The P-47 Thunderbolts of the 361st Fighter Group damaged the surfaces of the airfield so much in the first months of flying from Bottisham that American engineers were called in to lay a new runway. In January 1944 they constructed a 1,470-yard-long runway with pierced-steel planking in just three days. Accommodation on base was always tight and many of the temporary buildings put up to house the crews were in and around the village of Bottisham. As in many other cases, when the Americans came they seemed to take over the village as well as the airfield.