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RAF Grafton Underwood, in Northamptonshire, became a major USAAF heavy bomber station during the Second World War. Built as a ‘Class A’ airfield and allocated to the United States Army Air Forces, it was designated Station 106. Like other Eighth Air Force bases, it was engineered for high sortie rates: long concrete runways, extensive dispersal areas, perimeter tracks, hangars and a large station infrastructure to sustain a heavy bomber group.
The airfield is closely associated with the 384th Bombardment Group (Heavy), which flew Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses. The group arrived in 1943 and began operations during a critical phase of the daylight bombing campaign, when the USAAF was pushing deeper into enemy territory and paying a high price as tactics and escort capability evolved. From Grafton Underwood, the 384th took part in raids against industrial centres, ports, airfields, submarine facilities and transportation networks across occupied Europe and Germany.
The station’s operational rhythm was intense and highly structured. Crews attended early briefings featuring target photographs, route maps, weather forecasts and intelligence on flak and fighter activity. Aircraft were armed and loaded on dispersals; engines were run up; and aircraft departed in sequence to assemble into formation and join the bomber stream. The return was often the most tense phase, with damaged aircraft, wounded crew and mechanical failures arriving back over England, requiring emergency landings, crash response and rapid repairs if the aircraft was to fly again.
Grafton Underwood also demonstrates the industrial scale of the bomber war. A heavy bomber group depended on a huge workforce: engineering specialists, armourers, electricians, radio technicians, drivers, cooks, clerks and medical staff. Fuel, bombs and spare parts had to arrive on time, and the station’s internal organisation had to keep aircraft moving safely without bottlenecks. Even small improvements in maintenance scheduling or loading procedure could translate into higher sortie rates and fewer accidents, making station discipline a strategic asset.
- USAAF identity: Station 106.
- Key unit: 384th Bombardment Group (Heavy), operating B-17 Flying Fortresses.
- Primary wartime role: Eighth Air Force daylight heavy bomber operations.
After V-E Day, the American bomber force demobilised quickly and the airfield passed into closure and civilian reuse. Its wartime story remains powerful because it captures the mature Eighth Air Force system: a Northamptonshire airfield built to launch and sustain B-17 formations in the long campaign that weakened German industry, supported Allied ground operations, and helped bring the war in Europe to an end.
Heavy bomber stations also generated a distinctive social geography. Personnel were billeted in surrounding villages, convoys of fuel and bombs ran constantly, and local communities lived with the sound of engines at dawn. Those home-front experiences – combined with the losses and the return of damaged aircraft – form an inseparable part of Grafton Underwood’s wartime story.
The station’s story also includes the emotional arithmetic of bomber operations: crews counted empty dispersals and waited for the sound of returning engines. Those moments – relief, grief, and exhaustion – were repeated on every heavy bomber base and form the human core of the historical record.