RAF Bottisham
Encyclopedia
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
airfield in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The field is located 5 miles E of Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, S of Bottisham village in Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
.
RAF Fighter Command use
Bottisham airfield opened in March 1940 and was first used by bomb-armed Tiger MothTiger moth
Tiger moths are moths of the family Arctiidae.Tiger moth may also refer to:*de Havilland Tiger Moth, an aircraft; an aerobatic and trainer tailwheel biplane*de Havilland DH.71 Tiger Moth, an earlier monoplane produced by de Havilland...
s transferred from 22 EFTS to be prepared for possible anti-invasion duties. Then beginning in October 1940, the airfield was used by 22 EFTS Tiger Moths as an RLG until mid-1941.
With the departure of the Tiger Moths, Bottisham was transferred to the 241 Sqn Army Co-operation Command with Lysander
Westland Lysander
The Westland Lysander was a British army co-operation and liaison aircraft produced by Westland Aircraft used immediately before and during the Second World War...
s, Tomahawks, Mustang I's, moved to Ayr.
From 15 June 1942, the airfield was used by RAF 652
No. 652 Squadron RAF
No. 652 Squadron RAF was a unit of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and afterwards in Germany.Numbers 651 to 663 Squadrons of the RAF were Air Observation Post units working closely with Army units in artillery spotting and liaison. A further three of these squadrons, 664, 665 and...
and 168 Squadrons.
USAAF use
With the arrival of large numbers of USAAF fighter groups in 1943, Bottisham was allocated to the Americans and assigned designation as Station 374 (IM). The airfield was enlarged and areas of steel mattingMarsden Matting
Marsden Matting is standardized, perforated steel matting material originally developed by the United States at the Waterways Experiment Station shortly before World War II, primarily for the rapid construction of temporary runways and landing strips...
were laid.
361st Fighter Group
The airfield was first used by the United States Army Air Force Eighth Air ForceEighth Air Force
The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana....
361st Fighter Group
361st Fighter Group
The 361st Fighter Group was a World War II United States Army Air Forces combat organization. It served primarily in the European Theatre of World War II....
, arriving from Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
AAF, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
on 30 November 1943. The group was under the command of the 65th Fighter Wing of the VIII Fighter Command
VIII Fighter Command
The VIII Fighter Command is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with the United States Air Forces in Europe, being stationed at RAF Honington, England. It was inactivated on 20 March 1946....
. Aircraft of the group were identified by yellow around their cowlings and tails.
The group consisted of the following squadrons:
- 374th Fighter Squadron (B7)
- 375th Fighter Squadron (E2)
- 376th Fighter Squadron376th Fighter SquadronThe 376th Fighter Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last was assigned to the 361st Fighter Group, VIII Fighter Command, stationed at Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts...
(E9)
The 361st FG entered combat with P-47 aircraft on 21 January 1944 and converted to P-51
P-51 Mustang
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and in several other conflicts...
's in May 1944. The unit served primarily as an escort organization, covering the penetration, attack, and withdrawal of B-17/B-24 bomber formations that the USAAF sent against targets on the Continent.
The group also engaged in counter-air patrol
Counter-air patrol
Counter-air patrol is a type of flying mission for fighter aircraft against other fighters, common in World War II and sometimes combined with fighter sweeps against targets of opportunity...
s, fighter sweeps, and strafing and dive-bombing missions. It attacked such targets as airdromes, marshalling yards, missile sites, industrial areas, ordnance depots, oil refineries, trains, and highways. It participated in the assault against the German Air Force and aircraft industry during Big Week
Big Week
Between February 20–25, 1944, as part of the European strategic bombing campaign, the United States Strategic Air Forces launched Operation Argument, a series of missions against the Third Reich that became known as Big Week. The planners intended to lure the Luftwaffe into a decisive battle by...
, 20–25 February 1944; the Normandy invasion
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
, June 1944 and the Saint-Lô
Saint-Lô
Saint-Lô is a commune in north-western France, the capital of the Manche department in Normandy.-History:Originally called Briovère , the town is built on and around ramparts. Originally it was a Gaul fortified settlement...
breakthrough in July.
The weight of the heavy P-47 fighters soon began to tell on the wet surface making take-offs tricky. A team of American engineers were called in during January 1944 and, in three days, they constructed a 1,470-yard-long runway with pierced-steel planking. This feat was considered a record for laying this type of prefabricated surfacing. The runway, which was aligned NE-SW, became the main at Bottisham the other also being constructed of P5P.
In September 1944 the 361st FG moved to RAF Little Walden
RAF Little Walden
RAF Station Little Walden is a former World War II airfield in Essex, England. The airfield is located approximately north-northeast of Saffron Walden; about north-northeast of London...
when it became available after the departure of the 409th Bombardment Group (Light) for France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Little Walden was a Class A airfield with concrete runways and much better facilities than were available at Bottisham.