RAF Andover is a former Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force station in England, west of Andover, Hampshire. As well as RFC and RAF units, units of the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, Royal Canadian Air Force, United States Army Air Forces, and the Air Transport Auxiliary were also stationed at the airfield. The airfield has a notable place in history as the site of the first attempt to develop a viable long-range electronic navigation system, during the First World War, and also of the first British military helicopter unit and first European helicopter flying training school, during the Second World War. RAF Andover was also used before and after the Second World War for a variety of other aeronautical research and flight testing. The RAF Staff College, Andover was founded here in 1922, the first college to train officers in the administrative, staff and policy aspects of running an air force. RAF Andover saw action during the Second World War. 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. Three squadrons of the Royal Canadian Air Force were formed at RAF Andover. Before and during the Battle of Normandy, it was used by the United States Army Air Forces Ninth Air Force as an operational tactical fighter airfield. The RAF station closed in 1977 and the site was later redeveloped. In 2009 part of it became Marlborough Lines, home to the Headquarters of the British Army. Airfield history Before 1912 The earliest known human activity on the site of Andover Airfield took place in the Bronze Age, according to archaeological evidence, which has uncovered significant Iron Age and later activity, including Anglo-Saxon and medieval cemeteries. Military activity began with the construction during or shortly after 43 AD of the Portway (called here Monxton Road), a Roman road from Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) to Old Sarum (Sorbiodunum), which just north of the airfield meets at East Anton crossroads the Icknield Way, the Roman road from Winchester (Venta Belgarum) to Mildenhall (Cunetio). The Andover sections of these roads were constructed by the Legio II Augusta. 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. 1912