RAF Gosfield

RAF Gosfield lay in the north Essex countryside a few miles north of Braintree, near the village of Gosfield. Although a flying ground had existed in the area earlier, the airfield as a wartime station was built and opened in 1943. For most of its active life it was an American base rather than a Royal Air Force one, allocated to the United States Army Air Forces as Station 154 and used principally by the Ninth Air Force.

The first major occupants were the fighter pilots of the 365th Fighter Group, who flew P-47 Thunderbolts from the station over the winter of 1943-44. They were followed in 1944 by medium-bomber and light-bomber units, including a short stay by the 397th Bombardment Group with B-26 Marauders and a longer residency by the 410th Bombardment Group flying A-20 Havocs, whose crews supported the Allied campaign in north-west Europe.

Royal Air Force flying at Gosfield was comparatively brief. In early 1945 transport and glider-related activity passed through the station, with No. 299 Squadron’s Short Stirlings among the units present around the time of the airborne operations across the Rhine.

The airfield closed in 1946 and was later released from service use. Much of the land returned to agriculture, with sections of the perimeter track surviving and some of the wartime buildings put to industrial and commercial use.