“Dispersal” was a core wartime survival principle. Rather than concentrating aircraft, crews and essential facilities in one obvious cluster, RAF stations spread them around the perimeter and into satellite sites so that a single bombing attack could not destroy everything at once.

Aircraft dispersal pens were often protected by earth banks, brick or concrete walls and nearby shelters. Fighter pens could hold one or two aircraft, while bomber stations used hardstandings and perimeter tracks to spread aircraft around the airfield. Buildings were similarly scattered: crew rooms, flight offices, accommodation, messes, sick quarters, radio sites and communal facilities might all be dispersed away from the main technical area.

The huts themselves were usually utilitarian and temporary: timber sectional buildings, corrugated-iron Nissen huts, brick huts or other prefabricated structures. A dispersal hut close to aircraft hardstandings could provide somewhere for crews to wait, receive briefings, rest, drink tea, check paperwork and respond quickly to a scramble or sortie instruction. Their modest appearance is precisely the point: they were functional wartime workplaces, not ceremonial buildings.

Our very own dispersal hut is filled with authentic memorabilia, including uniforms and flight suits, to help transport you back to the 1940s.