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Royal Air Force Bourn or more simply RAF Bourn is a former Royal Air Force station located north of Bourn, Cambridgeshire and west of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England.
On 9 April 1941, the airfield was subjected to the first of four raids when a Junkers Ju 88C strafed the airfield buildings and bombed the runway; however, little damage was done and there were no injuries. Two more raids on 8 and 23 May 1944 were made, the latter damaging two parked de Havilland Mosquitoes.
As the strategic bombing offensive intensified, the losses mounted. By the time of the last operational sortie on 4 April 1945, a total of 164 aircraft had been lost, either from the squadrons based at Bourn or from others trying, and failing, to land on the field. The average age of aircrew was 23 and over a third of these were under 20 years of age. Of the 886 listed names, 648 were killed and many of the 35 injured subsequently died of their wounds. The number killed was probably greater than that of the entire population of the village at the time.
97 Squadron's were replaced by the Mosquito IXs of 105 Sqn in March 1944. These Oboe-equipped aircraft were able to identify targets with great precision and then mark them accurately.
In December 1944, 162 Squadron was formed at Bourn with Canada-built Mosquito XXs and XXVs which flew almost nightly to Berlin, target-marking for the Light Night Strike Force. The two squadrons operated together from Bourn for much of the rest of the war.
From 1941 to 1945, damaged were repaired and test-flown from Bourn. These were transported to the airfield from the Sebro factory near Madingley which later continued its work with RAF and United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), Consolidated B-24 Liberators. The Bourn and Madingley units together employed up to 4,500 personnel.
The following units were here at some point:
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