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| RAF Kings Cliffe USAAF Station 367  .png) | |||||||||||
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| Kings Cliffe,Northamptonshire in England | |||||||||||
 Kings Cliffe Airfield - 16 January 1947 | |||||||||||
| Site information | |||||||||||
| Type | Royal Air Force station | ||||||||||
| Code | KO[1] | ||||||||||
| Owner | Air Ministry | ||||||||||
| Operator | Royal Air Force United States Army Air Forces 1943- | ||||||||||
| Controlled by | RAF Fighter Command 1941-43 & 1943 *No. 12 Group RAF Eighth Air Force | ||||||||||
| Location | |||||||||||
.svg)  RAF Kings Cliffe Shown within Northamptonshire Show map of Northamptonshire RAF Kings Cliffe RAF Kings Cliffe (the United Kingdom) Show map of the United Kingdom | |||||||||||
| Coordinates | 52°34′13″N000°28′57″W / 52.57028°N 0.48250°W /52.57028; -0.48250 | ||||||||||
| Site history | |||||||||||
| Built | 1940 (1940)/41 | ||||||||||
| Built by | George Wimpey & Co Ltd | ||||||||||
| In use | October 1941 - January 1959 (1959) | ||||||||||
| Battles/wars | European theatre of World War II | ||||||||||
| Airfield information | |||||||||||
| Elevation | 76 metres (249 ft)[1]AMSL | ||||||||||
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Royal Air Force King's Cliffe or more simplyRAF King's Cliffe is a formerRoyal Air Forcestation located nearKings Cliffe,Northamptonshire, 12 miles (19 km) west ofPeterborough inCambridgeshire. The airfield was built with hard-surfaced runways and a perimeter track, these were extended early in 1943.
Construction work on the airfield commenced in 1940. The base opened in October 1941 as a satellite toRAF Wittering.The first unit to operate from the newly opened airfield wasNo. 266 Squadron RAF, who arrived in October 1941 followed in due course byNo. 616 Squadron RAF in early 1942 andNo. 485 (New Zealand) Squadron in July 1942. The RAF presence ceased in August 1943. The airfield was extended during 1943.
The following units were here at some point:[2]
Kings Cliffe was assigned USAAF designation Station 367. It was the most northerly and furthest west of all Eighth Air Force fighter stations. It was in the 1st Air Division heavy bomber base area and more than fifty miles west of any other fighter airfield. In spite of the reduced range of escort flights operating from such a westerly airfield, there does not appear to have been any attempt to move the Group to another site nearer the coast.
Kings Cliffe received its first American unit in December 1942 when the347th Fighter Squadron of the350th Fighter Group arrived with theirBell P-39 Airacobra aircraft. The squadron only stayed for a short time before they were reallocated to the12th Air Force and departed to North Africa to take part in the fighting that followed the launch ofOperation Torch.
In January 1943 the56th Fighter Group of theUnited States Army Air Forces'sEighth Air Force arrived at Kings Cliffe fromBridgeport AAFConnecticut. The group was under the command of67th Fighter Wing of theVIII Fighter Command. As the airfield was considered too small to accommodate a full USAAF Fighter Group the61st Fighter Squadron was based at nearbyRAF Wittering
The group consisted of the following squadrons:
The 56th Fighter group spent its time at Kings Cliffe learning RAF fighter control procedures and training for combat with newRepublic P-47 Thunderbolts and did not fly any operational missions. In April 1943, the group was transferred to the65th Fighter Wing and moved toRAF Horsham St Faith.
On 26 August 1943, the20th Fighter Group arrived fromMarch AAFCalifornia. The group was under the command of the67th Fighter Wing of theVIII Fighter Command.
The group consisted of the following squadrons:
As had been the case with the56th Fighter Group one squadron, the 55th. was billeted atRAF Wittering because of the shortage of accommodation at Kings Cliffe, later moving to the base when additional facilities had been built. The 20th Fighter Group entered combat withLockheed P-38 Lightnings late in November 1943, initially supplying one squadron to fly alongside the more experienced55th Fighter Group operating fromRAF Nuthampstead. From December 1943 the group became fully operational and was engaged primarily in escorting heavy and medium bombers to targets on the Continent. The group frequently strafed targets of opportunity while on escort missions.
The group retained escort as its primary function until the end of the war, but in March 1944 began to fly fighter-bomber missions, which became almost as frequent as escort operations. The squadrons strafed and dive-bombed airfields, trains, vehicles, barges, tugs, bridges, flak positions, gun emplacements, barracks, radio stations, and other targets in France, Belgium, and Germany.
The 20th became known as the"Loco Group" because of its numerous and successful attacks on locomotives. TheDistinguished Unit Citation was awarded to the group for its performance on 8 April 1944 when they struck airfields in centralGermany and then, after breaking up an attack by enemy interceptors, proceeded to hit railroad equipment, oil facilities, power plants, factories, and other targets.
Aircraft from the 20th flew patrols over theEnglish Channel during theinvasion of Normandy in June 1944, and supported the invasion force later that month by escorting bombers that struck interdictory targets inFrance,Belgium, and theNetherlands, and by attacking troops, transportation targets, and airfields.
The 20th Fighter Group converted toNorth American P-51 Mustangs in July 1944 and continued to fly escort and fighter-bomber missions as the enemy retreated across France. The group's Mustangs could be identified by their black nose with a narrow white band behind it, these markings were extended in October 1944 to include a number of black and white stripes on the cowling.
The group participated in theairborne attack on the Netherlands in September 1944, and escorted bombers to Germany and struck rail lines, trains, vehicles, barges, power stations, and other targets in and beyond theSiegfried Line during the period October–December 1944.
The unit took part in theBattle of the Bulge by escorting bombers to the battle area. Flew patrols to support theairborne attack across the Rhine in March 1945, and carried out escort and fighter-bomber missions as enemy resistance collapsed in April.
The 20th Fighter Group returned to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey and was inactivated on 18 December 1945.
Glenn Miller played his last airfield concert in theCallendar Hamilton hangar at Kings Cliffe. This concert took place in the afternoon on Tuesday 3 October 1944. There is a memorial on the hangar base close to the actual location where Miller would have stood during the performance.
After the war, the field was used by the RAF for armament storage until being sold and returned to agriculture in January 1959.
Kings Cliffe airfield has largely returned to agriculture, however the outlines and concreted areas of the runways are readily identifiable in aerial images. The perimeter track has been reduced to a single-track agricultural road with the hardstandings removed for hardcore. The technical site and hangars have been razed but the abandoned control tower still exists. Dispersed buildings inBedford Purlieus include the combined gymnasium/cinema/chapel which still survives on the former airfield's Communal Site.
A memorial to the airfield and the squadrons operating there was unveiled bythe Duke of Gloucester in 1983.
In July 2024 a small museum was established on the site of the old airfield. The King's Cliffe Airfield Museum aims to preserve the history of the airfield and tell the stories of the personnel and units that were based there.
This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
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