Royal Air Force Great Dunmow or more simply RAF Great Dunmow is a former

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

station in the parish of

Little Easton Little Easton is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. The village is situated approximately east from the town of Bishop's Stortford, and north-west from the county town of Chelmsford. Little Easton parish is defined at the west by th ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England. The airfield is located approximately mi west of

Great Dunmow Great Dunmow is a historic market town and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. It is situated on the north of the A120 road, approximately midway between Bishop's Stortford and Braintree, five miles east of London Stanst ...

, north of the A120; about northeast of London Opened in 1943, it was used by both the

and

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

during the war, primarily as a bomber airfield. The airfield was closed in 1948. Today the airfield is located on private land primarily used for agriculture.

History

Great Dunmow was designed as a

Class A airfield Class A airfields were World War II military installations constructed to specifications laid down by the British Air Ministry Directorate-General of Works (AMDGW). Intended for use by heavy bombers and transports, they were the standard air ba ...

bomber airfield, built by the US Army 818th Engineer Battalion (Aviation) with specialised work by British contractors. The airfield was built on ancient parkland belonging to

Easton Lodge Easton Lodge was a Victorian Gothic style stately home in Little Easton and north-west from Great Dunmow, Essex, England. Once famous for its weekend society gatherings frequented by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), it was one of man ...

and some 10,000 trees were destroyed to enable its construction,The Gardens of Easton Lodge: After Daisy 1938
accessed 2010-12-17 including over 200 mature oak trees. It consisted of a set of three converging runways each containing a concrete runway for takeoffs and landings, optimally placed at 60-degree angles to each other in a triangular pattern. The runways were a main runway, aligned 15/33 and two secondary secondary runways, aligned 11/29 and 04/22. An encircling perimeter track was also constructed, containing 50 loop-type hardstands.

United States Army Air Forces use

Great Dunmow airfield was opened on 1 July 1943 and was used by the

Eighth and

Ninth In music, a ninth is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a second. Like the second, the interval of a ninth is classified as a dissonance in common practice tonality. Since a ninth is an octave larger than a second, its ...

Air Forces. It was known as USAAF Station AAF-164 for security reasons by the USAAF during the war, and by which it was referred to instead of location. Its USAAF Station Code was "GD". USAAF Station Units assigned to RAF Great Dunmow were: * 70th Service Group : 380th Service Squadron; HHS 70th Service Group * 20th Station Complement Squadron * 21st Weather Squadron * 39th Mobile Reclamation and Repair Squadron * 40th Mobile Communications Squadron Regular Army Station Units included: * Quartermaster Depot Q_108 * 1577th Quartermaster Battalion * 628th Quartermaster Battalion * 1054th Quartermaster Company * 1087th Signal Company * 1176th Military Police Company * 1769th Ordnance Supply & Maintenance Company * 2057th Quartermaster Truck Company * 2196th Quartermaster Truck Company * 3215th Quartermaster Service Company * 335th Quartermaster Depot Company * 340th Quartermaster Depot Company * 807th Chemical Company * 2045th Engineer Fire Fighting Platoon * 194th Medical Dispensary

386th Bombardment Group (Medium)

386th Bombardment Group B-26 Marauder Crew 41-31633

The first unit to use Great Dunmow was the American 386th Bombardment Group (Medium) which arrived from

RAF Boxted Royal Air Force Boxted or more simply RAF Boxted is a former Royal Air Force station located north-northeast of Colchester, Essex England. Opened in 1943, it was used by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). RAF Boxted has the distinction ...

on 24 September 1943. The group was assigned to the

VIII Air Support Command The VIII Air Support Command is a disbanded United States Army Air Forces unit. It was assigned to Eighth Air Force throughout its existence, and it was last stationed at Sunninghill Park, England, where it was disbanded on 1 December 1943. V ...

3d Bombardment Wing 3-D, 3D, or 3d may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Relating to three-dimensionality * Three-dimensional space ** 3D computer graphics, computer graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data ** 3D film, a ...

and flew Martin B-26B/C Marauders. Operational squadrons of the 322d were: *

552d Bombardment Squadron 55 may refer to: * 55 (number) * 55 BC * AD 55 * 1955 *2055 Science *Caesium, by the element's atomic number Astronomy *Messier object M55, a magnitude 7.0 globular cluster in the constellation Sagittarius *The New General Catalogue object NGC ...

(RG) * 553d Bombardment Squadron (AN) * 554th Bombardment Squadron (RU) * 555th Bombardment Squadron (YA) Missions of the 386th concentrated on airfields but also bombed marshalling yards and gun positions during the first months of combat. In common with other Marauder units of the 3d Bomb Division, the 386th was transferred to

Ninth Air Force The Ninth Air Force (Air Forces Central) is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. It is the Air Force Service Component of United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), a joint De ...

98th Bombardment Wing on 16 October 1943. On 2 October 1944, the 386th Bomb Group moved to Beaumont-sur-Oise (A-60) Airfield, in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

France. The following units were here at some point: * No. 190 Squadron RAF with the

Short Stirling The Short Stirling was a British four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It has the distinction of being the first four-engined bomber to be introduced into service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). The Stirling was designed during t ...

IV and the

Handley Page Halifax The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester. The Halifax has its or ...

III & VII (1944-46) *

No. 620 Squadron RAF No 620 Squadron was a squadron of the Royal Air Force during World War II. During its existence it served as a bomber squadron, airborne forces and a transport squadron. History No 620 Squadron was formed at RAF Chedburgh on 17 June 1943 as a ...

with the Stirling IV and Halifax A VII (1944-46) The airfield was abandoned in 1948.

Current use

With the end of military control in 1950 the grassed areas were cut for a grass meal company through the 1950s which supplied it to various farms in the region. Starting in 1960, farming operations commenced and the concrete areas were removed for aggregate in 1965/66 for use as part of the new

A12 road This is a list of roads designated A12. Entries are sorted in alphabetical order by country. * A012 road (Argentina), a road around the city of Rosario * A12 motorway (Austria), a road connecting Kufstein and the German Autobahn A 93 to Landec ...

. Today, there is very little left except some single track agricultural roads remaining from the perimeter track and a blister hangar with a few nissen huts near Easton Lodge. The runway layout and the airfield perimeter track are easily identified in aerial photography, but no substantial amount of concrete remains. The 22 end of the secondary northeast runway does however, have a short full width of runway intact, being used for manure storage. The current owners,

Land Securities Land Securities Group plc is the largest commercial property development and investment company in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust (REIT) when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. It is ...

hope to redevelop the site and surrounding area, including the construction of around 9,000 homes.Strategic Land Portfolio

, accessed 2010-12-17 There is a small museum in Great Dunmow which holds some exhibits of the airfield and the 386th Bomb Group, along with a stained glass window memorial in Little Easton church.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * Freeman, Roger A. (1978) ''Airfields of the Eighth: Then and Now''. After the Battle * Freeman, Roger A. (1991) ''The Mighty Eighth: The Colour Record''. Cassell & Co. * Freeman, Roger A. (1994) ''UK Airfields of the Ninth: Then and Now'' 1994. After the Battle * Freeman, Roger A. (1996) ''The Ninth Air Force in Colour: UK and the Continent-World War Two''. After the Battle * * Maurer, Maurer (1983). ''Air Force Combat Units of World War II''. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. .
mighty8thaf.preller.us Great Dunmow

* British Automobile Association (AA), (1978), Complete Atlas of Britain,

External links

Great Dunmow photo gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Dunmow Royal Air Force stations in Essex Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom Airfields of the VIII Bomber Command in the United Kingdom Airfields of the 9th Bombardment Division in the United Kingdom 1943 establishments in England 1948 disestablishments in England