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During the Second World War, RAF Duxford played a prominent role in Britain’s air defence including the Battle of Britain in 1940 when its squadrons took to the air to repulse Luftwaffe attacks aimed at London. In April 1943, RAF Duxford was reassigned to the USAAF 78th Fighter Group, whose primary job was to escort the vast fleets of US Eighth Air Force bombers on their daylight raids against Germany and On D-Day, 6 June 1944, every available 78th Fighter Group Thunderbolt supported the Normandy invasion by attacking targets behind the beachheads.

Following the end of the war, Duxford was returned to the RAF and it remained an active RAF airfield until 1961. During the Cold War Link period, Duxford was equipped with jet fighters such as the Gloster Meteor, Hawker Hunter and Gloster Javelin but the costly improvements required for supersonic fighters could not be justified and the last operational flight from RAF Duxford was in July 1961.

The Imperial War Museum obtained permission to use the airfield to storage, restore and display exhibits too large for its headquarters in London and today, IWM Duxford is established as Britain’s largest aviation museums and one of Europe’s premier centres of aviation history, housing nearly 200 aircraft, military vehicles, artillery and minor naval vessels in seven main exhibition buildings. The site also provides storage space for the museum's other collections of material such as film, photographs, documents, books and artefacts.

Many of Duxford's original buildings, such as hangars used during the Battle of Britain, are still in use. Many of these buildings are of particular architectural or historic significance in themselves and over thirty have listed building status.

Link IWM About Duxford


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