First World War The
Royal Flying Corps selected a site for an airfield in
Huntingdonshire near the village of
Old Weston during the
First World War. The first flying unit to arrive at the aerodrome was
75 Squadron. No. 75 Squadron flew
Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2s, a reconnaissance and artillery spotter aircraft which saw extensive combat use over the
Western Front, from Molesworth for training and pilot proficiency. The squadron remained at this airfield until September 1917.
Second World War RAAF/RAF use At the start of the
Second World War the
Air Ministry selected the area as the site for what would become RAF Molesworth. The airfield was built between 1940 and 1941. The first flying unit was
Royal Australian Air Force 460 Squadron when it formed here on 15 November 1941 with
Vickers Wellington IVs. No 460 Squadron departed Molesworth on 4 January 1942.
RAF Bomber Command 159 squadron moved in shortly afterwards, however this unit did not remain long, moving to the Middle East on 12 January 1942.
USAAF use Molesworth was one of the early Eighth Air Force stations allocated to the
United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). In February 1942 General
Ira Eaker and four US staff members inspected Molesworth for possible American use, and during 1942 the facility was improved to
Class A airfield standard, with all of its runways extended to American specifications for heavy 4-engined bombers. The main runway was lengthened to 2,000 yards and the number of hardstands increased to fifty. It was given USAAF designation as
Station 107.
15th Bombardment Squadron . This aircraft originally belonged to 15th Bombardment Squadron (Light) and was used on 4 July 1942 in a low-level attack on
Luftwaffe airfields in the Netherlands. The first USAAF tenant on Molesworth was the
15th Bombardment Squadron, arriving on 9 June 1942 from
RAF Grafton Underwood. The squadron flew the Douglas Boston III
(A-20) light bomber. The 15th was originally part of the 27th Bombardment Group (Light), assigned to
Fifth Air Force in the
Philippine Islands. However the group's planes did not arrive by 7 December 1941, and due to the deteriorating situation in the Philippines after the Japanese invasion, they were diverted to Australia. Surviving members of the group reformed into a combat unit in Australia and fought in the
Dutch East Indies and
New Guinea Campaigns. When the 27th Bombardment Group was inactivated and transferred back to the United States for re-equipping, the surviving members of the group were first transferred back to the United States, then to the UK in May where they received their Bostons from No. 226 Squadron RAF. After a few weeks of familiarisation training with the new aircraft, on 4 July 1942, six American crews from the 15th Bomb Squadron joined with six RAF crews from
RAF Swanton Morley for a low-level attack on
Luftwaffe airfields in the Netherlands, becoming the first USAAF unit to bomb targets in Europe. The 4 July raid had been specifically ordered by General
Henry H. "Hap" Arnold and approved by President Roosevelt. Arnold believed that 4 July would be an ideal day for the USAAF to open its strategic bombing campaign against the Nazis, but General
Carl Spaatz did not have any of his heavy Eighth Air Force bomb groups ready for operational missions. Two of the 15th's planes did not return from the mission, along with one RAF aircraft. The plane of the squadron commander, Captain Charles Kegelman, was shot up badly and almost did not return after striking the ground. Spaatz considered the mission a "stunt" triggered by pressure in the American press who believed the people of both the United States and Great Britain needed a psychological boost. However, Kegelman was awarded the
Distinguished Service Cross and its British equivalent for his valour on that Fourth of July mission, the first Eighth Air Force airman to receive the nation's second highest combat decoration. The 15th flew most of its missions from Molesworth in its Bostons, and did not receive USAAF
Douglas A-20 Havoc aircraft until 5 September. The squadron was transferred to
RAF Podington until 15 September where it flew a few missions before being transferred to
Twelfth Air Force for support of Allied landings in North Africa on 15 October 1942.
303d Bombardment Group With the departure of the 15th Bomb Squadron, Molesworth was occupied by the
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses of the 358th Bombardment Squadron, the first of four squadrons that would comprise the
303d Bombardment Group. The 303d Bombardment Group consisted of the following squadrons: American news correspondent
Walter Cronkite flew on a 303d Bombardment Group mission while reporting the war. German personnel were able to transport the B-17 to
Leeuwarden Air Base in the Netherlands where it was repaired and put in flyable condition. It was examined and tested at the
Luftwaffe Test and Evaluation Center at
Rechlin. "Wulfe Hound" was first flown by the Germans on 17 March 1943, followed by more testing and development of fighter tactics against B-17s. It was transferred to the
Kampfgeschwader 200 special operations wing at Rangsdorf, Germany on 11 September 1943 and took part in training and clandestine missions between May and June 1944. On 20 April 1945 the aircraft was caught in an Allied air-raid on Oranienburg airfield and was damaged. In 2000, the German government started redeveloping this former airfield and parts of "Wulfe Hound" were recovered and are preserved at Sachsenhausen Memorial Store. With the departure of the 42d Troop Carrier Squadron, Molesworth was put into a standby status, with the occasional aircraft using the airfield: it was officially deactivated in 1973.
303d Tactical Missile Wing and cruise missiles Following the 1979
NATO Double-Track Decision, in June 1980, RAF Molesworth was selected as one of two British bases for the US Air Force's mobile nuclear armed
Ground Launched Cruise Missiles or GLCMs. These were the "Gryphon" type derived from the sea-launched
"Tomahawk". The majority of GLCMs were deployed at
RAF Greenham Common, the other UK base. During the early 1980s, the
Ministry of Defence rebuilt Molesworth. All of the Second World War runways, taxiways, hardstands, as well as a 9,000 ft jet runway laid down in the 1950s were removed. The only surviving remnants of the Second World War era are two T.2 hangars and one J-Type hangar on the former airfield. A cluster of wartime buildings, including
Nissen huts exist just east of the facility, at the intersection of the B660 and Brington Road at the edge of Old Weston. On 12 December 1986 the
303d Tactical Missile Wing was activated. However, the missiles and the wing did not stay long; the United States and the Soviet Union signed the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987 which led to the removal of all nuclear missiles from the station by October 1988. The 303d TMW was inactivated on 30 January 1989.
Joint Analysis Center On 11 January 1990 the RAF announced construction would begin later that year to house the
United States European Command's new intelligence analysis centre. This facility would become known as the
Joint Analysis Center (JAC). A 2017
Office of the Inspector General report recorded that the base also housed other similar units:
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) Directorate for Intelligence unit (J2-M),
Defense Intelligence Agency's Regional Support Center, NATO's Intelligence Fusion Center, the Regional Joint Intelligence Training Facility, and the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence's Battlefield Information Collection and Exploitation System (BICES) unit. The Joint Analysis Center and AFRICOM J-2M employed about 460 U.S. military personnel and Department of Defence civilians.
Planned station closure On 8 January 2015 the UK Ministry of Defence announced that the US Air Force activities at RAF Molesworth and RAF Alconbury would be consolidated at
RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire. An announcement, in early 2016, stated that the site was one of twelve that will be sold as part of the strategy for the MOD Estate, although no date for the sale was given. In February 2019 the Ministry of Defence announced that RAF Molesworth would be retained. File:B-17g-43-38050-359th BS.jpg|B-17G-25-DL Fortress 42-38050
Thunderbird, 359th BS File:303bg-moleworth-target-for-today.jpg|Pre-mission briefing, 9 October 1944 prior to 303d Bomb Group raid on
Anklam, Germany to attack the Arado aircraft component plant File:RAF Molesworth memorial.jpg|The memorial in 2012 with Lt. Col. Albert Levin. He flew 35 missions as a B-17 navigator from RAF Molesworth from 1944 to 1945 File:582rsg-molesworth.jpg|HU-16 Albatrosses of the 582d Air Resupply Group - 25 October 1955 == Based units ==