RAF Andrewsfield

RAF Andrewsfield, also recorded as Andrews Field or Great Saling, lay near Great Dunmow in Essex. Built by United States engineers and brought into use in 1943 as USAAF Station 485, it held the distinction of being the first British airfield constructed by American forces and one of only a handful named in honour of an individual — Lieutenant-General Frank M. Andrews, an early commander of the US air forces in Europe, who died in an aircraft crash in Iceland in May 1943.

For its first phase the station served the United States Army Air Forces. The 96th Bombardment Group briefly operated B-17 Flying Fortresses there in mid-1943 before the 322nd Bombardment Group arrived with B-26 Marauder medium bombers, flying missions over occupied Europe in the build-up to and aftermath of the Normandy landings of June 1944.

Control passed to RAF Fighter Command’s No. 11 Group later in 1944, after which a succession of fighter squadrons — including several Polish units — flew P-51 Mustangs from the field. No. 616 Squadron operated the jet-powered Gloster Meteor here in early 1945, and air-sea rescue Walruses were based briefly before the station closed in 1945. The site reverted largely to farmland but a flying club revived part of it in 1972, and Andrewsfield remains an active general-aviation airfield today.