Qualla: RAF Angle https://qualla.com/raf-angle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/m/raf-angle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: RAF Angle https://qualla.com/raf-angle RAF Angle: Introduction https://qualla.com/raf-angle/ Photo credit Alvear24, CC BY-SA 3.0. Picture a runway that slopes downhill to a cliff edge. That was RAF Angle. The landing area ran out across a windy plateau and ended, more or less, at the mouth of the Bristol Channel. Strong gales routinely damaged the servicing hangars. Mechanics built earth banks around the aircraft to protect them and themselves from the worst of the weather. The station opened on 1 June 1941, the year after the Luftwaffe had bombed Pembroke Dock and Milford Haven essentially unopposed, and for five years it scrambled fighters - first Hurricanes, then Spitfires, briefly Whirlwinds - to defend convoys threading the Irish Sea and the docks at Pembroke.

Read more: RAF Angle on Qualla

Image: Alvear24 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/m/raf-angle-wp/gchm-raf-angle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full RAF Angle: A Reluctant Airfield https://qualla.com/raf-angle/ Photo credit Germany. Luftwaffe, Public domain. The Air Ministry chose the site in 1940 in response to a political furore. Pembroke Dock had been hit hard and the area had no proper air defence. Engineers came to the Angle Peninsula and started clearing - removing hedges, levelling, draining, and closing local roads - on a pla...

Read more: RAF Angle on Qualla

Image: Germany. Luftwaffe | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/m/raf-angle-wp/gchm-raf-angle-a-reluctant-airfield.mp3 0:06 2 full RAF Angle: Squadrons in Rotation https://qualla.com/raf-angle/ Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. WOSlinker assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC0. No single squadron stayed long. The first arrivals - No. 32 Squadron from RAF Pembrey on 1 June 1941 - claimed a Dornier Do 17 four days later, a possible Heinkel He 111 the same day, and a confirmed Junkers Ju 88 on 10 June. They flew up to thirty sorties a day under Squadron Le...

Read more: RAF Angle on Qualla

Image: No machine-readable author provided. WOSlinker assumed (based on copyright claims). | CC0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/m/raf-angle-wp/gchm-raf-angle-squadrons-in-rotation.mp3 0:06 3 full RAF Angle: The Czech Squadron https://qualla.com/raf-angle/ Photo credit Mark Jones from Ludlow, UK, CC BY 2.0. On 24 January 1942 No. 312 (Czechoslovak) Squadron arrived from Fairwood Common with Spitfire Vbs and Squadron Leader H. Bird-Wilson DFC commanding. Most of its pilots were exiles - men who had fled occupied Czechoslovakia, found their way to Poland or France, retreated through F...

Read more: RAF Angle on Qualla

Image: Mark Jones from Ludlow, UK | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/m/raf-angle-wp/gchm-raf-angle-the-czech-squadron.mp3 0:06 4 full RAF Angle: Whirlwinds and Coastal Trials https://qualla.com/raf-angle/ Photo credit Ruth Sharville, CC BY-SA 2.0. Between the Spitfire and Hurricane squadrons came something unusual. No. 263 Squadron operated the Westland Whirlwind - a twin-engined, cannon-armed fighter that only ever equipped two RAF squadrons. They arrived at Angle in April 1942 with Squadron Leader R. S. Woodward DFC. Ten...

Read more: RAF Angle on Qualla

Image: Ruth Sharville | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/m/raf-angle-wp/gchm-raf-angle-whirlwinds-and-coastal-trials.mp3 0:06 5 full RAF Angle: Memory in Stone https://qualla.com/raf-angle/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The Royal Navy used the station too, briefly renaming it RNAS Angle - HMS Goldcrest - while 312 Squadron was based there. On 29 May 1943, a Short Sunderland of 461 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force, damaged on take-off, made the first ever dry airfield landing by a Sunderland f...

Read more: RAF Angle on Qualla

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/m/raf-angle-wp/gchm-raf-angle-memory-in-stone.mp3 0:06 6 full