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RAF Lasham, in Hampshire near Alton, was established during the war as part of the RAF’s wider network of inland airfields supporting training, maintenance and the flexibility needed to sustain operations. Its location in southern England made it useful within a region that combined home defence, intensive training, and the build-up for the liberation of Europe. Lasham’s wartime story is therefore best understood as one of capacity and adaptation rather than a single celebrated combat narrative.
Airfields in this category typically supported high-volume training and relief landing roles. Training demanded repetition: circuits, navigation exercises, instrument practice and formation work. Spreading that flying across multiple fields reduced congestion and accident risk, especially in the south where traffic was heavy. Lasham could absorb overflow from nearby stations and provide additional runway capacity when weather closed other fields. This role became increasingly important as the volume of wartime flying grew and as the demands of 1943-44 placed pressure on infrastructure and personnel.
Support airfields also strengthened resilience through dispersal. Aircraft concentrations were vulnerable to attack and to accidents such as fires. By moving aircraft between fields and using satellites, the RAF reduced the risk that a single incident could cripple a unit’s flying programme. Lasham’s inland position and open approaches made it well suited to this kind of ‘safety net’ function, including diversion landings for aircraft returning low on fuel or encountering unexpected weather.
The station community would have included instructors and trainees, engineering trades maintaining aircraft that were flown hard, signals and operations staff managing traffic and schedules, and crash and fire crews ready for inevitable incidents. Even without a dramatic operational record, this work mattered. Training accidents could cost lives, and reliable station routine was the main defence against avoidable loss. By maintaining throughput and safety, airfields like Lasham preserved aircrew resources and kept the wider system functioning.
- Primary wartime role: southern inland support airfield for training and relief/diversion capacity.
- Typical activity: circuits and landings practice, navigation and instrument training, aircraft dispersal and diversion support.
- Why it mattered: added redundancy and reduced risk in a region with heavy wartime air traffic and variable weather.
After the war, Lasham became well known for its later civil and gliding associations, demonstrating how wartime runway investment often shaped post-war aviation geography. Its WW2 significance remains rooted in its role as a practical, flexible airfield – one of the many places where routine flying and disciplined ground work sustained the larger air war.
Training and support stations also had a morale dimension. They were the bridge between civilian life and operational danger. The quality of instruction, maintenance discipline and station routine shaped confidence and reduced fear. Lasham’s wartime value includes that human factor: helping crews become comfortable with procedures before they faced the far harsher stresses of operations.
Lasham’s wartime chapter also illustrates how flying training was staged. Pilots and crew did not jump straight into operational units; they moved through structured phases where confidence and judgement were built. Stations providing extra runway time prevented bottlenecks in that pipeline, which was essential in a long war where the demand for trained personnel never stopped.