld Tracking 00/00  Grass 00/00  Concrete 00/00  Unknown 00/00  Unknown

Royal Air Force Christchurch or more simplyRAF Christchurch is a formerRoyal Air Forcesatellite station and was located southeast of the A337/B3059 junction inSomerford,Christchurch, Dorset, England.

Christchurch Airfield was a civil airfield that started operation from 1926, enlarged for wartime operations in 1941, Christchurch was used during the Second World War by theRoyal Air Force and theUnited States Army Air ForcesNinth Air Force. It returned to civilian flying postwar before being taken over by what became British Aerospace to manufacture jet fighters and civilian airliner types. The airfield complex was finally closed down and demolished in 1966 when housing was built on the site.

In 1943, the USAAFNinth Air Force required several temporary advanced landing grounds along the southernEnglish Channel coast prior to theNormandy invasion to provide tactical air support for the ground forces landing in France. Christchurch was provided to support this mission.

Christchurch was known asUSAAF Station AAF-416 for security reasons by the USAAF during the war, and by which it was referred to instead of location. Its USAAF Station Code was "CH".

Christchurch airfield saw the arrival of the USAAF405th Fighter Group on 4 April 1944, the group arriving fromWalterboro Army AirfieldSouth Carolina. The 405th had the following operational squadrons:

• 509th Fighter Squadron (G9)
• 510th Fighter Squadron (2Z)
• 511th Fighter Squadron (K4)

The 405th was a group ofNinth Air Force's84th Fighter Wing,IX Tactical Air Command. It flew theRepublic P-47D Thunderbolt. The 405th moved to itsAdvanced Landing Ground at Picauville, France (ALG A-8) on 22 June 1944, ending the USAAF's use of Christchurch.

Additional units:^[2]

The airfield complex was demolished in 1966 and there is housing and The Runway Industrial Park located on the site.

• List of former Royal Air Force stations

 This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

• Falconer, J. (2012).RAF Airfields of World War 2. UK: Ian Allan Publishing.ISBN 978-1-85780-349-5.
• Freeman, Roger A. (1994)UK Airfields of the Ninth: Then and Now 1994. After the BattleISBN 0-900913-80-0
• Freeman, Roger A. (1996)The Ninth Air Force in Colour: UK and the Continent-World War Two. After the BattleISBN 1-85409-272-3
• Maurer, Maurer (1983).Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History.ISBN 0-89201-092-4.
• Sturtivant, R.; Hamlin, J.; Halley, J. (1997).Royal Air Force flying training and support units. UK: Air-Britain (Historians).ISBN 0-85130-252-1.

• White, Allen (1987) Christchurch Airfield - 40 Years Of Flying

• [ArmyAirForces.com 404th Fighter Grouphttps://web.archive.org/web/20070930013102/http://www.armyairforces.com/dbgroups.asp?Group=226]
• Aerial Photo of RAF Christchurch from Multimap.Com
• Photos of the 405FG at Christchurch.Archived 16 July 2011 at theWayback Machine

• History of Christchurch, Dorset
• Airfields of the IX Fighter Command in the United Kingdom
• Buildings and structures demolished in 1966
• Royal Air Force stations in Dorset
• Royal Air Force stations in Hampshire
• Military airbases established in 1940
• Military airbases closed in 1946

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• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from November 2017
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• Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
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