| RAF Great Dunmow RAF Little Easton USAAF Station AAF-164  .png)   | |||||||||||
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| Bishops Stortford,Essex in England | |||||||||||
 Aerial photograph of Great Dunmow airfield 30 May 1944. | |||||||||||
| Site information | |||||||||||
| Type | Royal Air Force station | ||||||||||
| Code | GD[1] | ||||||||||
| Owner | Air Ministry | ||||||||||
| Operator | United States Army Air Forces 1943-1944 Royal Air Force 1944-1946 British Army 1946-1948 | ||||||||||
| Controlled by | Eighth Air Force Ninth Air Force RAF Fighter Command 1944-46 *No. 38 Group RAF | ||||||||||
| Location | |||||||||||
  RAF Great Dunmow Shown within Essex | |||||||||||
| Coordinates | 51°53′05″N000°18′32″E / 51.88472°N 0.30889°E /51.88472; 0.30889 | ||||||||||
| Site history | |||||||||||
| Built | 1942 (1942)/43 | ||||||||||
| Built by | U.S. Army | ||||||||||
| In use | July 1943 - April 1958 (1958) | ||||||||||
| Battles/wars | European theatre of World War II | ||||||||||
| Airfield information | |||||||||||
| Elevation | 99 metres (325 ft){[1]AMSL | ||||||||||
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Royal Air Force Great Dunmow or more simplyRAF Great Dunmow is a formerRoyal Air Forcestation in the parish ofLittle Easton,Essex, England. The airfield is located approximately 1.4 miles (2.3 km) mi west ofGreat Dunmow, north of theA120.
Opened in 1943, it was used by both theRoyal Air Force andUnited States Army Air Forces 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.
Great Dunmow was designed as aClass A airfield 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 toEaston Lodge and some 10,000 trees were destroyed to enable its construction,[2][3] 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 6,000-foot-long (1,800 m) main runway, aligned 15/33 and two secondary 4,200-foot-long (1,300 m) secondary runways, aligned 11/29 and 04/22. An encircling perimeter track was also constructed, containing 50 loop-type hardstands.
Great Dunmow airfield was opened on 1 July 1943 and was used by theUnited States Army Air ForcesEighth andNinth Air Forces. It was known asUSAAF 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:[4]
Regular Army Station Units included:
The first unit to use Great Dunmow was the American386th Bombardment Group (Medium) which arrived fromRAF Boxted on 24 September 1943. The group was assigned to theVIII Air Support Command3d Bombardment Wing and flew MartinB-26B/C Marauders. Operational squadrons of the 322d were:
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 toNinth Air Force98th Bombardment Wing on 16 October 1943.
On 2 October 1944, the 386th Bomb Group moved to Beaumont-sur-Oise (A-60) Airfield, inNormandy France.
The following units were here at some point:
The airfield was abandoned in 1948.
%2c_9th_Air_Force_USAAF_Memorial%2c_Easton_Lodge-Great_Dunmow%2c_Essex_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1368695.jpg)
With the end of military control in 1950[3] 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 newA12 road.
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.[8] The current owners,Landsec hope to redevelop the site and surrounding area, including the construction of around 9,000 homes.[9]
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.
This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
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