 11 Group RAF, Fighter Command.Squadrons of Bristol Blenheim bombers, Hawker Hurricanes, Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Typhoons operated from this airfield, and among the many pilots based there were such famous men as Robert Stanford Tuck, and Squadron Leader Douglas Bader, there as Commanding Officer of 242 Squadron.Ian Smith, the post-war Rhodesian prime minister, was at Martlesham for a time.