The Strike at Biggin Hill

The Strike at Biggin Hill Written by Pam Preedy. The RAF opened their station at Biggin Hill in 917.  It remained open after the war.  In 1919 there were 500 men of the Wireless Experimental station stationed at South Camp.  The living conditions at that time were appalling; most sleeping in tents in a sea of mud.  The dining hall, too, was a leaky canvas hangar equally muddy and the food, prepared in an open, rusty shed, was almost inedible. In spite of many complaints to the authorities, nothing changed. …

Dunkirk: The RAF support the evacuation

Dunkirk: The RAF support the evacuation Written by Pam Preedy. By 26th May, 1940 Britain faced “a colossal military disaster . . . the whole root and core and brain of the British Army” (Churchill) had been stranded at Dunkirk and seemed about to perish or be captured. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) went to help defend France. For eight months while economic sanctions were imposed on Germany, little actual warfare occurred (the Phoney War). Then, on 10th May, 1940 Germany invaded Belgium, the Netherlands and France. Three panzer corps…

Biggin Hill Memorial Museum

I am currently volunteering some time at the new Biggin Hill Memorial Museum. The museum has been collecting objects, archive material, and people’s stories since 2015, and the collection tells the story of the airfield, the people who served there, the local community and its residents from 1916 to 1951. The collection has a particular focus on the Battle of Britain, during which RAF Biggin Hill played a pivotal role. Many of the objects they hold are personal and have been donated by people who served or lived at Biggin…

The Hardest Day – WW2 Air Battle

The Bromley & District Times published this photograph of a German plane which had been brought down close to Biggin Hill airfield during a fierce air battle between the German Luftwaffe and British Royal Air Force (RAF) on Sunday 18th August 1940. The Luftwaffe had chosen this particular day to make an all-out effort to destroy RAF Fighter Command. The air battles that took place on the 18th August were amongst the largest aerial engagements in history to that time, with both sides suffering heavy losses. In the air, the British shot…

German pilots buried in Cudham

This story appeared in the Bromley & District Times newspaper in July 1940, recording the funeral of two German airmen who were shot down by Hurricanes of 32 squadron from RAF Biggin Hill (flown by Pilot Officer Peter Gardner, Sergeant William Burley Higgins and Sergeant Edward Alan Bayley). The plane crashed at Baybrooks, Horsmonden after attacking Kenley aerodrome The two pilots were Erich Hoffman (a Flight Engineer) aged 26 years old (grave number NN30) and Waldema Theilig (a Wireless Operator) aged 25 years (grave number NN31) and both were buried…