Editing East of England (section)

==History==
{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2020}}

===Civil War and the Protectorate===
The East of England was a major force and resource for Parliament and, in particular, in the form of the [[Eastern Association]]. [[Oliver Cromwell]] came from Huntingdon.<ref name="Macleod 647–665">{{Cite journal |last=Macleod |first=Jenny |date=October 2013 |title=Britishness and Commemoration: National Memorials to the First World War in Britain and Ireland |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022009413493940 |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |language=en |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=647–665 |doi=10.1177/0022009413493940 |s2cid=159751130 |issn=0022-0094}}</ref>

===Second World War===
Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex played host to the American [[Eighth Air Force|VIII Bomber Command]] and [[Ninth Air Force]]. The [[Imperial War Museum Duxford|Imperial War Museum at Duxford]] has an exhibition, commemorating their participation and sacrifice, near to the M11 south of Cambridge.<ref name="Macleod 647–665"/>

Stansted Airport was [[RAF Stansted Mountfitchet]], home to the [[126th Air Refueling Wing|344th Bombardment Group]]. The [[de Havilland Mosquito]] was mainly assembled at Hatfield and Leavesden, although much of the innovative wooden structure originated outside the region from the furniture industry of [[High Wycombe]]; the Mosquito entered service in 1942 with [[No. 105 Squadron RAF|105 Sqn]] at [[RAF Horsham St Faith]]. [[RAF Tempsford]] in Bedford is the airfield from where [[Special Operations Executive|SOE]] secret agents for Europe took off, with [[No. 138 Squadron RAF|138 Sqn]] which parachuted agents and equipment and [[No. 161 Squadron RAF|161 Sqn]] which landed and retrieved agents. [[No. 19 Squadron RAF|19 Sqn]] at Duxford was the first to be equipped with the Spitfire on 4 August 1938.<ref name="Macleod 647–665"/>

===Cold War===
{{See also|United States Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa|United States Air Force in the United Kingdom}}
The [[81st Training Wing|81st Tactical Fighter Wing]] was at [[RAF Bentwaters]] from January 1952 and also at [[RAF Woodbridge]]; in the late 1980s some of the aircraft went to [[RAF Alconbury]]. Alconbury closed in 1992 and Bentwaters closed in 1993, with the American air forces being in the area for 42 years; the USAF aircraft subsequently moved to [[Spangdahlem Air Base]] in [[Rhineland-Palatinate]], Germany.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite journal |last1=Major |first1=Patrick |last2=Mitter |first2=Rana |date=October 2003 |title=East is East and West is West? Towards a comparative socio-cultural history of the Cold War |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14682740312331391714 |journal=Cold War History |language=en |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=1–22 |doi=10.1080/14682740312331391714 |s2cid=154674169 |issn=1468-2745}}</ref>

At [[RAF Marham]] in west Norfolk, [[No. 214 Squadron RAF|214 Sqn]] with the [[Vickers Valiant]] developed the RAF's refuelling system; later the squadron would be equipped with the [[Handley Page Victor]]. Work on refuelling had also taken place at [[RAF Tarrant Rushton]] in [[Dorset]].<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

From the 1950s, [[RAF Wyton]] was an important reconnaissance base for the RAF, mainly [[No. 543 Squadron RAF|543 Sqn]]. The base is now home of the [[Defence Intelligence Fusion Centre]], previously known as JARIC, or the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre from 1956.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>{{more citations needed|section|date=December 2018}}

=== Official region ===
The East of England region was officially created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999.