Great Dunmow was designed as a Class A airfield bomber airfield, built by the US Army 818th Engineer Battalion with specialised work by British contractors. The airfield was built on ancient parkland belonging to Easton Lodge and some 10,000 trees were destroyed to enable its construction, including over 200 mature oak trees. It consisted of a set of three converging runways each containing a concrete runway for takeoffs and landings, optimally placed at 60-degree angles to each other in a triangular pattern. The runways were a main runway, aligned 15/33 and two secondary secondary runways, aligned 11/29 and 04/22. An encircling perimeter track was also constructed, containing 50 loop-type hardstands.
Great Dunmow airfield was opened on 1 July 1943 and was used by the United States Army Air ForcesEighth and Ninth Air Forces. It was known as USAAF Station AAF-164 for security reasons by the USAAF during the war, and by which it was referred to instead of location. It's USAAF Station Code was "GD". USAAF Station Units assigned to RAF Great Dunmow were:
Missions of the 386th concentrated on airfields but also bombed marshalling yards and gun positions during the first months of combat. In common with other Marauder units of the 3d Bomb Division, the 386th was transferred to Ninth Air Force98th Bombardment Wing on 16 October 1943. On 2 October 1944, the 386th Bomb Group moved to Beaumont-sur-Oise Airfield, in Normandy France. On the continent, the 386th BG used the following Advanced Landing Grounds:
With the end of military control in 1950 the grassed areas were cut for a grass meal company through the 1950s which supplied it to various farms in the region. Starting in 1960, farming operations commenced and the concrete areas were removed for aggregate in 1965/66 for use as part of the new A12 road. Today, there is very little left except some single track agricultural roads remaining from the perimeter track and a blister hangar with a few nissen huts near Easton Lodge. The runway layout and the airfield perimeter track are easily identified in aerial photography, but no substantial amount of concrete remains. The 22 end of the secondary northeast runway does however, have a short full width of runway intact, being used for manure storage. The current owners, Land Securities hope to redevelop the site and surrounding area, including the construction of around 9,000 homes. There is a small museum in Great Dunmow which holds some exhibits of the airfield and the 386th Bomb Group, along with a stained glass window memorial in Little Easton church.
