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- Gosport Aerodrome during the Great War -


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Gosport Aerodrome



17th October 1914 Return to Britain

January 1915 Air defence

1st Sept 1915 New Squadron

October 1915 Detachment  Although still in training, 23 Squadron sent a detachment of 2 aircraft to Sutton's Farm aerodrome in October 1915 to intercept Zeppelin air raids on London.

19th Oct 1915 On the Move  13 Squadron was sent to France, reporting first to RFC HQ at St. Omer on 19th of October, and then deployed to Vert Galand 2 days later. Equipped with BE2c aircraft, the main role of the Squadron was artillery observation and photographic reconnaissance, which remained the unit's main tasks throughout the war.

7th Nov 1915 Squadron Formed  No 28 Squadron formed at Gosport on the 7th of November 1915 from a nucleus from 22 Squadron. It moved shortly afterwards to Fort Rowner aerodrome.

7th Nov 1915 Squadron Formed

10th Nov 1915 On the Move

26th February 1916   No 40 Squadron formed at Gosport on the 26th of February 1916, the first Squadron to be equipped with F.E.8. The F.E.8 was one of the first single-seat or "scout" aircraft specifically designed as a fighter. In order to overcome the problems of forward facing machine guns not (at that time) being able to fire through the arc of the propeller, it was designed as a "pusher" (i.e., with its propeller behind the cockpit) giving the pilot a clear field of fire ahead.

1st March 1916 

25th March 1916 

Mid April 1916 Squadron Formed

30th April 1916 New Squadron formed  No 60 Squadron formed at Gosport on the 30th of April 1916 (curiously out of sequence as 50-59 Squadrons had not yet been formed at that time). They were staffed by experienced airmen, many of whom had already seen action, and proceeded to France after only one month of preparation equipped with Morane Bullet fighter aircraft.

May 1916 

1st May 1916 Squadron in India expanded

8th June 1916 New Squadron formed

14th July 1916 New Squadron formed

14th July 1916 On the Move

August 1916 

October 1916   No.41 Squadron proceeded to France in October 1916 flying FE8s. Deployment to the front line soon showed that the F.E.8 was at a severe disadvantage compared with the German Fokker Eindekker fighter. The drag created by its tail ensured it was slower than the Fokker, and its light-weight construction made it vulnerable to attack both from other aircraft and from ground fire. It was nick-named Fokker fodder by its pilots and dead meat by the Germans. Pilots also soon learned not to use it for ground attack.

9th Oct 1916 Aircraft

15th Oct 1916 Move

1st November 1916 New Home Defence Squadron formed

24th July 1917 Squadron formed

1st August 1917 New Squadron formed

20th September 1917 On the Move

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Want to know more about Gosport Aerodrome?


There are:26 articles tagged Gosport Aerodrome available in our Library

  These include information on officers service records, letters, diaries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.


Those known to have served at

Gosport Aerodrome

during the Great War 1914-1918.

  • Uren George. Sgt. (d.13th September 1917)

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  • 19th Nov 2024

        Please note we currently have a massive backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 264989 your submission is still in the queue, please do not resubmit.

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Want to know more about Gosport Aerodrome?


There are:25 items tagged Gosport Aerodrome available in our Library

  These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.




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