In the Battle of Britain, many squadrons used Manston as a forward air base. Though under the control of Fighter Command, the only regular squadron based at Manston was No 600, which flew Blenheims. These aeroplanes had suffered greatly at the hands of the Me-109 – the Luftwaffe’s mainstay fighter at this time – and had been shifted to night time patrols.
The Luftwaffe first attacked Manston on August 12th. Much damage was done to the hangers and to the runways. Spitfires from No 65 Squadron were actually taking off when the bombs first started to hit. However, they found the space on the ground to land once the fighting was over before flying off to their home base at Hornchurch. There were over 100 bomb craters in the runways but they were only out of action for 24 hours before they were deemed useable again.
A second raid on August 15th also left the base badly damaged. Further raids on August 20th, 22nd and 24th nearly destroyed the base. By the end of the raid on the 24th, Manston had no means of communicating with anyone else and the runways were littered with unexploded bombs. It was decided by No 11 Group Fighter Command, that the damage at Manston was so great that the base had to be downgraded to ELG – an emergency landing ground only.
The above is from the History Learning Site
My recollection of part of the Battle of Britain was that German bombers used the Thames estuary as a navigation point and when they got “bounced” they dropped their bombs on the closest target of opportunity, often Manston, to lighten their load and become more manoeuvrable before they returned to their bases on the continent.
The previous input concerning untrained recruits being posted in from Blackpool may not be relevant as it is doubtful if they would have been involved in the servicing of front-line aircraft. Surely specialist tradesmen from the parent bases would have provided the maintenance, re-fuelling and re-arming skills on the Spitfires as this was a Blenheim base.
I do not think that anyone could not have been terrified by the incessant bombing of an easy target in open ground.
Does anyone know if there are caves actually on the airfield?