More information : Little Walden Airfield, Essex, TL 558 435. Opened 1944, closed 1946 (see source 2 below for later phase of use). In December 1944 the base was used by the 8th USAAF 361st Fighter Group (1)
Little Walden (Hadstock) Airfield opened in 1944 after construction began the previous year, on land previously belonging to Little Walden Park. It was built to "Class A" standard: that is to say it was provided with long concrete runways suitable for bombers and appropriate hangar space, two aircraft hangars Type T2. An annotated reproduction montage of RAF photographs taken in 1946 included in the source show that the technical site was located on the east side of the airfield with bomb stores and ammunition dumps to the west side. During the war it was used by the United States Army 8th Air Force, mainly the 409th Bomb Group, and was known as Station 165. The site closed in 1958 after being used to store War Department vehicles after the war (these are visible on the 1946 photograph). (2)
The former Little Walden Airfield, Hadstock, Essex, TL 558 430. A section of runway, perimeter track and prefabricated military buildings of the type known as Romney huts and one modified type T2 aircraft hangar were noted as surviving in 2003. There is also a particularly well preserved example of a typical World War Two contol tower. (3)
Airfield TL 558 435. (4) |