When the Berlin Blockade began in June 1948, one B-29 squadron, the 353d Bombardment Squadron from the 301st Bombardment Group, was temporarily stationed at Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base in Germany. The group's other two squadrons deployed to Germany in July. The Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin asked Truman to send bombers to the UK to beef up the defences. In response, the 28th Bombardment Group from Rapid City Air Force Base in South Dakota deployed to RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, and the 307th Bombardment Group from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida deployed to RAF Marham and RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire. Each group had three squadrons of ten B-29s. The first B-29 touched down on 17 July, piloted by Colonel John B. Henry Jr., the commander of the 28th Bombardment Group, who was greeted by Air Vice-Marshal Charles Guest, the Air Officer Commanding No. 1 Group RAF. The RAF granted permission, on the usual informal basis, for the USAF to reopen the wartime USAAF depot at RAF Burtonwood, and soon 2,500 USAF personnel were stationed there.