397th Bombardment Group - B-26 Marauders

Royal Air Force Rivenhall or more simply RAF Rivenhall 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) an ...

station located in

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 Grea ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The airfield is located approximately south-southeast of Braintree,

, England. Opened in 1942, 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, it was used primarily as a combat airfield with various fighter and bomber units. After the war, it was closed in 1946 and kept in reserve until 1956. Today, the remains of the airfield are located on private property with the northern half being turned into a

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

History

USAAF use

Rivenhall was known as USAAF Station AAF-168 for security reasons by the USAAF during the war, and by which it was referred to instead of location. Its USAAF Station Code was "RL".

363d Fighter Group

On 22 January 1944, a squadron of the 363d Fighter Group arrived from

RAF Keevil Royal Air Force Station Keevil or more simply RAF Keevil is a former Royal Air Force station located between the villages of Keevil and Steeple Ashton, about east of the town of Trowbridge, in Wiltshire, England. The airfield was built on ...

where it had been awaiting equipment. The group had been selected as the third in the

European Theatre The European theatre of World War II was one of the two main theatres of combat during World War II. It saw heavy fighting across Europe for almost six years, starting with Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and ending with the ...

to be equipped with the new

North American P-51B Mustang Over twenty variants of the North American P-51 Mustang fighter were produced from 1940, when it first flew, to after World War II, some of which were employed also in the Korean War and in several other conflicts. Allison-engined Mustangs NA ...

. The group consisted of the following operational squadrons: *

380th Fighter Squadron 38 may refer to: *38 (number), the natural number following 37 and preceding 39 *one of the years 38 BC, AD 38, 1938, 2038 *.38, a caliber of firearms and cartridges **.38 Special, a revolver cartridge *'' Thirty-Eight: The Hurricane That Transfor ...

(A9) *

381st Fighter Squadron 381st may refer to: *381st Bombardment Squadron, inactive United States Air Force unit * 381st Fighter Squadron or 18th Reconnaissance Squadron, squadron of the United States Air Force * 381st Intelligence Squadron, intelligence unit located at Joi ...

(B3) * 382d Fighter Squadron (C3) On 14 April 1944, as part of a general movement of

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 ...

fighter units in the

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

area to the advanced landing grounds, the 363d moved to RAF Staplehurst. The actual movement of all elements had begun two days previously.

397th Bombardment Group

On the day following the departure of the 363d, the first

Martin B-26 Marauder The Martin B-26 Marauder is an American twin-engined medium bomber that saw extensive service during World War II. The B-26 was built at two locations: Baltimore, Maryland, and Omaha, Nebraska, by the Glenn L. Martin Company. First used in t ...

s of the 397th Bombardment Group arrived from

RAF Gosfield Royal Air Force Gosfield or more simply RAF Gosfield is a former Royal Air Force station in Essex, England. The airfield is located approximately north of Braintree; about north-northeast of London Opened in 1943, it was used by both th ...

. The group consisted of the following operational squadrons: * 596th Bombardment Squadron (X2) * 597th Bombardment Squadron (9F) * 598th Bombardment Squadron (U2) * 599th Bombardment Squadron (6B) The group's identification marking was a yellow diagonal band across both sides of the vertical stabiliser. Early in August, officially on the 5th, the 397th transferred from Rivenhall to

RAF Hurn Royal Air Force Hurn or more simply RAF Hurn is a former Royal Air Force station located approximately north west of Christchurch, Dorset, England Opened in 1941, it was used by both the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces. D ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, to give the Marauders a better radius of action as the break-out of the Allied forces from the

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 ...

beachhead meant that potential targets were receding.

RAF use

The following units were here at some point: * No. 295 Squadron RAF (1944-46) * No. 570 Squadron RAF (1944-45) *

No. 1677 (Target Towing) Flight RAF The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For example, using the numero sign, t ...

Current use

Upon its release from military use, in June 1956, Marconi leased part of the airfield and within ten years had taken over most of the surviving buildings. Today, the northern half of the former airfield has been turned into a quarry, with the vast majority of the land in the northwest of the airfield being excavated. The perimeter track of the airfield has been reduced to a single track agricultural road. However, some of the loop

hardstand A hardstand (also hard standing and hardstanding in British English) is a paved or hard-surfaced area on which vehicles, such as cars or aircraft, may be parked. The term may also be used informally to refer to an area of compacted hard surface suc ...

s still remain in the southwestern quadrant of the field. All three runways either have been quarried, or substantially reduced in width, with agriculture fields taking over the grass areas of the former airfield. One T-2 hangar remains, along with a scattering of buildings. An automobile salvage yard has taken over some of the hardstands in the east end of the airfield, where once C-47s and gliders were stored. As of 2013, only one of the two T-2 hangars remain, with demolition claiming the other historical remaining buildings.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * 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. .
USAAS-USAAC-USAAF-USAF Aircraft Serial Numbers—1908 to present

External links

Rivenhall - A History of an Essex Airfield

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rivenhall Airfields of the IX Fighter Command in the United Kingdom Airfields of the 9th Bombardment Division in the United Kingdom Military units and formations established in 1943 Royal Air Force stations in Essex Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom