Full WW2 control tower details and photos for this wartime airfield are coming soon. Please check back later as this is work progress. If you would like to contribute information or photos please get in touch.
RAF Molesworth, in Cambridgeshire near Huntingdon, is one of the better documented USAAF heavy bomber stations in Britain and illustrates the Eighth Air Force’s industrial scale and strategic intent. Built as a ‘Class A’ airfield and designated USAAF Station 102, it was engineered for four-engined bombers: long concrete runways, extensive hardstandings, and a technical site designed to support continuous operations. Its location placed it within the East Anglian and Midlands bomber corridor that became the main launchpad for the daylight offensive into occupied Europe and Germany.
The station is most closely associated with the 303rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), which operated Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses. The 303rd flew from Molesworth from 1942 into 1945, participating in the growth of the daylight campaign from its early, costly phase to the later period when long-range fighter escort and accumulated experience made sustained deep penetration possible. The group’s missions reflected shifting priorities: strikes against submarine pens and ports, attacks on industrial and aircraft production sites, and later increasing emphasis on transportation and fuel systems. By 1944-45, rail marshalling yards and oil infrastructure became central targets because they created system-wide disruption.
A mission day at Molesworth was highly structured. Crews attended detailed briefings; aircraft were fuelled and armed on dispersed hardstands; engines were run up; and B-17s departed in sequence to assemble with other groups. The return phase could bring aircraft riddled with flak damage, with engines failing, or with wounded crew. Crash and rescue readiness was essential. Ground crews then repaired damage, changed engines, serviced guns and turrets, and completed the paperwork and checks needed to send aircraft back out. This was process-heavy, physically demanding work, and it determined how many sorties the group could generate over a long campaign.
Molesworth also had a significant social footprint. Thousands of American personnel lived in local camps and villages, shaping wartime life through billeting, local employment and shared leisure. The emotional cycle – waiting for aircraft to return, counting losses, absorbing replacements – was part of daily reality. Understanding the station therefore means seeing both the strategic logic of repeated raids and the human cost embedded in the routines of a heavy bomber base.
- USAAF identity: Station 102.
- Key unit: 303rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), flying B-17 Flying Fortresses.
- Why it mattered: generated sustained sortie output that contributed to weakening German air power, industry, transport and fuel systems, especially in the decisive 1944-45 period.
After 1945, demobilisation was rapid, but Molesworth’s WW2 significance remains clear. It represents the mature American heavy bomber system in Britain: disciplined routine, high-risk missions, and an immense ground effort that turned strategy into continuous operational pressure.
Because the 303rd operated for so long from one station, Molesworth is also a lens on change. Early missions were fought with limited escort and high losses; later missions benefited from long-range fighters and accumulated experience. The airfield stayed constant while tactics and conditions evolved, showing how sustained basing supported sustained learning.
For visitors today, a useful way to interpret Molesworth is through the ‘airfield as factory’ idea. The aircraft were the visible product, but the process depended on schedules, checklists, inventories and disciplined teamwork. When that factory ran well, it produced sorties and returned crews. When it broke down, it produced delays and losses. Molesworth’s long wartime use shows that it was able to keep the factory running.