Built during 1940-41 as a fighter base satellite for RAF Middle Wallop, Ibsley opened in 1941 when incomplete. It eventually had three concrete runways, 18 hardstandings plus 18 double pen dispersals, and two Bellman plus 12 blister hangars, after enlargement during 1943. Allocated to the Eighth Air Force as a fighter station, its first US occupants were the 71st and 94th Squadrons of the 1st Fighter Group, equipped with P-38s, from August to October 1942. Re-allocated to the Ninth Air Force as a tactical fighter base, the 48th Fighter Group, equipped with P-47s, arrived in March 1944, and was joined temporarily by the 371st Fighter Group, also equipped with P-47s, during April-May 1944. The 14th Liaison Squadron, equipped with L-5s and UC-78s, joined the 48th Fighter Group briefly during June-July 1944, until both moved to France. They were replaced at Ibsley until the end of July 1944 by the 367th Fighter Group, equipped with P-38s, which also moved to France. Handed back to the RAF in August 1944, flying ceased in 1946 and the station closed in 1952, after which the airfield quickly returned to agriculture. The runways were removed in the 1960s, and the site was purchased by Amey Roadstone in the early 1970s for aggregate exploitation. By the early 1990s, much of the site had become a series of gravel pits and large landscaped lakes, although several wartime buildings and structures survive to date, including the Control Tower and Battle Headquarters.