MILDENHALL
Arguably the most prominent airfield in East Anglia, Mildenhall airfield made headlines from its earliest days. The first of the new bomber aerodromes in the region that the RAF was allowed during the tight fiscal policies of the early 1930s, Mildenhall was also the first of several built on the edge of the Breckland close to the Fens. The original site was located two miles northwest of the small town by which name it is known. Constructed during 1933-34 with Messrs W & C French as the main contractors, it was opened on October 16, 1934, and used as the starting base for the famous MacRobertson Air Race to Australia. Two Type A hangars were erected on the technical site adjoining the main camp at Beck Row.
No. 99 Squadron arrived the following month with Handley Page Heyfords and remained until the outbreak of war in September 1939. Mention of expansion scheme aerodromes in the few remaining years of peace was not permitted in the press but Mildenhall suffered no such restrictions, and in July 1935 it played host to the assembly of some 350 military aircraft that took part in the Silver Jubilee Review inspected by King George V.
To build up strength, in September 1935 No. 99's `B' Flight became No. 38 Squadron. A new `B' Flight was established in No. 99 only to have a repeat of an amoeba-like act when in April 1937 this was taken to form No. 149 Squadron. To make room for the new formation No. 38 Squadron was moved to Marham. A light bomber squadron, No. 211, was also raised at Mildenhall during the same summer and equipped with Hawker Audax biplanes before moving out to Grantham. In January 1937, No. 3 Group Headquarters was established at Mildenhall to administer and control the new bomber airfields being built or scheduled for the area that would eventually support the Wellington force.
The first of the new medium bombers for squadron service arrived at Mildenhall for No. 99 in October 1938. Five years earlier No. 99 had been the first squadron to receive the Heyford, then rendered obsolete by a monoplane with a top speed 100 mph faster than the ungainly twin-engine biplane it replaced. Three months later Mildenhall's second squadron, No. 149, also converted to Wellingtons.
During the late 1930s three Type C hangars were added adjacent to the technical site area, one east of the Type As and the others to their west side. With the threat of war, Newmarket Heath was secured as Mildenhall's satellite and No. 99 moved there at the beginning of September 1939. Only a few hours after Britain's declaration of war, an abortive attempt was made by No. 149's Wellingtons to locate and attack German naval vessels. Succeeding operational activity was mostly directed at enemy shipping and naval installations until Bomber Command ceased Wellington daylight activity. No. 149 was not joined at Mildenhall by another Bomber Command squadron until after converting to Stirlings in the winter of 1941. In December that year an RCAF unit, No. 419 Squadron, was formed to fly Wellingtons and joined No. 149 on night raids until the Stirlings were moved to Mildenhall's new satellite at Lakenheath in April 1942. No. 419's stay at Mildenhall only lasted four more months, the squadron moving north in August following the decision to establish an all-Canadian group in Yorkshire. Its place was taken by No. 75 Squadron's Wellingtons later the same month and in September more Wellingtons arrived when No. 115 Squadron was dislodged from Marham, that airfield having been transferred to No. 2 Group. However, both Nos. 75 and 115's tenure at Mildenhall was short and in November both were moved elsewhere for work to begin on the long-awaited hard runways.
The construction work took five months and resulted in a Class A specification with the usual three intersecting concrete runways, the main 11-29 at 2,000 yards and the others, 04-22 and 16-34, both 1,400 yards in length. A hard-surfaced perimeter track and aircraft dispersal points had been constructed piecemeal during the early war years and further additions brought the total of the latter to 36. The bomb stores were left within the southern run of the perimeter track. Two T2 hangars were put up for glider storage during 1943, and much of the work carried out that year was handled by McAlpine. By 1944, Mildenhall accommodation provision being put at 2,685 male and 344 female. On completion of the runways, No. 15 Squadron moved in from Bourn which was wanted for the expanding Pathfinder organisation, No. 8 Group. No. 15's Stirlings arrived in April 1943 and in August provided its `C' Flight for the nucleus of No. 622 Squadron. By now, the days of the Stirling for main force bombing were numbered and at the end of the year the two squadrons converted to Lancasters. Both remained at Mildenhall until after the end of hostilities when the contraction of Bomber Command saw No. 622 Squadron disbanded in August 1945 and No. 44 Squadron taking its place. These resident squadrons moved to Wyton a year later when Mildenhall was again subject to enlargement. During hostilities 260 bombers were lost in the course of operations from Mildenhall: 108 Wellingtons, 56 Stirlings and 96 Lancasters.
Runway extension than took place with a view to meeting the needs of very heavy bombers, the work being completed in 1948.
Early the next year, four reduced Lancaster squadrons took up station, Nos. 35, 115, 149 and 207. The Lancasters were largely replaced by Lincolns before all these units were disbanded early the following year. The West's deteriorating relations with the USSR brought a USAF requirement for airfields suitable for the Superfortresses and in the summer of 1950 the B-5ODs of the 93rd Bomb Wing arrived for temporary duty (TDY). Strategic Air Command TDY was to continue for eight years with a dozen different bomb wings involved. Strategic Air Command tenure gave way to air transport as Mildenhall became the main UK terminal for Military Airlift Command.
In 1962 the headquarters of the Third Air Force, the USAF NATO component in the UK, moved to Mildenhall from Ruislip, and in the following years a tactical airlift wing was established to act as a host unit for C-130 Hercules squadrons on temporary duty rotation from the USA. An airborne command post unit and a temporary duty headquarters for TDY Strategic Air Command tankers were also established leading to a permanently based KC-135 unit, eventually distinguished as the 100th Wing. Mildenhall also became the location of a US Navy facility. In line with the post-Second World War requirement for only one major runway, the main was eventually extended to a length of 3,090 yards. Substantial building works took place over the last four decades of the century as Mildenhall, the premier American military air base in Britain, expanded to cover more than 1,200 acres with some 3,000 personnel. The station continues to serve as a major staging post for US military air transport.
