Snailwell

Airfield
Aerial photograph of Snailwell airfield looking south, the control tower and airfield code are upper centre, 14 February 1945. Photograph taken by No. 309 Ferry Training Unit, sortie number RAF/106G/LA/129. English Heritage (RAF Photography). eh-116.jpg RAF_106G_LA_129_FP_1203 Aerial photograph of Snailwell airfield looking south, the control tower and airfield code are upper centre, 14 February 1945. Photograph taken by No. 309 Ferry Training Unit, sortie number RAF/106G/LA/129. English Heritage (RAF Photography). Historic England

IWM, English Heritage Collection

Object Number - RAF_106G_LA_129_FP_1203 - Aerial photograph of Snailwell airfield looking south, the control tower and airfield code are upper centre, 14 February 1945. Photograph taken by...

Planned as a grass airfield satellite to RAF Duxford, Snailwell opened in March 1941 under the control of Army Co-operation Command. It had three grass runways, 12 hardstandings, two single pens, and one Bellman plus ten blister hangars. First American use was by the 347th Squadron of the 350th Fighter Group, equipped with P-39s, detached to Snailwell from Duxford during October-December 1942. Although occupied by a variety of RAF units, from Duxford and elsewhere, during January 1943 to May 1944, the station was allocated to the Ninth Air Force in October 1943, and eventually taken over by Air Service Command in May 1944. The 41st Base Complement Squadron, and the 33rd and 41st Mobile Repair and Reclamation (MR&R) Squadrons arrived in May 1944, tasked with modifying and preparing A-20s for operations. The 51st Service Squadron replaced the 41st MR&R Squadron after only two weeks, and all the American units departed in July 1943. Snailwell closed in 1946 and the airfield was bisected in 1975 by the new A45 (later A14) Newmarket bypass. Mostly returned to agriculture, part of the wartime site is now a horse racing school.

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Sources

Barry Anderson, Army Air Forces Stations (Alabama, 1985) / Roger Freeman, Airfields of the Eighth Then And Now (London, 1978)

Roger Freeman, Mighty Eighth War Manual (2nd edn, London, 2001)

Michael Bowyer, Action Stations 1: Wartime Military Airfields of East Anglia 1939-1945 (Cambridge, 1979)

http://www.abct.org.uk/airfields/snailwell

Snailwell: Gallery (8 items)