RAF West Malling over the Channel. The three surviving aircraft were rescued only when the fight was joined by Hurricanes from No. 111 Squadron. The remainder of the unit returned north to RAF Prestwick on 25 July due to the ineffectiveness of the Defiant against single-seat fighters. No. 29 Squadron flying Bristol Beaufighters arrived for its first tour of duty on 27 April 1941. One of the Squadron's pilots, Guy Gibson VC, later officer commanding 617 Squadron on the Dambusters Raid, said of the station "Of all the airfields in Great Britain ... we have the most pleasant". A regular and long-standing inhabitant,
RAF Andover viable long-range electronic navigation system, of a kind that is today used routinely worldwide. Between the wars, the airfield housed a number of RAF units, including from 1919 the RAF School of Navigation, as No. 2 School of Navigation and Bomb Dropping was retitled. The RAF Staff College was founded here on 1 April 1922, to provide staff training to selected officers, and eventually moved to the Bracknell in 1970. The formation of the Royal Air Forces Association followed a conversation in 1929 in the Sergeants’ Mess of RAF Andover. RAF Andover continued to be used for a variety of