Built in 1943 as an Eighth Air Force bomber base, Matching was transferred to the Ninth Air Force and first occupied in January 1944 by the 391st Bomb Group, equipped with B-26s. The station had three concrete runways, 50 loop hardstandings and two dispersed T2 hangars. After the 391st Bomb Group moved to France in September 1944, the station was handed over to the RAF, although C-47s of IX Troop Carrier Command were detached to Matching later in 1944 for exercises with British paratroops. Closed in 1945, the station quickly reverted to agriculture and the concrete areas were mostly removed for road hardcore. In the late 1980s, one T2 hangar was dismantled and transferred to North Weald Airfield. The Control Tower remains in use as a radar equipment test facility owned by Raytheon (previously Cossor electronics).