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RAF Aldermaston, east of Newbury in Berkshire, is a good example of a wartime station whose purpose shifted quickly as Allied plans evolved. Constructed in 1941-42 as an RAF Bomber Command airfield, it was transferred to the United States Army Air Forces in August 1942 and became USAAF Station 467. The choice of Aldermaston as an American base was tied to the airborne and transport needs that were rapidly expanding as the Allies prepared for large-scale operations overseas. Rather than hosting heavy bombers, Aldermaston’s wartime identity centred on Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft and the troop carrier groups that flew them.
The first major USAAF unit noted at Aldermaston was the 60th Troop Carrier Group, which arrived in early August 1942 after time at East Anglian stations that were being converted to bomber bases. The 60th trained with Army airborne forces through the autumn of 1942, preparing for Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa in November 1942. The airfield then hosted other troop carrier elements, including the 315th Troop Carrier Group, and later played a role as the troop carrier build-up for the invasion of northwest Europe gathered pace. In practical terms, a troop carrier base had its own distinctive atmosphere: formations of transports, extensive loading areas, constant maintenance, and the presence of airborne troops training for drops, loading drills, and the relentless repetition that turned an airborne plan into something executable at night and under fire.
Aldermaston’s connection to the Normandy invasion story is particularly strong through the presence of troop carrier groups tasked with airborne and glider operations. The station’s wartime record links it to preparations for Operation Overlord and to later airborne activity in 1944. Troop carrier work did not end with the initial assault. After D-Day, aircraft and crews were heavily involved in resupply, casualty evacuation, and the movement of urgently needed items as the front advanced. In September 1944, troop carriers were again central to the airborne battle in the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden, where transport and glider delivery demands were immense and losses could be severe.
Aldermaston also had an additional wartime function beyond troop carrying. It was used for Supermarine Spitfire assembly and flight testing under the wider machinery of aircraft production, reflecting how some stations became hybrid sites: part operations, part logistics, part manufacturing support. The airfield returned to RAF control at the end of 1945, passing into post-war training and then care-and-maintenance before later civilian and government use transformed the site’s identity again. For a wartime visitor, however, Aldermaston would have been remembered as a transport hub – an airfield where the outcome of operations depended not on bomb loads but on the reliable, disciplined movement of men, gliders, and supplies at exactly the right moment.
- Key wartime identity: USAAF troop carrier base (C-47 operations)
- Representative unit: 60th Troop Carrier Group (training for Operation Torch)
- Wider context: airborne build-up for Overlord and later transport/resupply work