Air Force Special Duty Service when 161 (Special Duty) Squadron's Lysander flight came down to do their insertion and pick-up operations into occupied Europe. The SOE used Tangmere Cottage, opposite the main entrance to the base to house and receive their agents. Today the cottage sports a commemorative plaque to its former secret life. Later in the war, as the RAF turned from defence to attack, Group Captain Douglas Bader, the legless fighter ace, commanded the Tangmere wing of Fighter Command. Today he is commemorated by a plaque outside the former Bader Arms public house, now a Co-operative Food outlet in the village. 616 Squadron, which included Johnnie Johnson and Hugh Dundas, arrived at Tangmere in late February 1941. Johnson went on to become the highest scoring Western Allied fighter ace against the Luftwaffe. Many of those killed at the base, from both sides in conflict, are buried in the cemetery at St Andrews Church, Tangmere, today tended by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. American RAF pilot Billy Fiske who died at Tangmere in 1940 was one of the first American aviators to die during the Second World War. Postwar After the war, the RAF High Speed Flight was based at Tangmere as part of Central Fighter Establishment. In September 1946, a world air speed record of 616 mph (991 km/h) was set by Group Captain Edward "Teddy" Mortlock Donaldson in a Gloster Meteor; after his death in 1992, he was buried in St Andrews Church. In September 1953, Squadron Leader Neville Duke became holder of the world air speed record when he flew a Hawker Hunter at 727 mph (1,170 km/h) – the 50th anniversary of this event was commemorated in 2003. No 38 Group Tactical Communications Wing RAF and 244 Signal Squadron (Air Support) were the last units to leave the base, relocating to RAF Benson. On 1 June 1950, a Gloster Meteor flying eastwards over Portsmouth reported a UFO at 20,000 ft. It is also seen by the radar at RAF Wartling, and was described as Britain's first flying saucer, and led to the Flying Saucer Working Party later that year. In the late 1950s the flying was restricted to ground radar calibration and the Joint Services Language School moved there. In 1960 the station was granted the "freedom of the City of Chichester" and the event was marked by a march through the town and service