Royal Air Force Little Staughton or more simply RAF Little Staughton is a former

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

station located south of

Great Staughton Great Staughton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Great Staughton lies approximately south-west of Huntingdon. Great Staughton is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

and west of

St Neots St NeotsPronunciation of the town name: Most commonly, but variations that ''saint'' is said as in most English non-georeferencing speech, the ''t'' is by a small minority of the British pronounced and higher traces of in the final syllable ...

, Cambridgeshire,

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Station history

RAF Little Staughton - 10 Feb 1944 Airphoto

The airfield was first handed over to the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

(USAAF) in 1942. *1st Bomb Wing USAAF **2nd Advanced Air Depot USAAF RAF Little Staughton was returned to the Royal Air Force (RAF) on 1 March 1944 * No. 47 Group Communications Flight * No. 48 Group Communications Flight * No. 2731 Squadron RAF Regiment * No. 2746 Squadron RAF Regiment * Path Finder Force 8 Group - No. 109 Squadron RAF from 2 April 1944 with the

de Havilland Mosquito The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British twin-engined, multirole combat aircraft, introduced during the World War II, Second World War. Unusual in that its airframe was constructed mostly of wood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden Wonder", or " ...

XVI before being disbanded on 30 April 1945. * Path Finder Force 8 Group - No. 582 Squadron RAF formed at the airfield on 1 April 1944 with the

Avro Lancaster The Avro Lancaster, commonly known as the Lancaster Bomber, is a British World War II, Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to ...

Mks I and III before being disbanded on 10 September 1945. The airfield was placed into care and maintenance in 1945, and during the 1950s the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

extended the runway for use by jet aircraft in emergency circumstances. However, in the late 1950s they moved out. At some point the runway was shortened on the south end to the southmost taxiway with the land converted into a field. See also *

List of former Royal Air Force stations This list of former RAF stations includes most of the stations, airfields and administrative headquarters previously used by the Royal Air Force. They are listed under any former county or country name which was appropriate for the duration of ...

Current use

The site is mainly for farming with the hangars used for various uses. In January 2020, Little Staughton Airfield and Industrial Park applied for planning permission to develop the site to re-open the airfield. By December 2021 IAE had constructed a new hangar and re-opened half of the runway. There is also a solar farm and an industrial estate reusing the old airfield buildings. Because of the lack of redevelopment most of the Military Buildings remain including the control tower, the Airfield battle HQ, a T2 hangar and a variety of smaller buildings, some of which are in an area called 'little america' as it was the site of the American accommodation blocks, which is to the south of the airfield

References

Citations

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Little Staughton Royal Air Force stations in Bedfordshire Royal Air Force stations in Huntingdonshire Royal Air Force stations in Cambridgeshire Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom Great Staughton