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Old 18th Aug 2020, 19:20
  #97 (permalink)  
POBJOY
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: 11 GROUP
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Rockets to the rescue

Originally Posted by Video Mixdown
Indeed. This remarkable painting shows the rockets just after launch.
Indeed the rockets are just getting airborne and will hit one of the damaged Dorniers in the second wave. This very expensive system has serious limitations and was used on very few occasions. Its main limitation at Kenley was the target machines would have already bombed and be on their escape route, plus it only covered one direction. Of course this was a problem for all of 11 groups airfields as they were former WW1 fields that had not been designed for defence, and had little or no underground or bunkered facilities or approach AA installations.
The hangars were the classic Belfast sheds with wooden beams and tar felt wooden roofs. It did not take much to set them ablaze and then they went up like the proverbial roman candle. The all important Ops room was basically a bungalow near the O mess and was evacuated to Caterham after this near miss event. Luckily the Luftwaffe thought Kenley was finished, but in practice its flying ground, fuel store, and ops room were serviceable and the station was never put out of action, unlike the strike force which was decimated.
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