Qualla: RAF Mildenhall

RAF Mildenhall: Introduction

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. On 20 October 1934, four days after RAF Mildenhall officially opened, 70,000 spectators gathered at the airfield to watch the start of the MacRobertson Air Race — the longest air race ever devised at that time, a point-to-point from England to Melbourne, Australia. King George V and Queen Mary had visited the day before, on short notice, a measure of the event's prestige. The winners, pilots Tom Campbell Black and C.W.A. Scott, crossed the finish line in Melbourne less than 72 hours after taking off. The airfield that hosted this glamorous beginning would go on to a very different kind of history: Bomber Command raids into Nazi Germany, Cold War Strategic Air Command operations, U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance flights, and a current life as the home of the 100th Air Refueling Wing — the largest US Air Force presence in the United Kingdom.

Read more: RAF Mildenhall on Qualla

Image: Public domain

RAF Mildenhall: From Bombers to the War

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tim Felce (Airwolfhound), CC BY-SA 2.0. RAF Mildenhall was built in the late 1920s and early 1930s to meet what British military planners called a "continental threat." It opened as one of the RAF's largest bomber stations on 16 October 1934, with Wing Commander Francis Linnell as its first commander. King George V rev...

Read more: RAF Mildenhall on Qualla

Image: Tim Felce (Airwolfhound) | CC BY-SA 2.0

RAF Mildenhall: The Film They Made Here

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. During the last two weeks of March and the first two weeks of April 1941, Mildenhall was temporarily renamed Millerton Aerodrome and used for the filming of *Target for Tonight*, a Crown Film Unit documentary about the planning and execution of a bombing raid on Germany. The film...

Read more: RAF Mildenhall on Qualla

Image: Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data | CC BY-SA 3.0

RAF Mildenhall: Cold War and the American Presence

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. After the war, Mildenhall became a joint RAF-USAF operation in July 1950. Strategic Air Command assigned its first units in 1951, beginning with B-50 Superfortresses. Over the following decades the base's mission shifted from strategic bombing to aerial refueling and reconnaissan...

Read more: RAF Mildenhall on Qualla

Image: Public domain

RAF Mildenhall: Open Questions

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alexrk2, CC BY-SA 3.0. In January 2015, the US Department of Defense announced that operations at Mildenhall would be relocated to Germany as part of a European cost-cutting consolidation. The announcement set off years of uncertainty. By 2017, the closure was on indefinite hold. In July 2020, the deci...

Read more: RAF Mildenhall on Qualla

Image: Alexrk2 | CC BY-SA 3.0