Corporal Josephine Robins, one of only six members of the WAAF to win the Military Medal during the War, won her award for courage while rescuing people during an air-raid on the airfield in the Battle of Britain.

Very close to the site which became the airfield, in 1910 the British Army airship Beta made a forced landing at Little Park in Anna Valley.

In early 1918, experiments were conducted with Handley Page Type O bombers, based at Andover and Cranwell, fitted with Radio Direction-Finding (RDF as it was called) equipment for night flying.

The intention was to guide British bombers to and from Berlin,[5] and early results led to 550 sets of RDF equipment being ordered by the United States Army Air Service,[6] but the war ended before any operational use was made of the system.

When the RAF Station closed in 1977 a number of artefacts from the airfield's early history and later were donated to 1213 (Andover) Squadron Air Training Corps.

These included a large carved wooden copy of the RFC cap badge which was later donated to the Army Flying Museum and is now on display in its café.

A still preserved[7] reminder of the RAF Staff College on the former airfield is a headstone from 1926 on the North Site marking the grave of Jane.

To this day, 12 Squadron's unit motto 'Leads the Field' and crest commemorates their time at RAF Andover by depicting the head of a fox.

This involved a number of practice jumps being performed by observers, who would climb out of the aircraft onto a small ladder and await a signal from the pilot as the aircraft flew over the airfield at 2000 ft. 12 Squadron was also tasked with further trials work, experimenting with oxygen systems, high altitude photography, and low temperature trials work, particularly in respect to lubricants.

To this end, 12 Squadron dropped several practice bombs on an obsolete battleship, HMS Centurion, which was a radio-controlled target off the south coast.

The high performance of the Sidestrand impressed crowds at the Hendon Air Pageants, where it flew mock combat aerobatics with the fighters of the day.

101 Squadron Sidestrands won a number of bombing and reconnaissance competitions and carried out trial anti-shipping strikes against Royal Navy battleships.

French Air Force aircraft and crews going into exile to continue fighting were on arrival initially directed to Andover.

A civilian organisation that – unusually for the time – had female pilots, the ATA ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factories, assembly plants, transatlantic delivery points, Maintenance Units, scrapyards, and active service squadrons and airfields.

[17] RAF Andover was one of four airfields in Hampshire to be given a decoy site in 1940, to deceive enemy aircraft into attacking a spurious target.

At 1700 hours on 13 August 1940, approximately 12 high explosive bombs were dropped by Junkers Ju 88s of III Staffel, Lehrgeschwader 1, of Luftflotte 3, from Châteaudun in France.

Corporal Josephine Robins, a Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) telephone operator at RAF Andover was awarded the Military Medal for her courage during these raids.

The citation for the award, printed in The London Gazette of 20 December 1940, stated that: "Corporal Robins was in a dug-out which received a direct hit during an intense enemy bombing raid.

It was thought at the time that these air raids were attempts to attack the important 11 Group Fighter Command Sector Station nearby at RAF Middle Wallop, but German records make it clear that RAF Andover was the intended target,[22][23] as the Luftwaffe thought wrongly that it was an operational bomber station.

Flying from RAF Andover, the 370th dive-bombed radar installations and flak towers, and escorted bombers that attacked bridges and marshalling yards in France as the Allies prepared for the invasion of the Continent.

The 370th also provided cover for Allied forces that crossed the English Channel on D-Day and flew armed reconnaissance missions over the Cotentin Peninsula until the end of the month.

666 Squadron RCAF – were formed at RAF Andover between 9 December 1944 and 5 March 1945, equipped with Auster Mark IV and V aircraft.

666 Squadron RCAF was Captain James Doohan, who later achieved fame as an actor playing Star Trek's Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander Scott.

In addition to artillery direction, the Flight's experimental activities included photography, radar trials, air/ground communications, and fighter evasion.

The Andover's main role in RAF service was tactical transport, for which its unique ability to "kneel" – to allow vehicle entry at a shallow angle via a rear ramp – was an asset.

Andovers were still in RAF service for the photo reconnaissance role under the Open Skies Treaty and for use by the Empire Test Pilots' School until 2012.

[70] This example was originally owned by the German Embassy in London and had the RAF serial number AW167 before being sold to a Swiss owner who registered it as HB-ESM,[27] before the Flugmuseum Messerchmitt acquired it as D-ESBH.

The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Hanley, Staffordshire preserves RAF Andover's former gate guardian in 1952[71] and 1963 to 1967,[72][73] a Supermarine Spitfire LF Mk.

[78] In 2007, the site of Andover Airfield became the focus of local controversy when developers submitted a planning proposal to build a large distribution centre for the Tesco supermarket company.

[80] Approval was granted in 2008 but the developer failed to reach agreement with Tesco;[81] a regional distribution centre for the Co-op Group was built instead,[82] and the rest of the site became a business park.