A LIST of military bombing targets drawn up by IRA terrorists included the Biggin Hill Aerodrome, newly released files have revealed.

The death list found in an IRA bomb factory in north London, on December 16, 1975, contained a list of 19 military locations which were singled out for attack.

Number 13 on the list was the Biggin Hill Aerodrome which was used by the RAF at the time.

The typed list was prepared in secret for the prime minister of the time, Harold Wilson, by the Met’s Special Branch after a raid on a terrorist flat at 99 Milton Grove in Stoke Newington.

The list has now been made public by the National Archive.

Air Commodore John Bell was in charge of the RAF unit at Biggin Hill between 1985 and 1989 when it acted as a selection centre for officers and air crews.

The 75-year-old said: “It was a significant but soft target.

“We were not in concrete or underground.

“There were other higher profile targets on the list and bombing them would have had greater impact.

“It’s fair to say that whatever damage was done, whatever destruction was caused, it would have been recoverable.

“It would have caused some disruption but it wouldn’t have affected the RAF’s capability.”

Balcombe Street gang

The list was compiled by IRA terrorists behind a two-year bombing campaign in the 1970s.

The four-strong unit - known as the Balcombe Street gang - were captured by police on December 12, 1975, following a six-day siege in which they held a couple hostage at their flat in Balcombe Street in Marylebone.

The National Archive files show their other targets included the British Museum, Madame Tussauds, the National Gallery, the Imperial War Museum and the old Tate Gallery.

The gang was jailed for life in 1977 but were freed in 1999 under the Good Friday Agreement.