Work commenced on the construction of this airfield (one of 10 similar airfields in Essex), which lies in the Essex parishes of Little Waltham and Boreham, in May 1943 and it was handed over to the American's of the 394th BG in March 1944 who flew 99 combat missions from there until July 1944.  On 24th March 1945, 81 Dakotas of the 315th Troop Carrier Group of the 9th USAAF used the airfield to ferry 1300 paratroopers of the 6th British Airborne Division to the drop zone on the Rhine crossing (Operation Varsity) at Wesel and later that year the airfield was closed.  The airfield acommodation Nissen huts were modified and used as temporary Council housing from 1949 to about 1956.  After the 2nd World War it had a brief history in the early 1950s as a motor car and motor cycle racing circuit.  The Ford Motor Company subsequently used the airfield for testing cars and commercial vehicles on a variety of surfaces, and for preparing Ford Motorsport Rally cars for competitions.

The area of the airfield has been subjected to extensive gravel extraction and all that now remains of the former airfield is the control tower, used by the Essex Police Helicopter Unit and the Essex Air Ambulance, a T2 hanger, a short length of one of the three runways and some of the taxiways and perimeter track.

This section will be expanded and illustrated is a layout of the airfield as it was in 1944. You can click on the thumbnail for a larger (613x857 54k) version of the map in a new window. Alternatively, you can take one of these links for a more detailed map or aerial photograph.

• BAirFld1.gif (1227x1044 117kb) top part of map - quarters,
• BAirFld2.gif (1227x1095 103kb) bottom part of map - airfield,
• BAirFld.jpg (1752x2457 729kb) composite aerial photograph.
• BAirFld2.jpg (1752x2457 853kb) aerial photograph with legend.