Honington was in use by Eighth Air Force units for a longer period than any other air base in England. The air base, built in the mid 1930s as part of the RAF's expansion programme had seen plenty of action as an RAF base before it was handed over to USAAF in the summer of 1942. The Americans used the base, and the adjacent technical site Troston, as a major repair depot, which increasingly specialised in the repair of B-17s. Damaged aircraft would be instructed to crash land at Honington, if they could, so that repair work on the aircraft could begin straight away. The base also housed a combat group, the 364th Fighter Group from February 1944. The Group did not leave until many months after the war in Europe had ended and Honington, as the Fighter Command HQ for USAAF, was the last Eighth Air Force base to be handed back to the RAF in February 1946.