RAF Thurleigh
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RAF Thurleigh was a Royal Air Force station located five miles north of Bedford, England. Thurleigh was transferred to the U.S. Eighth Air Force on December 9, 1942, designated Station 121, and used for heavy bomber operations against Nazi Germany.
After the war, the base was returned to the RAF and renamed the Royal Aeronautical Establishment, Bedford, where it was used for experimental aircraft operations and testing.
The airfield was closed in 1997 with the RAE having become the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) and moved its experimental operations to Boscombe Down and Farnborough.
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[edit] Origins
Thurleigh (pronounced "THIR-lye") was built for RAF Bomber Command in 1941 by W & C French Ltd. one mile north of the village of Thurleigh on farmland between the farms of Buryfields, Bletsoe Park, Manor, and Whitwickgreen. It was eventually modified to Air Ministry Class A airfield specifications, with three converging runways, extended in 1942 to lengths of 6,000 feet (runway 06-24) and 4,200 feet (runways 36-18 and 12-30). Thurleigh was unique among bomber bases in having four T2 type metal hangars where most bases had only two.
Its first use was by No.160 Squadron RAF, forming on 15 January 1942, equipped with U.S. manufactured B-24 "Liberator" bombers, known by the RAF as the "Liberator II". 160 Squadron trained and flew operational missions from Thurleigh until 5 July, then deployed to the China-Burma-India Theater at Ratmalana Air Base, Ceylon.
[edit] USAAF use
Thurleigh was one of 28 fields listed for use by the U.S. Eighth Air Force on June 4, 1942, tentatively designated station B-4, and was allocated on August 10, 1942. The RAF had found that the initial construction of Thurleigh was inadequate for the combat weight of B-24 bombers. After the departure of the RAF, Thurleigh's runways were lengthened, increased in thickness, and additional hardstands constructed to Class A standards so it could accommodate a USAAF heavy bomber group.
From 16 September 1943 though 25 June 1945, Thurleigh served as headquarters for the 40th Combat Bombardment Wing of the 1st Bomb Division.
[edit] 306th Bombardment Group (Heavy)
With the essential construction completed, the 306th Bombardment Group (Heavy) deployed to Thurleigh on 7 September 1942 from Wendover AAF Utah. The 306th was assigned to the 40th Combat Wing also at Thurleigh. The group tail code was a "Triangle H". Its operational squadrons were:
- 367th Bomb Squadron (GY)
- 368th Bomb Squadron (BO)
- 369th Bomb Squadron (WW)
- 423d Bomb Squadron (RD)
The group flew the B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft, and remained at Thurleigh until 1 December 1945. That was the longest tenure of any U.S. air group at a UK base.
At Thurleigh, the group operated primarily against strategic targets initially in occupied France and the Low Countries, then later in Germany. The group struck locomotive works at Lille, railroad yards at Rouen, submarine pens at Bordeaux, shipbuilding yards at Vegesack, ball-bearing works at Schweinfurt, oil plants at Merseburg, marshalling yards at Stuttgart, a foundry at Hannover, a chemical plant at Ludwigshafen, aircraft factories at Leipzig, and numerous other targets on the Continent.
The 306th led the Eighth Air Force on its first mission to bomb a target in Germany on January 27, 1943, attacking U-boat yards at Wilhelmshaven, and suffered severe losses in attacks on Bremen on April 16, 1943, and Schweinfurt, August 17, 1943.
On January 11, 1944, without fighter escort and in the face of strong opposition, the 306th was part of a 1st Bomb Division mission against aircraft factories in central Germany in which all groups were awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation. The 306th Bomb Group received a second DUC during Big Week, the intensive campaign against the German aircraft industry, when it effectively bombed an aircraft assembly plant at Bernberg on February 22, 1944, after poor weather forced other groups to abandon the mission.
The 306th Bomb Group flew its 342nd and final mission on April 19, 1945, the most of any Eighth Air Force B-17 unit except the 303rd Bomb Group. It compiled 9,614 sorties; dropped 22,575 tons of bombs; and had 171 B-17's fail to return from missions.
The group remained at Thurleigh until December 1945, when it was transferred to Giebelstadt, Germany as part of United States Air Forces in Europe. In Germany the group engaged in special photographic mapping duty in western Europe and North Africa. The 91st Bomb Group was inactivated in Germany on 25 December 1946.
[edit] Medal Of Honor
Sgt Maynard H. Smith received the Medal of Honor for his performance on May 1, 1943, when the aircraft on which he was a gunner was hit and caught fires in the radio compartment and waist sections. The sergeant threw exploding ammunition overboard, manned a gun until the German fighters were driven off, administered first aid to a wounded gunner, and extinguished the fire.
[edit] Twelve O'Clock High
Twelve O'Clock High was a 1949 film and book about the United States Army Air Forces crews who flew the initial daylight bombing missions against Germany during World War II. Twelve O'Clock High is frequently cited by surviving bomber crew members as the most accurate depiction by Hollywood of their life during the war.
The protagonist of the story, Brigadier General Frank Savage, group commander of the fictional 918th Bomb Group, was modeled on Colonel Frank A. Armstrong, a group Commander of the 306th BG. The fictional counterparts of Thurleigh and the 306th Bomb Group were "Archbury" and the "918th Bomb Group".
This film is used by the U.S. Navy as an example of leadership styles in its Leadership and Management Training School. The Air Force's College for Enlisted Professional Military Education also uses this film as an education aid in its Non-commissioned Officer Academies.
[edit] RAE Bedford
Starting in 1946, construction work began on the airfield to turn the site into what became know as the Royal Aeronautical Establishment, Bedford. The runway was extended in the post-war period to accommodate the Bristol Brabazon aircraft (which required a very long runway) that ultimately never went into production. One local road was dropped into a cutting so that it would not sit above the level of the runway.
The airfield was decommissioned in February 1994 after a lengthy study determined that flight operations should be centralised at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire. Due to the cost and impracticality of relocating the Advanced Flight Simulator system the site retains some of its development work (under the banner of QinetiQ).
The airfield is currently used for the mass storage of new cars, although the runway itself remains intact for possible future use. Part of the airfield is now home to Palmer Sport.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Freeman, Roger A. (1970). The Mighty Eighth. ISBN 0-87938-638-X.
- Freeman, Roger A. (1990). The Mighty Eighth War Diary. ISBN 0-87938-495-6.
- Freeman, Roger A. (1991). The Mighty Eighth War Manual, 267, 276, 313. ISBN 0-87938-513-8.
- Freeman, Roger A., Airfields Of The Eighth, Then And Now, 1978
- Bishop, Cliff T. (1986). Fortresses of the Big Triangle First, 174. ISBN 1869987004.
- Maurer Maurer, Air Force Combat Units Of World War II, Office of Air Force History, 1983
- USAAS-USAAC-USAAF-USAF Aircraft Serial Numbers--1908 to present
