RAF Alconbury

RAF Alconbury opened near Huntingdon in May 1938 as a satellite for the bomber stations at Upwood and Wyton, and in its early years it was used by RAF squadrons including Nos. 15, 40 and 156. Its more significant chapter began in 1942, when the airfield was rebuilt with extended runways to take American heavy bombers, eventually covering some 500 acres.

The 93rd Bombardment Group, flying B-24 Liberators, was the first United States unit to arrive, from September 1942, and on 13 November that year King George VI came to Alconbury to see the group — the first Eighth Air Force base he visited. In January 1943 the B-17 Flying Fortresses of the 92nd Bombardment Group, nicknamed “Fame’s Favorite Few” and marked with a Triangle B on the tail, transferred in from Bovingdon and resumed operations that May. Later in 1943 the station was handed to the 482nd Bombardment Group, a specialist pathfinder unit whose radar-equipped aircraft led other groups to their targets.

Alconbury did not close with the war. From 1951 it served as a United States Air Force base through the Cold War, flying reconnaissance, aggressor-training and ground-attack aircraft until flying ceased in 1995; part of the old airfield was sold for the Alconbury Weald development in 2009.