Atlantic Park

What is now known as Southampton International Airport, Eastleigh, was formerly meadowland attached to North Stoneham Farm. The credit for the earliest use of the land for flying purposes must go to Eric Moon and his Moonbeam Mark II monoplane which he flew in 1910. Thereafter the area was used by balloons, airships and aircraft in increasing and varying numbers until in 1918 it was occupied by a large detachment of the U.S.N.A.F. as a supply base in the closing stages of World War I. Then, after the Armistice in November 1918, all the Americans, except for a small holding contingent, went back to the U.S.A. on board the S.S. Leviathan to be home for Christmas.The story of the occupation of the site by the Americans is told in an illustrated booklet entitled
THE BATTLE OF EASTLEIGH, a copy of which is in Eastleigh Library.