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Cornwall Roundel
Page last updated on Tuesday, 12-Jul-2011
Welcome to our section on the Spitfire Society website where you will find information about us.
We hope you find our section interesting and informative, and we would love to see you at our next meeting.
Meeting dates are available here
Roundel Meeting & Perranporth Airfield
Open Day Report
The first Cornwall Roundel meeting of 2011 was held at Perranporth airfield where, at the kind invitation of the flying club; we shared in the airfield’s celebration of its 70th anniversary.
Read the report ... (PDF)
A little history ....
General Aviation and flying training have replaced Perranporth’s original purpose but as one of the best preserved wartime airfields there is a great deal of history still to see and experts to reveal the hidden evidence.
Perranporth Airfield officially opened as an operational Spitfire station in April 1941, with the arrival from Exeter of 66 Squadron, a dozen Spitfire Mark IIs (complete with long-range fuel tanks).
Many of the facilities had not yet been constructed; and 66 Squadron found themselves living and eating in marquees, which frequently blew down in the savage Cornish gales.
The airfield had only one runway at the time, compared to Portreath which successfully operated four. Later in the year, an emergency detachment of Spitfires from Squadron 118 came to Perranporth from Ibsley.
Perranporth Airfield originally supplied Spitfires for fighter defence missions, protecting ground targets in the South West from German bombing operations. Spitfires scrambled from Perranporth could comfortably reach both the English Channel and Plymouth.
From 1942 onwards, Spitfires from Perranporth were also used in bomber support missions, protecting British and American bombers from German fighters. The Spitfires would be sent to various forward operating bases to do this, effectively scrambling from the front line itself.
One of the most important functions of Perranporth’s Spitfires was convoy protection, providing aerial support for shipping operations in the Southwest Approaches and in the English Channel.
Perranporth Airfield www.perranporthaerodrome.com is one of Cornwall’s treasures: a delight to fly from now and a living reminder of an era past to which we owe a duty to keep the nation “air-minded”!
David Evans
chairman@spitfiresociety.com
