RAF Odiham

The early years

The RAF says military flying has taken place at Odiham since 1926. Other sources, including the Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust, say temporary flying camps began in the mid-1920s. The permanent airfield was built in the mid-1930s and the station formally became RAF Odiham on 11 January 1937. Its first squadrons flew army co-operation aircraft, and by the start of the Second World War they were flying Westland Lysanders.

The war

According to the RAF's own history, Odiham's No. 13 Squadron Blenheims took part in the 1,000-bomber raids of 1942, and the station played a major part in supporting the Dieppe raid that August. From June 1943 it came under Fighter Command and later the Second Tactical Air Force, and it was central to preparations for D-Day in 1944.

Jets

After a brief spell with Dakota transports in 1945 to 1946, Odiham went back to Fighter Command and flew Spitfires, Tempests, Vampires, Meteors, Hunters and Javelins. Two firsts happened here:

• In 1947 No. 54 Squadron formed the Black Knights, which the RAF describes as the world's first jet formation display team.
• In 1948 Vampires of No. 54 Squadron left Odiham on the first jet crossing of the Atlantic.

In February 1956 No. 46 Squadron at Odiham became the first unit in the world to fly the Gloster Javelin.

Helicopters

The station reopened under Transport Command in January 1960 as the home of the RAF's light transport fleet, including helicopters. The first Chinooks arrived in December 1980 with No. 240 Operational Conversion Unit, and No. 18 Squadron became the first Chinook squadron in August 1981. Since 1998 Odiham has been home to Nos. 7, 18 and 27 Squadrons, which together make up the UK Chinook Force.

Odiham's Chinooks supported British forces in Iraq in 2003 and French forces in Mali in 2018, flew in hurricane relief in the Caribbean in 2017 and, closer to home, in 2019 one was sent to help secure the collapsing dam at Toddbrook Reservoir in Derbyshire.

Part of the parish

In 2025, to mark a hundred years of military flying, RAF Odiham was given the Freedom of the Parish. There's a window in All Saints' Church given by the station in 1989.

Seeing the helicopters

The station isn't open to the public, and please don't stop on the B3349 by the runway lights. The good news is that you don't need to: the Chinooks often fly over the village and the countryside around it. Our walks around Odiham are good for spotting them. Back to the Odiham history hub.