RAF Glatton [conington]

RAF Glatton, often known by the name of the neighbouring village of Conington, lay in what was then Huntingdonshire (now Cambridgeshire), roughly ten miles north of Huntingdon. The airfield was built during 1943 and opened late that year. For most of its wartime life it was an American base rather than a British one, allocated to the United States Army Air Forces as Station 130.

In January 1944 the 457th Bombardment Group (Heavy) of the Eighth Air Force took up residence, flying Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses through four constituent units, the 748th, 749th, 750th and 751st Bombardment Squadrons. The group flew its first combat mission in February 1944, timed with the intensive “Big Week” offensive, and went on to mount well over two hundred missions before its final sortie in April 1945. From Glatton its crews supported the Normandy landings, the airborne operations around Arnhem, the fighting in the Ardennes and the crossing of the Rhine.

After the Americans departed the station passed to RAF Bomber Command, where No. 3 Group briefly operated Lancasters and Liberators before closure around 1948. The site survived as an active airfield and today functions as a general-aviation field, Peterborough Business Airport (Conington). A memorial commemorates the 457th Bomb Group, and All Saints’ Church at Conington holds a tribute to the airmen who served there.