Nuthampstead airfield is located in Hertfordshire, 5.5 miles south east of Royston and a short distance from the village that gave it its name. As an American airfield, it was given the designation Station 131, to hide its true location from the enemy, and was controlled mainly by the 8th Air Force’s 398th Bomb Group (BG).

The airfield itself was opened in 1943 with a US investment of over $2 million*¹ and was the American’s nearest airfield to London. Built late in the war by construction workers of the 814th and 830th Engineer Battalions of the US Army, it used rubble brought in from the bomb sites of both London and Coventry. Nuthampstead was a Class A airfield with three intersecting runways of standard lengths; one of 2,000 yards, and two of 1,400 yards, and each the standard 50 yards wide. The Pinnacle of the ‘A’ pointed easterly, with the main runway running north-east to south-west, with the second and third runways running roughly north to south and east to west; all three were of a tarmac-covered concrete construction. The surrounding perimeter track contained some 50 spectacle hardstands and linked the airfield to two T2 hangars.

The technical area, located on the western side of the airfield, housed a wide range of technical huts and buildings including the watch office of a 12779/41 brick and reinforced concrete design; AM bombing teacher; photographic block; fuel compound and a Dinghy block along with a collection of typical wartime airfield buildings. Whilst most of these were Nissen huts, there were also both Romney and Seco huts on site as well.

As with all Class A airfields the accommodation sites were dispersed away from the main airfield to protect those on the base from air attack. These covered twelve separate areas capable of holding just short of 3,000 personnel. These sites were also standard designs and included: two communal areas, two WAAF sites, an Officers site, sick quarters, and both an airmen’s and sergeants’ quarters. All accommodation blocks were Nissen design with both ‘Jane’ and Romney hutting also being evident. As was common with all temporary built dwellings they were cold and not very homely.

Perhaps the one saving grace for those stationed here was that the technical site was connected to the accommodation site by a road that passed the Woodman Inn, a 17th Century pub that became very popular with those stationed here. The pub currently contains a number of photos and memorabilia relating to the airfield and a separate excellent museum can be found at the back of the pub’s car park. In addition to the draw of the local pub, personnel stationed here were provided with a baseball field, basketball courts, volleyball courts, a football field and even a rodeo, all of which led to Nuthampstead having the 8th Air Force’s champion basketball team ‘Frank’s Yanks’.*²

The baseball team, captained  by Lt. Irwin Cohen, achieved a total of 34 consecutive wins against teams from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Air Divisions as well as teams from various Fighter Groups of the 8th. They won the Eighth Air Force Championship on March 4th 1945.

By the time construction was started, gas attacks were seen as a much lower threat than they were at the beginning of the war, and as such, decontamination centres were now being built out of Nissen huts rather than the more sturdy thick walled brick designs used at the start of the war. Nuthampstead featured such an example, designed to drawing number 6517/42, it was an 18 bay Nissen hut combining all the facilities needed for decontamination should a gas attack occur. One of each of these was located at both Site 2 and Site 3.

Primarily a bomber station, Nuthampstead was initially operated by the 55th Fighter Group (FG) between September 1943 and April 1944, who flew the P-38 twin-boomed Lightning and later the P-51 ‘Mustang’.

The 55th were constituted on November 20th, 1940 being fully activated in January the following year. In May of 1942, they were converted from their initial fighters the P-43, to the P-38 whereupon they began training on the new type. A year later, over August and September 1943, they moved to England and were assigned to the US 8th Air Force and Nuthampstead.

The first personnel of three squadrons, the 38th Fighter Squadron (FS), 338th FS and 343rd FS travelled across the Atlantic from McChord Field in Washington, arriving at Nuthampstead in August. Preparations then began for the remainder of the Group and the airfield was re-designated Station 131 under the US naming system.

Their arrival in the Autumn of 1943 marked the arrival of the P-38, a 1939 design that soon gained devastating notoriety in several theatres of war.

The P-38 was a long range fighter that excelled more in the Far East than it did in the European theatre, but with this aircraft, the 55th FG claimed not only the honour of being the first fighter group to fly this long range aircraft, but also the first US fighter to fly over Berlin once long range tanks had been added.

The first of these aircraft, the improved P-38H, arrived in October with two groups, the 55th being one and the 20th FG at Kings Cliffe being the other. Whilst the ‘Lightning’ had previously been based in England in 1942, teething problems and modification work prevented them from actively taking part in any operational flights, being dispatched to North Africa before becoming fully operational in Europe.

Thus the 55th, were the first fully operational group, taking flight on October 15th when they undertook fighter sweeps along the Dutch coast, an uneventful flight it nevertheless marked the first operation of the type in Europe.

Previous problems with the type, notably around the aircraft’s mechanics, had not been fully resolved however, but that didn’t stop operations to the continent taking place. On November 3rd, the 55th performed their first deep penetration flight, escorting B-17s and B-24s of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Bombardment Divisions in an attack on Wilhelmshaven. In the bomb run, the flight was attacked by Me 109s and FW190s, the 55th immediately joined in and claimed as many as six aircraft destroyed and several damaged. Their second mission had been a success, there had been no losses and several enemy aircraft were claimed as shot down – morale was riding high.

In part 2, we see how the 55th FG’s luck begins to run out, and how ongoing mechanical problems hamper operations. Losses would begin to mount up.

The full history of RAF Nuthampstead can be read in Trail 32.