 The ongoing construction at the airfield limited its ability to support a full bomb group, and it acted as a satellite airfield for RAF Polebrook.However, the 97th had already been there in England for some time, because the 340th Squadron was already at Polebrook and had arrived months before the 342nd and 343rd had gotten to Grafton.The 97th Bomb Group is famous for flying the first Eighth Air Force heavy bomber mission of the war, attacking the Rouen-Sotteville marshalling yards in France.