WONZ 334 – Mike Murray and RAF King’s Cliffe

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Guest: Mike Murray

Host: Dave Homewood

Recorded: 6th of September 2025

Published: 7th of September 2025

Duration: 2 hour 11 minutes, 57 seconds

Mike Murray is one of the founders of the King’s Cliffe Airfield Museum. RAF King’s Cliffe was a wartime Air Force station in Northamptonshire. It is located 19 kms west of Peterborough, and lies between the villages of King’s Cliffe and Wansford.

Initially used as a night landing ground during WWI, and returned to agriculture between the wars, work commenced to develop King’s Cliffe into a proper airfield in October 1940 as a new satellite to RAF Wittering, which is a permanent station. Kings Cliffe became a fighter station within No. 12 Group, with its first unit being No. 266 (Rhodesia) Squadron, moving in during 1941. They were replaced by No. 616 Squadron at the beginning of 1942, in which were several New Zealanders.

In July 1942, No. 485 (NZ) Squadron moved in to RAF King’s Cliffe, taking over from No. 616 Squadron. This New Zealand squadron was flying Spitfire Vb’s at the time, under the leadership of Squadron Leader Reg Grant. They were part of the Wittering Wing that was commanded by another Kiwi ace, Wing Commander Patrick “Jamie” Jameson.

No. 485 (NZ) Squadron flew convoy patrols, and Rhubarb low level sweeps over France and the Lowland countries from Kings Cliffe. They temporarily moved to Ballyhalbert, in Northern Ireland, in October 1942 to cover the departing convoy that was heading to North Africa for Operation Torch. They then returned to Kings Cliffe and continued operations. In early 1943 the squadron moved down to RAF Westhampnett, at Goodwood.

Numerous other RAF squadrons and units spent time at Kings Cliffe, and the USAAF also moved various fighter squadrons in too. These included the 347th Fighter Squadron with Bell P-400 Airacobras, the 56th Fighter Group with Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, the 20th Fighter Group with North American P-51D Mustangs of the 77th Fighter Squadron and Lockheed Lightnings of the 79th Fighter Squadron.

You can visit the King’s Cliffe Airfield Museum at Wansford Road, King’s Cliffe, Peterborough PE8 6PB, United Kingdom. The museum is open on the second Sunday of every month. See the Facebook link below to see more and to get in touch.

Quick Links:

• The Kings Cliffe Airfield Museum

• The King’s Cliff Airfield Museum’s Fundraiser

A montage of Mike Murray and the Kings Cliffe Airfield Museum, which opened in 2024.
Kings Cliffe Airfield – 16 January 1947, British Government – Royal Ordinance Survey. Annotations on photo from Airfields Of The Eighth Then And Now, by Roger A. Freeman (1978). Via Wikipedia,
Image from the CJ Sheddan log book. Personnel pushing No. 485 Squadron Spitfire OU-S backwards. Believed to be at RAF Station Kings Cliffe.
Group of No. 485 Squadron pilots in front of a Spitfire at RAF Station King’s Cliffe, England.
L-R: Flying Officer Doug Brown, Pilot Officer Ian Grant, Flying Officer Bruce Gibbs, Flight Lieutenant Lindsay Black, Squadron Leader Reg Grant, Flight Lieutenant John Pattison, Flying Officer Marty Hume, Pilot Officer Murray Metcalfe, Flying Officer AR “Tony” Robson, Sergeant Brown, Sergeant GM Buchanan, Sergeant Revell Steed, Flight Lieutenant MG Barret. Air Force Museum of New Zealand photo.
Image from the Reginald William Baker personal collection. Group of people looking at the smoking wreckage of a Dornier 217, shot down by No. 485 Squadron pilot Lindsay Black. Wansford. Air Force Museum of New Zealand photo.
Image from the Reginald William Baker personal collection. Group of people gathered around the rear of a NAAFI Refreshment Van, RAF King’s Cliffe, England. Air Force Museum of New Zealand photo.
Image from the Reginald William Baker personal collection. Hay bailer at work on the airfield at RAF Station King’s Cliffe, Wansford, with No. 485 Squadron Spitfire OU-K behind. Air Force Museum of New Zealand photo.
Group of No. 485 Squadron pilots with a Spitfire. Believed to be at RAF Station King’s Cliffe. L-R: Flight Lieutenant Gary Barnett, Flight Lieutenant John Pattison, Squadron Leader Reg Grant, Flight Lieutenant Reg Baker and Flight Lieutenant Lindsay Black. Air Force Museum of New Zealand photo.
Mike Murray, left, with 20th Fighter Group veteran Joe Peterburs, when they got him up in the P-51D Mustang “Marinell”.
Mike Murray with Colin and Bernard Wing to the museum. The two brothers, who lived in Apethorpe, remember their Dad taking them to look at Mac Cole’s Lancaster DV197 of 50 Squadron that had crash landed at the airfield on 31st July 1943. The plane ended up in a field just to the north of Apethorpe having gone off the end of the runway and across the railway line.

Below are more photos from around the museum.

The music is Wild Flower by Joachim Karud.

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