WW2 happened here! The home for The War and Peace Revival is in an area packed full of military history - including:

• Right in the heart of Hellfire Corner - aptly named following its battering during The Battle of Britain
• RAF Westenhanger Between 1940 and 1941, the racecourse was used as a decoy airfield with dummy aircraft placed to look like an active airfield. In April 1944 660 Squadron, an army co-operation squadron of the Royal Air Force, arrived at RAF Westenhanger. The squadron, based in a tented camp was equipped with Auster Mark IV single-engined liaison aircraft and used the racecourse to practice operations with local army units. On 12 July 1944 the squadron of 12 Austers escorted by a Supermarine Walrus rescue flying boat left Westenhanger for France. The airfield was then restored back to use as a racecourse. Rubble from wartime buildings can be seen on the north side of the straight course where it meets the oval.

• Lympne Airfield from 1916-1980s.  Used in the first world war as an aircraft acceptance park for the RFC, civilian air racing and record breaking flights followed before WW2. Heavily bombed in 1940 and a base to combat the V1 Flying Bomb in 1944, with much notable activity in between, Lympne went on to become a civil airport post-war.  To recall the fascinating and historic aviation activities that took place at the local airfield from the first world war until it closed in the 1980s see Lympne Aero Classic event.

• Underground Kent is a site dedicated to the many underground features that can be found not just in Kent but in other areas. They are mostly military fortifications that have been built over the last three centuries, but other features that included tunnels can also be found here. All sites are man made, or in the case of mines, heavily influenced by industrial usage. The aim is to provide a glimpse into the rarely seen and often ignored world that exists beneath our feet.  Here you will find information on Kent History, Kent Defences, Dover Defences, fortifications and tunnels in Dover, Medway, Sheppey, Thanet, Grain and other areas.

• Operation Fortitude South, the massive allied deception of WW2 for the Normandy landings. This saw dummy invasion camps set up around Kent, particularly in the south east corner to convince the Germans of a Pas-de-Calais invasion.
• The Dormobile factory near Folkestone made and maintained the inflatable planes and tanks.
• Broome Park at Barham, near Canterbury was home to Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum. Also part of Operation Fortitude South.
• 3.5 miles to Hythe with its military canal, Martello Towers and section of the Mulberry Harbour out at sea. Part of the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch railway which was used during WW2 to transport the Operation Pluto pipeline.
• 8 miles to Folkestone - more than 10 million soldiers left for the WW1 battlefields from here. www.stepshort.co.uk
• 8 miles to Hawkinge - the closest operational airfield to occupied France, it played a major role in defending our skies during the Battle of Britain. Home of the Kent Battle of Britain museum. www.kbobm.org
• 9 miles to Capel-le-Ferne, home of the impressive National Memorial to the Few. Battle of Britain Memorial
• 10 miles to Ashford - home to a Mk IV tank, presented to the town in 1919, that sits in the High Street!
• 10 miles from Romney Marsh - the planned landing point for the German invasion, Operation Sea Lion. Parts were flooded with plans to flood more if needed.
• 15 miles to Dover - with its historic Dover Castle, and the WW2 tunnels used by Admiral Ramsay. HQ of Operation Dynamo and home of the Dover Patrol - MTBs. 
• 16 miles to Canterbury - an historic pilgrimage site with its cathedral and badly damaged in the Blitz, Canterbury was central to the lovely wartime film: A Canterbury Tale and was bombed heavily during the blitz and the Baedecker Raids in May/June 1942.
• 20 miles to St Margaret’s Bay, where the channel guns Winnie and Pooh defended the coastline. In August 1940 Winnie fired Britain’s first cross-channel shell. Also the Hellfire Corner - St Margaret’s at War Museum. Sir Peter Ustinov was stationed here during WW2. Noel Coward and Ian Flemming both lived here.
• 23 miles to Deal - former home of the Royal Marines from 1659 - 1996 when they left for a new base in Portsmouth. Bombed by the IRA in 1989. Location of the commemorative bandstand which often stages free open-air concerts, including the annual return of the Marines for a special performance.
• 24 miles to Sandwich - one of the Cinque Ports, Sandwich had a WW1 prisoner of war camp and Kitchener Camp, housing 4,000 German Jews.
• 25 miles to Reculver Towers and the north Kent coast -the testing grounds for Barnes Wallis’ bouncing bombs used in the 1943 Dambusters raid.
• 31 miles to RAF Manston - wartime airbase with its Spitfire museum.
• 31 miles to Ramsgate - departure and return point for the Little Ships in the Dunkerque evacuation - there is still one in the marina. A small mainline rail station right next door, giving easy - and green - travel to The War and Peace Revival. Direct links from London Charing Cross and Ashford International, opening the doorway to the UK and the continent.
• Less than five minutes’ drive from the M20, J11 direct to the site of The War and Peace Revival.
• RAF Westenhanger is just 15-minutes from Ashford with its international rail station.
• In easy reach of Dover, Folkestone, Hythe, Ramsgate and many other historic towns with huge military history and connections.
• RAF Westenhanger has fantastic facilities including bars, a restaurant and grandstand viewing of all the action in the Arena.
• Harvest of Messerschmitts - book written about the downed aircraft during the Battle of Britain in the Elham Valley (distance).