Bovingdon, in Hertfordshire (often confused with Bovington, Dorset), was built in 1941-42 as a bomber station but was never developed into a fully-fledged heavy bomber airfield as it did not have the required 2,000 yard runway.



The airfield was used by the USAAF as a operational training base between summer 1942 and the end of the war.



The 92nd Bomb Group was not a combat group while stationed here; instead it formed a B-17 combat crew replacement unit. Some of its personnel stayed when the 92nd moved to Alconbury in September 1943 and formed the basis of the 11th Combat Crew Replacement Center at Bovingdon.



Most combat bomber crews arriving in Britain were trained for operations in the European theater from this base.



It also hosted the Eighth Air Force HQ Squadron and the Air Technical Section, because of its proximity to Eighth Air Force HQ at Bushy Park and VIII Bomber and Fighter Command HQs at High Wycombe and Bushey Hall respectively; meanwhile, Hangar 1 housed General Eisenhower's personal B-17 Flying Fortress.



When the 11th CCRC disbanded in September 1944, Bovingdon was taken over by the European Air Transport Service and many Americans returned to the States from the airfield.



Post-war, the airfield was used by the US Air Force as a transport base, as well as by civil airlines, before the RAF took full control in the 1960s, Bovingdon then becoming the home of communication squadrons serving Fighter and Coastal Command HQs at Stanmore and Northwood.



Three movies were filmed at Bovingdon in the 1960s – 'The War Lover', '633 Squadron' and 'Mosquito Squadron' – and, in the 1970s, 'Hanover Street'.



The airfield closed when the RAF left in 1968 and it is now the site of a prison.