RAF Bourn

RAF Bourn lay in the flat farmland of Cambridgeshire, roughly seven miles west of Cambridge and close to the village of Bourn. It opened in April 1941 as a bomber station and spent the war within RAF Bomber Command, passing through the hands of several different groups before becoming most strongly associated with No. 8 (Pathfinder Force) Group. Initially it served as a satellite to nearby Oakington, and during the early war years its hard runways were laid to take the heavier four-engined types that would soon operate from it.

A succession of squadrons flew from Bourn. No. 101 and No. 7 Squadrons operated Vickers Wellingtons in the station’s early life, while No. 97 Squadron brought Avro Lancasters and flew the bulk of the heavy-bomber effort from the airfield. Later in the war the station turned increasingly to the Pathfinder and target-marking role: No. 105 Squadron flew Oboe-equipped de Havilland Mosquitoes, and No. 162 Squadron formed there in December 1944 with Canadian-built Mosquitoes, taking part in the harassing raids of the Light Night Strike Force, including attacks on Berlin. The cost was heavy, with several hundred aircrew killed flying from the field.

Operational flying ceased in the spring of 1945. After a spell under Maintenance Command the airfield was eventually released, and from the 1960s most of the land returned to agriculture. Part of the site has continued in light-aviation and general-aviation use into recent decades, with the old runways also serving other community purposes.