Air force office to be listed

The watch office is at Alconbury air base

An office which controlled air operations during World War ll is to be given listed status.

The Department for Culture, the Media and Sport says the office at Alconbury in Cambridgeshire is the best example of its kind in the country.

The building is a distinctive structure on the former United States air base.

It is important both as a historic building but also as a memorial to the enoromous losses sustained by air crew during the conflict.

RAF Alconbury was operational as a satellite bomber station in September 1940 and handed over to the American Eighth Air Force in 1942.

The watch office was built in 1941 and later extended to provide an operations and briefing room.

It is one of only 214 to be built in the country.