Ten things you might not know about RAF Mildenhall

RAF Mildenhall opened on Oct. 16, 1934, as one of the RAF's largest bomber stations.

On 2 August, 1939, with talk of war growing the base was told to test alarm systems, brief personnel, and implement the black-out system.

Six hours after the declaration of war, 149 Squadron's Wellington bombers took off from RAF Mildenhall to bomb German battleships at Wilhelmshaven and in the Kiel Canal.

The first enemy attack on RAF Station Mildenhall was on 27 October 1940.

On the first day of D-Day operations, 6 June 1944, 35 Lancasters from 15 and 622 Squadrons struck targets along Hitler's Atlantic Wall. The next day, 33 Lancasters attacked targets near Lisieux, France. D-Day was the first daylight-bombing raid carried out by both squadrons. Bombers from RAF Mildenhall flew their last bombing mission of the war with an attack against Bremen, Germany on 22 April 1945.

By the end of the war, aircraft from RAF Mildenhall and its satellite airfields dropped over 23,000 tons of explosives, laid 2,000 mines in enemy waters, and flew over 8,000 sorties. 200 Wellington, Stirling, and Lancaster aircraft were lost, and over 2,000 crew.

In the early 1950s the first US bombers arrived at Mildenhall.

In 1959 the base became "The Gateway to the United Kingdom", for most U.S. military personnel entering or leaving Britain.

In 1966 the USAF made it the home of its 100th Reconnaissance Wing.

In 1992 the base become home to the huge KC-135 re-fuelling planes.