RAF Stansted Mountfitchet 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 during the Second World War located near the village of

Stansted Mountfitchet Stansted Mountfitchet is an England, English village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Uttlesford district, Essex, near the Hertfordshire border, north of London. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 5,533, increasi ...

in the District of Uttlesford in Essex, north-east of central London. The airfield is now

London Stansted Airport Stansted Airport is an international airport serving London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Uttlesford, Essex, northeast of Central London. As London's Airports of London, third-bu ...

History

Second World War

Construction work began in August 1942 by US Engineers of the 817th Battalion, who were later replaced by the 825th and 850th Battalions, with work being completed in August 1943. Although the official name was Stansted Mountfitchet, the base was, from early in its construction, usually referred to simply as the more manageable Stansted.

344th Bombardment Group

Stansted was officially opened on 7 August 1943 when the 30th Air Depot Group took up residence. The airfield was officially transferred to the

Ninth Air Force The Ninth Air Force (Air Forces Central) is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. It is the Air Force Service Component of United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), a joint D ...

on 16 October. On 8 February 1944, the first operational squadron arrived at Stansted, the 344th Bombardment Group, transferring in from Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia, USA. The 344th operated the Marauder bomber, and flew their first operational sortie on 6 March 1944. On 6 June 1944, the 344th led the Ninth Air Force on the first bombing mission of

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

. The 344th left Stansted on 30 September 1944, when they moved to an Advanced Landing Ground at Cormeilles-en-Vexin, France.

2nd Tactical Air Depot

Stansted airfield also served as a maintenance and supply depot, working on the Marauder bomber. Following Allied advances in the Normandy campaign, these activities were transferred to France, but Stansted remained in use as a supply storage area for the support of forward-deployed aircraft.

Post-war use

Following the departure of the

USAAF 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 ...

on 12 August 1945, Stansted was taken over by the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...

, who used it both as a storage site (until 1949), and as a

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

(until 1947). The airfield passed to the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 1949. In 1954, work was undertaken to prepare the airfield for a return to military usage, including the extension of runways, however these plans fell through, and in 1966 control passed to the newly-formed

British Airports Authority Heathrow Airport Holdings is a company that operates and manages Heathrow Airport based in London, England. It was formed by the privatisation of the British Airports Authority as BAA plc as part of Margaret Thatcher's privatisation of governme ...

References

Bibliography

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stansted Mountfitchet Stansted Mountfichet Airfields of the 9th Bombardment Division in the United Kingdom Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom RAF Stansted Mountfitchet