I stopped at the war memorial by the abandoned airfield as I drove home from the village of Little Staughton today.
RAF Little Staughton was opened in September 1942 and allocated to USAAF in March 1944 for the repair of B17 bombers. The airfield was handed to Bomber Command in March 1944. The first raid of 582 Squadron from the airfield took place 9th April 1944 and the last 25th April 1945 – 165 missions with the loss of 28 Lancasters and many airmen.
The 109 Pathfinder Squadron flew missions from the same airfield with the loss of 23 Mosquitoes and crew. Some of the raids were bombing raids and later there were food drops to the people of Holland. Two posthumous VCs were awarded to airmen who flew from Little Staughton and until recently there was an annual meeting in the village for veterans. Airmen from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and the RAF were all stationed at Little Staughton and all sustained losses. I felt humbled as I stood by the modest memorial to the pilots and crew of 582 and 109 Squadrons. We owe them and their families a huge debt.
gfreedmanblog 
Thank you for drawing attention to this memorial, Gill. It is nicely maintained. I am afraid I am a bit of an obsessive about that. Temping at Transco some years ago I found a bronze memorial to workers, who had been killed when German bombers missed the adjacent railway line and bombed the gas works, was covered in cobwebs. The cleaners said they had never been told to maintain it so I marched into the boss and said what I thought. He agreed with me and it was cleaned immediately!