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Rivenhall Airfield Rivenhall Airfield is situated two miles north of Rivenhall and close to the small village of Silver End. The drome’s construction was start early in 1943 and hurriedly put into use, the war was at a critical stage and airfields were required immediately. In January 1944 the American personnel of the Ninth fighter group the 363rd arrived at the airfield which had no accommodation, technical units, few planes and an even more concerning few trained pilots. With the 363rd being allocated the P-51’s (which were in short supply) planes were hard to come by, but pilots were brought in from the Eighth’s 356th Group based at Martlesham thereby solving at least one shortage. With only eleven P-51s the Group Commanding Officer, Colonel John R Ulricson started training the pilots on the new planes and in February 1944 flew their first mission. They operated predominantly escort missions and flew many missions over Germany and Berlin. As the months continued the Ninth were given new missions, including bombing raids. This lead to the sound of practicing low flying P-51s, just above the trees and roofs the planes practiced over Kelvedon, Coggeshall, Silver End, Rivenhall and surrounding areas. In all 86 missions flown by the Ninth from Rivenhall Airfield, 16 planes did not return. After the Ninth moved to Hampshire the Airfield was inactive until the RAF took it over from the USAAF and moved the Stirlings IV in with gliders. Rivenhall now housed the No 295 and No 570 squadrons. The missions were now training pilots with gliders and Special Operation Executive missions. The two squadrons remained at Rivenhall until moving to Weatherfield in 1946, then the airfield was used as a Polish camp, then the building were utilised for housing those with no fixed abode and then finally in 1956 passed over for use in Radar Research. After Marconi’s lease ended and they vacated the land it has become an area which developers have coveted whether to develop waste plants, landfills or just to open it up for further development. This small article is merely the tip of the iceberg for the history of Rivenhall Airfield, the people who has had their life’s changed by the actions of the USAAF and RAF, the community formed in the Polish Camp and the important radar research carried out on the site everyone has a story. If the developers have their way all that would be for nothing, after all the land and its history is worth nothing by rubbish, whether burnt or buried, and a very large cheque. This is the first in a series being written on Essex airfields and their uses during and following the Second World War. Within a short space of time from approximately 1943 onwards nineteen airfields were constructed in Essex to meet the needs of USAAF and RAF. These airfields were spaced all over the northern part of Essex and it is these airfields that we shall return to. Equally in the forthcoming articles the Polish Community and its many inhabitants will come alive, with original photographs and oral history.
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