Was Biggin Hill Recently Enlarged?

[Rex]

I make labels for all of the airfields in Normandy 2.0, and I had Biggin Hill labelled as having 14 slots for AI fighters, but I just used it today and found that it has 20 slots.  That's still quite a bit fewer Manston, Kenley, Lymington, Gravesend, etc, but it's still more than I thought.

With that said, Biggin Hill does have a whopping 10 ammo stations, which is massive, and speaks to a possible greater importance.

I am admittedly quite new to WWII history, so forgive the likely-stupid question, but how major of an airfield was Biggin Hill in reality?  I always thought Manston swung the biggest beef jerky in Southern England given it's location to the mainland, but I could be wrong. 

[DD_Fenrir]

Biggin Hill was a sector station - this meant it had an Ops Room (the big map table where they pushed the wooden blocks indicating air raids and friendly air units around) and was the primary control authority for the squadrons based at the stations within within it's sector, these being West Malling and Lympne.

Biggin was on the frontline as a Fighter Airfield right up until early 1944, with many notable fighter squadrons rotating through it from 1939 till the months before D-Day. The squadrons based there claimed 1000+ enemy aircraft destroyed.

Manston was one of the secondary fields (no Ops Room) in the Hornchurch sector. Used by Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain it was attacked so frequently and so heavily that units were withdrawn to bases inland, as it being so close to the sea the fighters based there struggled to get to height before the enemy raids arrived, meaning the squadrons often got bounced, or missed the interception altogether. 

As the air war became less defensive, Manston started seeing lots of units rotate through, particularly on a temporary basis as fighter squadrons might forward deploy from the bases inland to extend their range somewhat in order to be able to escort bombers to targets in Belgium and Holland. Later, it became a regular home to Hawker Typhoon squadrons and during the V-1 campaign the first squadrons of Gloster Meteors were based there.

[Rex]

Awesome, thank you!