RAF Sopley was a WWII airbase, codenamed Starlight, near the village of Sopley

Sopley

Sopley is a village and civil parish situated in the New Forest National Park of Hampshire, England. It lies on the old main road from Christchurch to Ringwood, on the east bank of the River Avon. The Parish extends east as far as Thorny Hill and borders the parishes of Bransgore and Burton to the...

 in Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

. It was opened in December 1940. In 1959 it became an air traffic control

Air traffic control

Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...

 radar station, and finally closed on 27 September 1974. Despite its coming into existence as a Ground-controlled interception

Ground-controlled interception

Ground-controlled interception an air defense tactic whereby one or more radar stations are linked to a command communications centre which guides interceptor aircraft to an airborne target. This tactic was pioneered during World War II by the Royal Air Force with the Luftwaffe to follow closely...

 (GCI) base, it is probably best known, as the initial home of the Vietnamese Boat People, in 1979. The camp was sold in 1993 to a local partnership under the name Merryfield Park.

History

The site started out as a Ground Controlled Interception (GCI) radar station. Its purpose to detect, locate and track enemy aircraft and provide inland radar coverage for Britain. Initially a mobile station, by 1943 it was a permament fixture with rotating ariel array, transmitter equipment stored in an underground bunker, operations block, emergency back up power supply and guard hut. In 1946 RAF Sopley was re-classified as a master GCI station and reserve Sector Operations Centre. As part of the UK's programme to update its air defences, Sopley underwent much modernisation during the 1950s including a new guardhouse providing access to a two storey underground operations centre. In 1958 the School of Fighter Control moved in and from 1959 an Air Traffic Control Research Unit was established. The Fighter Control School disbanded in 1960 and the station taken over by Air Traffic Control. RAF Sopley fulfilled a number of other roles before closing in September 1974. The two level operations bunker was modernised in the 1970s when it was occupied by a Royal Signals unit from Signals Research and Development Establishment at Christchurch. The entire site transferred to the army soon after and for the duration of the Cold War was used by 2 Signals Brigade from the UK Land Forces at Wilton. The only surviving surface features of the site are the guardhouse, which has been refurbished, the generator building and a small blockhouse that doubles as an emergency exit for the bunker. The bunker too remains intact and is used by a private company for data storage.

External links

• Information Booklet (1964)
• Subterranea Britannica website