[citation needed] The grass landing strips were deemed unsuitable for heavy 4-engine bombers, so concrete runways were constructed along with taxiways and hardstands.

During its stay at Chelveston, the unit attacked submarine pens, airfields, railroads, bridges and other targets on the continent, primarily in France.

The 301st BG was allocated to Operation Torch, and on 26 November 1942 it departed for the Twelfth Air Force, being moved to Tafaraoui Airfield, Algeria.

The 305th BG bombed the navy yards at Wilhelmshaven on 27 January 1943 when heavy bombers of Eighth AF made their first penetration into Germany.

Through mid–1943, the group attacked strategic targets as submarine pens, docks, harbours, shipyards, motor works, and marshalling yards in France, Germany, and the Low Countries.

The 305th BG received the Distinguished Unit Citation for a mission in April 1943 when an industrial target in Paris was bombed with precision in spite of pressing enemy fighter attacks and heavy flak.

First Lieutenants William R. Lawley Jr. and Edward S. Michael, pilots in the 364th Bomb Squadron, each received the Medal of Honor for similar performances on 20 February and 11 April 1944, respectively.

In each case a B-17 was severely damaged by fighters after it had bombed a target in Germany, crew members were wounded, and the pilot himself was critically injured; recovering in time to pull his aircraft out of a steep dive, and realising that the wounded men would be unable to bail out, each pilot flew his plane back to England and made a successful crash landing.

Prior to the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, it helped to neutralize enemy installations such as V-weapon sites, airfields, and repair shops.

During the Battle of Normandy the 305th attacked enemy positions in advance of ground forces at Saint-Lô in July 1944 and struck anti-aircraft batteries to cover the Operation Market-Garden airborne invasion of the Netherlands in September.

In these scenes, an American AAF veteran played by Dean Jagger returns to "Archbury" (Chelveston), the home station for his bomb group.

[citation needed] With the Korean War and the growing threat of the Soviet Union, the US and UK agreed to an expanded US military presence in the United Kingdom.

The USAF planned to use Chelveston as an advanced "Reflex" base for forward deployment of the new Boeing B-47 Stratojet medium range nuclear bomber.

Strategic Air Command wanted to disperse its nuclear bomber force and have about half of its B-47s stationed at forward bases in Western Europe and North Africa.

Because the borders of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact controlled areas were within the range of the B-47, the "Reflex" deployments would base the bombers for 90-day rotations of crews and aircraft.

The concrete runways, taxiways and hardstands were broken up and removed in 1977, with large quantities of aggregate being supplied to various construction projects in the Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire markets.

The ground station,[9] with large numbers of nissen huts and other buildings erected during World War II and during the 1950s were also all demolished, including the removal of streets and other infrastructure.

Other parts of the base were sold to private agricultural interests, with the exception of some housing units[10] retained by the USAF for families of personnel assigned to RAF Molesworth and a small school.

The large J-Type hangar was retained by the 10th TRW at RAF Alconbury for storage of War Reserve Material (WRM) assets until the late 1980s.