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RAF Atcham, east of Shrewsbury on the edge of Attingham Park, is best known as a wartime training field shaped by the arrival of the United States Army Air Forces. Opened in 1941, Atcham was initially built for RAF Fighter Command, with the first recorded squadron arrival being No. 131 Squadron with Spitfires in late September 1941. That early phase reflects Britain’s continuing need for fighter basing and readiness, but it was relatively short-lived. In June 1942 jurisdiction transferred to the USAAF and the station became USAAF Station 342, part of the wider handover of RAF sites to support the rapidly growing American air presence in Britain.
Once under American control, Atcham’s primary wartime value became training and replacement rather than combat operations launched directly from Shropshire. The airfield’s role shifted into the Combat Crew Replacement Centre system and then, most notably, into the 495th Fighter Training Group. This unit trained pilots primarily on the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, a rugged, high-performance fighter suited to the demands of escort and ground-attack work, and some pilots also trained on twin-engined Lockheed P-38 Lightnings. Training here was not ‘basic flying’ – it was conversion and operational theatre preparation, bridging the gap between stateside training and combat in the European theatre. That meant formation flying, gunnery, navigation, instrument practice, tactical handling, and procedures aligned to Eighth and Ninth Air Force operational realities.
The training tempo at Atcham was heavy, as it was across most American training and replacement organisations in Britain. It was a workmanlike routine with high stakes: the goal was to produce pilots who could arrive at a front-line group and function immediately, under pressure and often in poor weather. The presence of different aircraft types, including occasional Spitfires as well as the dominant P-47s, also shows how the USAAF and RAF training ecosystems could overlap in practical ways when aircraft availability and instructional needs demanded flexibility. According to airfield records, the 495th Fighter Training Group remained very busy until moving to Cheddington in February 1945 as the war’s centre of gravity shifted and the replacement pipeline was reorganised for the final phase in Europe.
Atcham’s RAF connections did not disappear during the American period. From summer 1944, RAF No. 5 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit from nearby Tern Hill used Atcham as a Relief Landing Ground, showing how British training demands continued alongside USAAF activity. A detachment from No. 577 Squadron, an anti-aircraft co-operation unit, also used the airfield for a period. These overlapping uses are part of what makes Atcham interesting: it was not a single-purpose station but a working piece of a larger training mosaic, shared and adapted as requirements evolved.
The airfield closed to flying in April 1946, with the site later returning largely to non-flying uses. In wartime terms, however, Atcham’s importance lies in the pilots who passed through its circuits and ranges on their way to operational squadrons – an essential, steady contribution that rarely appears in dramatic narratives but underpinned the fighting strength of the Allied tactical air forces.
- Early RAF phase: Fighter Command Spitfire use (including No. 131 Squadron)
- Main wartime identity: USAAF 495th Fighter Training Group (P-47, some P-38)
- Mixed use: RAF relief landing and specialist support detachments alongside USAAF training