Harrington was built by the 826th and 852nd Engineer Battalions of the US Army in 1943. Completed in 1944, it was the furthest Eighth Air Force combat airfield from the east coast.The Eighth's Special Operations Group was based at the airfield, first known as the 801st Bomb Group and then, from August 1944, the 492nd Bomb Group. The crews in their black-painted Liberators supported the resistance in occupied Europe. The USAAF left in July 1945, and the airfield was unused until the 1960s, when it became one of the RAF's Thor missile sites, part of Britain's nuclear deterrent. The site is now home to a museum which explores the history of the airfield.