Early years (1930s) In order to meet a perceived 'continental threat', the British military developed the idea to site a Royal Air Force bomber base at Mildenhall in the late 1920s. Shortly thereafter, the government purchased the land in 1929, followed by the completion of the first buildings in 1931. Three years later, RAF Mildenhall opened on 16 October 1934, as one of the RAF's largest bomber stations. On the same day,
Wing Commander Francis Linnell, assumed his position as the first station commander. RAF Mildenhall's premature inauguration was due in large part with its selection to host the
Royal Aero Club's prestigious
MacRobertson Air Race on 20 October 1934. At the time, the
air race stood as the longest race ever devised, and attracted over 70,000 spectators to the airfield. Even more telling of the race's significance in the world's sporting spotlight, on short notice
King George V and
Queen Mary visited RAF Mildenhall the day before the race. In the end, pilots
Tom Campbell Black and
C. W. A. Scott flying the
de Havilland Comet Grosvenor House, crossed the finish line first at
Melbourne,
Australia, less than 72 hours after starting the race. Following this favourable beginning, RAF Mildenhall received its first squadron and aircraft with the arrival of
No. 99B Squadron, equipped with
Handley Page Heyford bombers. King George V reviewed 350 aircraft at Mildenhall in 1935 on the occasion of his
Silver Jubilee. This historical event is commemorated by a memorial tablet located in front of the Building 562, the current
100th Air Refueling Wing headquarters. The threat the RAF had envisioned in the late 1920s materialised during the
Munich Crisis. Between 26 September 1938 and 4 October 1939, the airfield completed its installation of its defence systems. After a brief reprieve from war, the airfield prepared for war, bringing station defences and squadrons to full combat readiness. On 3 September 1939, three days after
Germany invaded
Poland, Britain and
France declared war on Germany. Later that same day, three
Vickers Wellington aircraft from
No. 149 Squadron at Mildenhall were dispatched to bomb the German naval fleet at
Wilhelmshaven.
Second World War (1939–1945) Throughout
Second World War, RAF Mildenhall remained active as in addition to its own airfield, the base had responsibility for
RAF Newmarket,
RAF Tuddenham, and
RAF Lakenheath. During the course of the war, the base witnessed the transition from the two-engine
Wellington, to the four-engine
Short Stirling, and finally to the
Avro Lancaster. By the end of the war, aircraft from Mildenhall and its satellite airfields had dropped over 23,000 tons of explosives, laid 2,000 mines and flew over 8,000 sorties. The airfield also saw the loss of over 200 Wellington, Stirling, and Lancaster bombers with the loss of over 2,000
aircrew. One of those killed, was
Pilot Officer Rawdon Hume Middleton, an Australian who was posthumously awarded the
Victoria Cross and is buried at St. Johns Church cemetery in
Beck Row after his body was washed ashore.
Target for Tonight During the last two weeks of March and the first two weeks of April 1941, Mildenhall was used for the making of the film
Target for Tonight. So as not to give away important information to the enemy, Mildenhall took the fictitious name of
Millerton Aerodrome and several other aspects involving the day-to-day operations were altered. The film, produced by the
Crown Film Unit, focused on the planning and execution of an
air raid on Germany, as seen by the crew of Vickers Wellington OJ-F 'F for Freddie'. Wellingtons and their crews from the resident No. 149 Squadron, coded OJ, were used for the filming. The exception to this was
Percy Pickard who was at that time
Squadron Leader with
No. 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron. Pickard played the part of Squadron Leader Dickson, the captain of 'F for Freddie'. Pickard would go on to lead daring raids such
Operation Biting and the later
Operation Jericho on Amiens Prison, in which he was killed.
Postwar (1945–1950) After the war, aircraft from Mildenhall flew home repatriated
prisoners of war in
Operation Exodus, and participated in
Operation Manna, dropping relief supplies to the Dutch people stranded by the flooding caused by the retreating German . By the end of 1945, Mildenhall's operational activity experienced a drastic decrease and despite a brief flurry of flying activity in the late 1940s, the RAF reduced the base to 'care and maintenance' status. The only remaining RAF unit of significance was Headquarters
No. 3 Group, part of Bomber Command, which remained on station until 1967. The following RAF units operated from Mildenhall:
Cold War (1950–1991) Strategic Air Command The initial Strategic Air Command unit to use Mildenhall was the 7511th Air Base Group (later redesignated 3910th Air Base Group), being activated on 11 July 1950, to prepare the facility for operational use by SAC aircraft. On 1 May 1951, SAC took control of the station rotated bomb wings in and out of Mildenhall on temporary duty assignments. The first operational strategic unit to use the airfield was the
Boeing B-50D Superfortress equipped
2nd Bomb Wing, arriving on Temporary Duty (TDY) from
Hunter AFB in
Georgia on 4 May 1951. Other rotational strategic bomb wings at Mildenhall were: •
22nd Bombardment Wing (7 September 1951 – 12 December 1951) (B-50D, KB-29P) (TDY from
March AFB California) •
93rd Bombardment Wing (16 December 1951 – 8 March 1952) (B-50D, KB-29P) (TDY from
Castle AFB California) •
509th Bombardment Wing (4 June 1952 – 2 September 1952) (B-50D, KB-29P) (TDY from
Walker AFB New Mexico) In 1953, Mildenhall's mission was changed from a B-50 bomber airfield to a
KC-97 Stratofreighter aerial tanker dispersal base. The role was to support
Boeing B-47 Stratojet aircraft based at
RAF Fairford. For the next few years, Mildenhall witnessed little change: in June 1972, the base added to the list of its tenants with the arrival of Headquarters
Third Air Force, which relocated from South Ruislip.
306th Strategic Wing of the
9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing's Detachment 4 taking off from Mildenhall in 1985 The next significant event in Mildenhall's history came with the arrival of Detachment 4,
9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (9th SRW) in 1976, which controlled rotational
U-2 and
SR-71 Blackbird operations from the base. Also attached to the 491st AEG was the 791st Expeditionary Aeromedical Airlift Squadron, now located at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. The
501st Combat Support Wing was activated at RAF Mildenhall on 21 May 2005. It was a non-flying unit that provides administration and operation of units at
RAF Croughton (422nd Air Base Group),
RAF Alconbury (423rd Air Base Group) and
RAF Fairford (420th Air Base Group). The wing moved to RAF Alconbury on 1 May 2007. In June 2021
President of the United States Joe Biden and
First Lady Jill Biden flew to RAF Mildenhall on
Air Force One for the
47th G7 summit and their first meeting with
Queen Elizabeth II. President Biden addressed troops on base shortly after landing. In April 2023, during
President Joe Biden's visit to
Northern Ireland and the
Republic of Ireland, an
E-4B Nightwatch callsign "GRIM99" was seen flying over Wales and landed at RAF Mildenhall. In 2024, between 20 November and 22 November, small
unmanned aerial systems (UASs) were spotted in the vicinity of and over RAF Mildenhall, part of wider
drone incursions at US air bases in the United Kingdom. The number of UASs fluctuated and they ranged in size and configuration.
F-15E Strike Eagles, based at Lakenheath, were allegedly scrambled in response to the drones as they impacted local flight operations.
RAF Regiment personnel were later deployed to the bases with the ORCUS C-UAS system in response to a second sighting of unidentified drones in the night hours of 25 November. ==Major US Air Force units assigned==