RAF High Wycombe | |
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Walters Ash, Buckinghamshire in England | |
Coordinates | 51°40′53″N 000°48′07″W / 51.68139°N 0.80194°W |
Type | RAF non-flying station |
Site information | |
Owner | Ministry of Defence |
Operator | Royal Air Force |
Controlled by | RAF Air Command |
Website | Official website |
Site history | |
Built | 1938 |
In use | 1938 – present |
Garrison information | |
Current commander | Group Captain Philip Arnold |
Occupants |
Royal Air Force High Wycombe or more simply RAF High Wycombe is a Royal Air Force station, situated in the village of Walters Ash, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. It houses Headquarters Air Command, and was originally designed to house RAF Bomber Command in the late 1930s. The station is also the headquarters of the European Air Group and the United Kingdom Space Command.
The location of the station was originally suggested by Wing Commander Alan Oakeshott when the Air Ministry was seeking a new, secure, site for Bomber Command away from London. Wing Commander Oakeshott was killed in combat in 1942 and is commemorated on the Naphill War Memorial and in the name of the station's welfare centre, opened in 2011.
The motto of RAF High Wycombe in Latin is 'Non Sibi', which translates as 'not for ourselves'.