RAF Duxford
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Image:Duxford-9july1946.jpg RAF Duxford is a former airfield in the United Kingdom. The airfield is located eight miles S of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire.
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[edit] RAF Use
RAF Duxford dates to 1918 when many of the buildings were constructed by German POW labor. The airfield housed No. 8 squadron in 1919–1920 which was equipped with F.2Bs. The airfield was then used by No. 2 Flying Training School until, April 1923 when No. 19 Squadron was formed at Duxford with Soffit Snipes.
The station was enlarged between 1928 and 1932, and in 1935, Duxford was the venue for the Silver Jubilee Review before King George V and Queen Mary, the resident squadron still being No. 19 which was also the first RAF unit to re-equip with the Spitfire in August 1938.
During the Battle of Britain, Duxford was the centre of the 'Big Wing' controversy advocated by the AOC of No. 12 Group, Air Vice-Marshall Trafford Leigh-Mallory. Then, at the end of 1940, the Air Fighting Development Unit (AFDU) moved to Duxford with the job of evaluating new aircraft types including captured enemy aircraft.
Other RAF Fighter Command Squadrons which operated from Duxford were : 19, 56, 66, 133, 181, 195, 222, 242, 264, 266, 310 312, 601, 609, 611, AFDU.
[edit] USAAF Use
Duxford airfield was assigned USAAF designation Station 357 (DX). It was assigned to the United States Army Air Force Eighth Air Force fighter command.
[edit] 66th Fighter Wing
Duxford was the initial home of the USAAF 5th Air Defense Wing which arrived from Norfolk Municipal Airport Virginia on 3 July 1943. The unit was redesignated the 66th Fighter Wing and was transferred to Sawston Hall near Cambridge on 20 August 1943.
[edit] 350th Fighter Group
The 350th Fighter Group was activated at Duxford on 1 October 1942 by special authority granted to Eighth Air Force with a nucleus of P-39 Airacobra pilots with the intention of providing a ground attack fighter organisation for the Twelfth Air Force in the forthcoming invasion of North Africa. Initially, the group received export versions of the Airacobra, known as the P-400, and a few Spitfires.
The air echelon moved from England to Oujda, French Morocco during January-February 1943. The ground echelon, which had been formed in the US, arrived in French Morocco about the same time. With their departure, the last RAF units moved out and on 15 June 1943 Duxford was officially handed over to the Eighth Air Force
[edit] 78th Fighter Group
Image:78fg-p47s.jpg Image:78fg-p51.jpg The 78th Fighter Group arrived at Duxford from RAF Goxhill in April 1943. Upon transfer from Goxhill, the group lost its P-38 Lightnings when these aircraft were withdrawn for use as replacements for units fighting in North Africa. In addition most of the 78th FG's pilots were also transferred to Twelfth Air Force as replacements. Thus the group was re-equipped with P-47C's and remanned at Duxford. Aircraft of the group were identified by a black/white checkerboard pattern.
The group consisted of the following squadrons:
- 82d Fighter Squadron (MX)
- 83d Fighter Squadron (HL)
- 84th Fighter Squadron (WZ)
The 78th FG was first equipped with P-47's and converted to P-51's in December 1944. The group flew many missions to escort B-17/B-24bombers that attacked industries, submarine yards and docks, V-weapon sites, and other targets on the Continent. The unit also engaged in counter-air activities and on numerous occasions strafed and dive-bombed airfields, trains, vehicles, barges, tugs, canal locks, barracks, and troops.
In addition to other operations, the 78th participated in the intensive campaign against the German Air Force and aircraft industry during Big Week, 20-25 Feb 1944 and helped to prepare the way for the invasion of France. The group supported the landings in Normandy in June 1944 and contributed to the breakthrough at St Lo in July. The unit participated in the Battle of the Bulge, Dec 1944-Jan 1945 and supported the airborne assault across the Rhine in March.
The 78th Fighter Group received a Distinguished Unit Citation for activities connected with the airborne attack on Holland in September 1944 when the group covered troop carrier and bombardment operations and carried out strafing and dive-bombing missions. The group received a second DUC for destroying numerous aircraft on five airfields near Prague and Pilsen on 16 April 1945.
The 78th Fighter Group returned to Camp Kilmer New Jersey and October 1945 and was deactivated in place on 18 October.
[edit] Postwar Use
On 1 December 1945, a few weeks after the departure of the 78th Fighter Group, Duxford was officially returned to the RAF. For the next sixteen years. Duxford remained an RAF Fighter Command Station although it was closed for two years in October 1949 to have a single concrete runway laid down, together with a new perimeter track and apron, for the better handling of jet aircraft with which the squadrons were then equipped.
Duxford reopened in August 1951 when Nos. 64 and 65 Squadrons arrived with Meteor F.Bs and, two years later, Duxtbrd was chosen to provide the aircraft for the 1953 Coronation Flypast.
On 1 August 1961, a Meteor NF.14 made the last take-off from the runway before Duxford officially closed as an RAF airfield and was abandoned.
In 1968 Duxford was used as one of the locations for the filming of "Baffle of Britain". On June 21 and 22, one of the original World War I hangars was blown up in stages for the filming (without the concurrence of the Ministry of Defence) and the airfield was spectacularly filmed from the air in a realistic bombing sequence. Ironically this was the nearest Duxford came to being destroyed as no significant wartime German raids were carried out on the aerodrome. The French chateau, seen at the beginning of the film, was constructed on the south-west corner of the airfield.
Today, RAF Duxford is owned by the Imperial War Museum and is the site of the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, and the American Air Museum. The museum had been looking for a suitable site for the storage, restoration and eventual display of exhibits too large for its headquarters in London and obtained permission to use the airfield for this purpose. Cambridgeshire County Council joined with the Imperial War Museum and the Duxford Aviation Society and in 1977 bought the runway to give the abandoned airfield a new lease of life.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Freeman, Roger A., Airfields Of The Eighth, Then And Now, 1978
- Maurer Maurer, Air Force Combat Units Of World War II, Office of Air Force History, 1983
- USAAS-USAAC-USAAF-USAF Aircraft Serial Numbers--1908 to Present [1]
- mighty8thaf.preller.us Duxford
- 78th Fighter Group on www.littlefriends.co.uk
