RAF Dunsfold
| Dunsfold Aerodrome | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Location | Dunsfold | ||||||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 170 ft / 52 m | ||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 51°06′54″N 000°31′57″W / 51.11500°N 0.53250°WCoordinates: 51°06′54″N 000°31′57″W / 51.11500°N 0.53250°W | ||||||||||||||||||
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 Dunsfold Aerodrome
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Dunsfold Aerodrome (ICAO code EGTD) is an unlicensed airfield in Surrey, England, near the village of Cranleigh. It extends across land in the villages of Dunsfold and Alfold.
It was built by the Canadian Army and civilian contractors as a Class A bomber airfield for Army Co-operation Command. It was commanded by the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1942–1944 and was known as Royal Canadian Air Force Station Dunsfold. Under RAF control it was RAF Dunsfold.
Post war it was used by Hawker Siddeley and then its successor British Aerospace.
Since 2002, this is the site of the BBC show Top Gear; the runway is now a racetrack or a "test track" .
Canadian engineers were charged with the construction of the aerodrome. Such projects had previously taken up to a year to complete and this site was complicated by the two hundred acres of woodland that first had to be cleared. The Canadian sappers had access to large-scale earth moving equipment from North America obtained under Lend-Lease arrangements. The Canadians also had pipe-pushing apparatus place explosives under trees thereby facilitating their rapid removal. The aerodrome was completed in just six months.
The first squadrons based at the aerodrome were 400, 414 and 430 Squadrons, RCAF, equipped with Curtiss Tomahawks and North American Mustangs. They were followed by the North American Mitchell Mk II medium bombers of No. 139 Wing RAF, consisting of 98 and 180 Squadrons RAF, and 320 Squadron (formed from Dutch Naval Aviation Service personnel). When 139 Wing departed for the continent in the autumn of 1944, 83 Group Support Unit (later 83 Group Disbandment Centre) arrived with Spitfires, Typhoons and Tempests. After the war the airfield was used by the RAF to repatriate prisoners-of-war.
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Wikipedia