Footsteps of WWII · Britain
RAF Manston Spitfire & Hurricane Memorial Museum
Museum · Aug 1940; May 1943
The story
Manston, on the tip of Kent, was the RAF fighter airfield closest to France and so one of the first targets in the Luftwaffe's August 1940 offensive against Fighter Command. At the height of the battle it was bombed almost daily and left littered with unexploded bombs, and many staff moved out to the nearby woods. Later it became a refuge for damaged bombers, fitted with the FIDO fog-clearance system, and in May 1943 No. 617 Squadron's Lancasters flew from here to drop inert test versions of Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb off Reculver. The small free museum on the old airfield houses Spitfire XVI TB752 and Hurricane IIc LF751.
What to look for
Two aircraft fill the purpose-built hall: Spitfire TB752, which flew in combat in 1945, and Hurricane LF751. Around them are displays on Manston's war and wartime Ramsgate. The café overlooks the former airfield. The separate RAF Manston History Museum is close by.
Plan your visit
Admission free; donations welcome. Opening hours vary by season (recently 10:00–17:00 in summer); check the website before you go. Flight simulator costs extra.
Things change, so check opening times before you travel.
Nearby sites
- Dover Castle Secret Wartime Tunnels · 25 km
- Battle of Britain Memorial, Capel-le-Ferne · 30 km
- Batterie Todt (Atlantic Wall Museum), Audinghen · 59 km
- East Mole (Jetée de l'Est), Dunkirk · 78 km
- Malo-les-Bains evacuation beach, Dunkirk · 79 km
- Dunkirk 1940 Museum (Bastion 32) · 79 km
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Footsteps of WWII: Europe 1939–1945
A free field guide for your phone: the route, the maps and the stories built in, even with no signal. The whole Second World War in Europe, from the first shots at Westerplatte on 1 September 1939 to the German surrender in May 1945: Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, Normandy, Arnhem, Bastogne, Stalingrad, Berlin and the camps, in 15 areas from Britain to Russia.
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