page_title: No. 85 Group RAF
section_title: Operation Market Garden
hierarchical_section_title: No. 85 Group RAF / Operation Market Garden
caption_attribution_description: English: Royal Air Force- 2nd Tactical Air Force, 1943-1945. Hawker Typhoon Mark IB, MN606, of No. 247 Squadron RAF, being overhauled by a Repair and Salvage Unit in a dispersal wrecked by the retreating Luftwaffe at B78/Eindhoven, Holland.
context_page_description: No. 85 Group was a Group of the Royal Air Force during World War II. It was responsible for airfield construction and the air defence of the beachhead bases during the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944 and the subsequent campaign.
context_section_description: The most intensive period for airfield construction during the advance came with Operation Market Garden, the combined airborne and ground operation to try to seize the bridges at Grave, Nijmegen and Arnhem. The intention was to construct a group of airfields around Arnhem to serve as a base for the further advance into Germany. The airfield construction troops were reorganised in mid-September, with 12 AGRE now consisting of 13 and 15 Airfield Construction Groups, RE, and 5357 Airfield Construction Wing, RAF. This group was concentrated by 17 September at Bourg-Léopold.
  5357 Construction Wing was given responsibility for preparing an airstrip at Eindhoven. On 19 September the reconnaissance party, travelling with the leading troops of Guards Armoured Division and closely followed by one of its squadrons, reached the airfield at Eindhoven and found it badly cratered by Allied air attacks. There were still enemy troops active in woods to the west of the airfield and only one platoon of the US 101st Airborne Division available for protection. During the night the US paratroopers were withdrawn into the town and 5357 Wing took up dispositions for its own defence. Next morning the Wing sent out defensive patrols while work continued on the airfield. 12 AGRE sent up a column of plant and vehicles which arrived on site during the afternoon of 20 September. Work was interrupted by German machine gun fire on the tarmac dump, but the enemy were driven away by the Wing's patrols. Next day the leading troops of XII Corps passed to the west of the town and cleared the enemy out. All personnel could now be concentrated on the work and the airstrip was completed on 22 September. Aircraft of 2nd TAF flying from this strip were instrumental in foiling a major Luftwaffe attack on the Nijmegen bridges on 27 September.
  Meanwhile, the other RAF construction wings in the rear areas were building airfields for heavier aircraft and for maintenance bases under the Director of Works, RE, who was in the unusual position of having around 6000 RAF personnel working for him.
  Improvement and maintenance of Eindhoven Airfield absorbed the attention of 5357 Wing all through the winter of 1944–45. Runways, taxi-tracks, hardstandings etc were repaired with bricks and concrete, and work was done on drainage. 83 Group Typhoons operated from the airfield during the winter in support of ground operations, such as Operation Blackcock. However, much of the work began to disintegrate during the thaw in February 1945, and a 'tremendous effort of improvisation' was required to keep the airfield operational.
caption: Typhoon of 2nd TAF being overhauled among the wreckage at B78 Eindhoven
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