Stanmore was also home to RAF Bentley Priory from where the Battle of Britain was controlled, also formerly to RAF Stanmore Park, HQ of Balloon Command.

RAF Stanmore Park closed in 1997 and is now a housing estate and RAF Bentley Priory closed in 2009.

Other bases were named after the local village, or used the name of the building in which they resided, such as RAF Bentley Priory, or country ( e. g. RAF Belize ).

With their Headquarters at RAF Bentley Priory the ROC remained administered by Fighter Command until 31 March 1968 when responsibility was handed over to the newly formed RAF Strike Command.

RAF Bentley Priory was a non-flying Royal Air Force station near Stanmore in the London Borough of Harrow.

The RAF Bentley Priory site includes a Grade II * listed Officers ' Mess and Italian Gardens.

Officers ' Mess at RAF Bentley Priory, rear view from the Italian Gardens

It left Hillingdon House, at RAF Uxbridge on this date and moved to Bentley Priory with its first Air Officer Commanding Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding.

The Observer Corps moved to RAF Bentley Priory from its original location at RAF Uxbridge, along with Dowding and Fighter Command, during July 1936 and would remain at the Priory until it was disbanded in December 1995.

He oversaw the move of HQ Observer Corps to Bentley Priory and the Corps ’ adoption by RAF Fighter Command.

In 1992, a Royal Observer Corps stained glass window to mark the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, was installed in the officers ’ mess at RAF Bentley Priory.

The position of Commandant ROC became a secondary appointment for the Senior Air Staff Officer ( SASO ) of No. 11 Group RAF at Bentley Priory.

Headquarters ROC at RAF Bentley Priory finally closed on 31 March 1996 after all administrative winding-up tasks were completed.

All this renovation was complete by 1958 when the Queen and other members of the Royal Family attended the RAF 40th Anniversary celebrations which were held at Bentley Priory.

Bentley Priory also became the Administrative Headquarters for RAF Strike Command ( although this function moved to High Wycombe in 1972 ).

RAF Bentley Priory was latterly home to the Defence Aviation Safety Centre, Air Historical Branch ( AHB ) and RAF Ceremonial.

As there was no enduring operational use for RAF Bentley Priory, however, the Ministry of Defence ( MoD ) released the site as part of its Greater London estate consolidation project, Project MoDEL ( Ministry of Defence Estates London ).

The final closure Sunset ceremony took place on 30 May 2008, when the RAF ensign was lowered at RAF Bentley Priory for the last time.

It was also proposed that the Officer and Aircrew selection at RAF Biggin Hill should move to the Priory and Stanmore itself closed.

At the British Bomber Command, Dyson and colleagues proposed ripping out two gun turrets from the RAF Lancaster bombers, to cut the catastrophic losses to German fighters in the Battle of Berlin.

Significant individual contributions to the war effort by Scots included the invention of radar by Robert Watson-Watt, which was invaluable in the Battle of Britain, as was the leadership at RAF Fighter Command of Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding.

* RAF Fighter Command Order of Battle 1940

The earlier Hawker Hurricane and the Spitfire were the mainstay of RAF Fighter Command fighter aircraft which fought off the Luftwaffe bombing raids with fighter escorts during the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940.

* February 1 – Squadron Leader James " Ginger " Lacey, the top scoring RAF fighter pilot during the Battle of Britain ( d. 1989 )

* April 24 – Hugh Dowding, commander of the RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain ( d. 1970 )

After working on The Italian Job with Noël Coward, and a solid role as RAF fighter pilot Squadron Leader Canfield in the all-star cast of Battle of Britain ( both 1969 ), Caine played the lead in Get Carter ( 1971 ), a British gangster film.

RAF Top Gun: Teddy Donaldson CB, DSO, AFC and Bar, Battle of Britain Ace and World Air Speed Record Holder.

The station was built within the grounds of Hillingdon House, a 19th century mansion bought by the British Government in 1915, and became most famous for being the home of RAF Fighter Command's No. 11 Group Operations Room during the Battle of Britain.

* Hugh Dowding-commander of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain in 1940, Blue Plaque at 3 St Mary's Road

RAF Battle of Britain memorial

* Andrew Mamedoff ( 1912 – 1941 ), pilot who fought for the RAF and died during the Battle of Britain ; born in Thompson

* P / O Arthur Donahue ( 1913-1942 ), pilot who fought for the RAF and died during the Battle of Britain

It was during the crucial days of the Battle of Britain that these three RAF stations came into their own, fighting off the overwhelming might of the German Luftwaffe.

Hammond Innes ' book Attack Alarm, published in 1941, was based on his experiences as a Royal Artillery anti-aircraft gunner at RAF Kenley during the Battle of Britain.

During the war, a number of his books were published, including Wreckers Must Breathe ( 1940 ), The Trojan Horse ( 1941 ) and Attack Alarm ( 1941 ); the last of which was based on his experiences as an anti-aircraft gunner during the Battle of Britain at RAF Kenley.

In the meantime, however, Coastal Command did operate with effect alongside RAF Bomber Command in disrupting enemy shipping during the Battle of Britain in 1940.

During the first three years of the Second World War, Coastal Command and the Admiralty fought a continuous battle with the RAF and Air Ministry over the primacy of trade defence in relation to the bomber effort against mainland Germany, a strategic tussle which conceivably could have cost the Western Alliance the Battle of the Atlantic.

For instance, Anderson recalled that RAF pilots had found it difficult to counter German attacks during the Battle of Britain, since taking off from the ground meant that it took considerable time to intercept the enemy.

A Heinkel He 111H bomber, which was abandoned by the Luftwaffe during the retreat after the Battle of El Alamein, on a landing ground in Libya after being " commandeered " by No. 260 Squadron RAF, who painted it with RAF roundels and the unit code letters " HS -?

New Zealanders in the RAF itself included pilots, such as the first RAF ace of the war, Flying Officer Cobber Kain, Alan Deere ( whose book Nine Lives was one of the first post war accounts of combat ) and leaders such as the World War I ace, Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, who commanded No. 11 Group RAF in the Battle of Britain and went on to the air defence of Malta and, in the closing stages of the war, Commonwealth air units under South East Asia Command, and Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham Air Tactical Commander of D-Day.

The Nazis bombed Britain, so the RAF retaliated and shot them all down.

Beginning in August 1940, the German Luftwaffe began a series of concentrated aerial attacks ( designated Unternehmen Adlerangriff or Operation Eagle Attack ) on targets throughout the United Kingdom in an attempt to destroy the RAF ( Royal Air Force ) and establish air superiority over Great Britain.

SAC bomber, tanker and reconnaissance aircraft flew numerous conventional bombing, aerial refueling and reconnaissance missions over and near Iraq from RAF Fairford and other bases in Great Britain, Turkey, Akrotiri, Cyprus, Diego Garcia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Horák and his family returned to Britain and the RAF ; he died in a flying accident in December 1948.

The RAF attempted their final resupply flight from Britain on the Saturday afternoon, but lost eight planes for little gain to the Airborne troops.

Appropriated by USAAF pilots in France at the end of the war, it was left in Britain following the unit's return to the US, and taken on by the RAF.