Located just north of Saint-Pierre-du-Mont along the English Channel coast, it was a United States Army Air Force temporary airfield established shortly after the D-Day landings in France.

Just over 24 hours later (18:45) it had been upgraded from a Refuelling and Rearming Strip (RRS A-1) to an Advanced Landing Ground (ALG A-1), able to handle aircraft up to the C-47 transport.

From 10 June 1944 an RAF Ames Type 15 GCI radar site became active at the airfield, the only survivor of three that were accidentally sent to the Normandy beaches on D-Day, instead of D-Day+3 of the invasion.

The medical unit set up a field hospital just off base, which by that time would still occasionally receive incoming enemy fire, as the front line was not far away.

[6] In addition to the fighters, elements of the 416th and 322d Bomb Groups dispatched B-26 Marauder medium bombers from their bases in England to Saint-Pierre-du-Mont to attack German strong points in Normandy during the initial battles around Saint-Lô After the Americans moved east into Central France with the advancing Allied Armies, the airfield was left un-garrisoned and used for resupply and casualty evacuation.