RAF Kimbolton

RAF Kimbolton was laid out in 1940–41 in the Cambridgeshire countryside west of Huntingdon, built for RAF Bomber Command; No. 460 Squadron RAAF briefly worked up its Wellingtons here over the winter of 1941–42. Its real war, though, was American. As USAAF Station 117 it received the 91st Bombardment Group’s B-17 Flying Fortresses in 1942, but the runways were judged unfit for heavy bombers and the group soon moved on. After the strips were rebuilt the 379th Bombardment Group arrived in May 1943 and stayed to the end, flying around 330 missions and dropping a greater tonnage of bombs than any other Eighth Air Force heavy group — a record that earned it two Distinguished Unit Citations. The airfield closed in 1946; much of the site has since returned to farmland or become a motor-racing circuit.