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| Portsmouth Army Air Field | |
|---|---|
| Name | Portsmouth Army Air Field |
| Location | Portsmouth, New Hampshire |
| Coordinates | 43°04′N 70°45′W |
| Country | United States |
| Type | airfield |
| Built | 1942 |
| Used | 1942–1946 |
| Controlledby | United States Army Air Forces |
| Garrison | First Air Force |
Portsmouth Army Air Field was a World War II-era airfield located near Portsmouth, New Hampshire that functioned as a training, staging, and coastal defense installation. Constructed in 1942 on the Piscataqua River corridor near Kittery, Maine and New Castle, New Hampshire, the facility linked regional logistics networks including Pease Air Force Base, Logan International Airport, and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The field supported units drawn from Continental training commands such as the First Air Force and worked alongside United States Navy and United States Coast Guard assets during the Battle of the Atlantic.
The airfield was developed after the Attack on Pearl Harbor with acquisition of farmland and shoreline parcels influenced by the Civil Aeronautics Authority and War Department planning. Early planning referenced air defense concerns raised after the German U-boat campaign in the western Atlantic and coastal raids feared after the Battle of the Atlantic. Construction contractors included firms that had worked on Boston Logan International Airport expansions and Mitchel Field projects. Activation orders were issued under directives from War Department General Staff offices and coordinated with the Army Corps of Engineers.
Runways were laid out to accommodate training types similar to those at Mitchel Field, with paved surfaces, taxiways, and dispersal areas. Support infrastructure included hangars derived from Aircraft Warning Service templates, fuel farms compatible with Standard Oil supply chains, and maintenance shops patterned after Smyrna Army Airfield facilities. Barracks and mess halls followed Army standardized plans used at Camp Edwards and Fort Devens, while a control tower incorporated radar guidance linked to SCR-270 installations. Transportation links tied to U.S. Route 1 and Maine State Route 103 as well as rail spurs connected to Boston and Maine Corporation lines.
Assigned commands included elements of the First Air Force and training detachments from Army Air Forces Training Command. Operational squadrons rotated through the field, including liaison and observation units modeled on the 70th Observation Group and operational training units similar to the 306th Bombardment Group. Coordination occurred with naval aviators from the United States Navy Atlantic Fleet and anti-submarine squadrons such as those that would operate from Quonset Point Naval Air Station. Military police, medical detachments, and signal units mirrored organizations at Brookings Municipal Airport auxiliary fields.
Training emphasis encompassed pursuit, bomber, and reconnaissance conversion programs using aircraft types comparable to the P-47 Thunderbolt, P-51 Mustang, B-17 Flying Fortress, and B-24 Liberator. Advanced gunnery, instrument, and navigation instruction paralleled curricula from the Army Air Forces Navigation School and Army Air Forces Gunnery School systems. Liaison and light transport instruction used models akin to the L-4 Grasshopper and C-47 Skytrain. Maintenance courses were organized in the fashion of Sacramento Air Depot training, while target towing and aerial gunnery ranges were established following practices seen at Gunnery Range, War Department sites.
The airfield supported coastal patrols and antisubmarine warfare operations contributing to the broader Battle of the Atlantic logistic and surveillance network. It served as a staging ground for convoys escorted by units coordinated with the United States Navy and for aircraft ferrying through the Air Transport Command route system to transatlantic departure points such as Gander International Airport and Bluie West One. The facility provided emergency diversion fields for fighters and bombers transiting the Northeast Corridor, supplementing Presque Isle Army Airfield and Bradley Field capacities. Training output helped replenish units engaged in campaigns like the Normandy invasion and the Air Offensive, Europe.
Following V-J Day and the general demobilization overseen by War Assets Administration, the field was placed on standby status and many structures were declared surplus. Property transfers involved General Services Administration processes and local redevelopment mirrored conversions at Mitchell Field and Floyd Bennett Field. Some wartime buildings were repurposed for civil aviation, light industry, and housing projects influenced by Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 veterans’ needs. Nearby installations such as Pease Air Force Base absorbed regional missions during the early Cold War.
Remnants of runways and hangars influenced municipal planning in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine, with historical interpretation efforts linked to institutions like the Strawbery Banke Museum and collaborations with the National Park Service for coastal heritage. Preservation advocates referenced listings similar to National Register of Historic Places nominations used at other wartime airfields, while local historical societies compared the site’s trajectory to that of Squantum Naval Air Station and Quonset Point transformations. Oral histories involved veterans associated with the Army Air Forces and the Civil Air Patrol. Contemporary reuse includes mixed commercial and open-space developments echoing broader patterns of adaptive reuse seen at former military airfields nationwide.
Category:Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in New Hampshire Category:Military installations closed in 1946