World War II
During World War II the station was a Sector Airfield of RAF Fighter Command's 11 Group, covering London and the south east of England during the Battle of Britain in 1940. By this time, its command centre was in Romford, and a satellite station (an advanced attack outpost; RAF Rochford) was unpopular with the Hornchurch crews sent there from time to time because of the canvas accommodation. Following the war, Hornchurch was home to Flying Training Command's Aircrew Selection Centre for 10 years before it moved to RAF Biggin Hill and the RAF station at Hornchurch closed in July 1962.
Read more about this topic: RAF Hornchurch
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“in your mind inwardly despise
The brittle world so full of doubleness,
With the vile flesh, and right soon arise
Out of your sleep of mortal heaviness;
Subdue the devil with grace and mekeness,”
—Stephen Hawes (1474–1528)
“I realized how for all of us who came of age in the late sixties and early seventies the war was a defining experience. You went or you didn’t, but the fact of it and the decisions it forced us to make marked us for the rest of our lives, just as the depression and World War II had marked my parents.”
—Linda Grant (b. 1949)