On the south side of Church Road road very near the junction to Nun’s Meadow. The memorial is placed on the right-hand side beside the town war memorial.

A square bronze plaque with a dark background, mounted to an irregular stone block that is mounted on a two-stepped base. The plaque is inscribed in English text in relief lettering with two relief images of the 9th Air Force insignia and front view of Douglas A-20 Havoc aircraft. The memorial commemorates the 410^th Bombardment Group and support units that were based at Gosfield airfield, especially the airmen who lost their lives during World War II. The memorial was dedicated in 1991 and was cleaned/restored in 2019 by The Gosfield War Memorial Committee and local support.

In April 1942, Gosfield Airfield in Essex was the first in England to start being constructed by American Army Engineers, but as it turned out, not the first completed. It was built to Class A bomber standard and had facilities to accommodate 3200 personnel making it one of the largest airfields in Essex. Although built to home a heavy bomb group, this never came to be and the first aircraft to arrive in December 1943 were P-47 Thunderbolts of the Ninth Air Force, 365th Fighter Group who completed 9 missions before they moved out in March 1944. B-26 Mauraders of the 397th Bomb Group arrived for an even shorter period before moving to their more permanent home at Rivenhall. Late March to early April saw the arrival of the 644th, 645th, 646th, and 647th Bomb Squadrons of the Ninth Air Force 410th Bomb Group with their Douglas A-20 Havoc light bombers. During their time at Gosfield, they gained a reputation for highly accurate bombing during the 120+ missions that were flown. They had lost 20 aircraft and 80 airmen before September 1944 when they moved over to France as the allied advance gathered momentum. RAF Short Stirlings used the airfield followed by 3 squadrons of Dakotas (C-47's) with Horsa Gliders. These were the last aircraft to use Gosfield before the war ended. It was then slowly reverted to nature and industrial use.

Source of information: Imperial War Museum War Memorials Register, Aviation History Around Anglia Facebook page

Source of images: Imperial War Museum War Memorials Register, www.geograph.org.uk

410TH BOMBARDMENT GROUP (L)

BASED AT GOSFIELD AERODROME - APRIL-SEPTEMBER 1944

(-9th Air Force insignia-)

HQ

644TH BOMB SQ      646TH BOMB SQ

645TH BOMB SQ      647TH BOMB SQ

AND SUPPORT UNITS

DOUGLAS A-20 HAVOC

Dedicated in memory of the 410th airmen

who made the supreme sacrifice combating the enemy