RAF Wethersfield

RAF Wethersfield stands in the flat farmland of north-west Essex, nine kilometres from Braintree. The airfield opened in 1944 as a Royal Air Force station and was soon lent to the United States Army Air Forces. After the war it closed, then reopened in 1951 when Cold War needs brought American fighters back to Britain. The base became home to the 20th Fighter-Bomber Wing, flying F-84 Thunderjets that could carry small nuclear weapons. Squadrons rotated to bases in Turkey, Spain and Italy, while the airfield itself stayed ready as a standby deployment site. By 1970 the wing moved on, leaving the Ministry of Defence Police to run the site until 2022. Visitors today see long runways and hangars set among open fields. The control tower and technical buildings still stand where wartime crews worked. The flat Essex landscape stretches away from the perimeter fence, unchanged since the airfield first opened.