Built prior to World War II as a civil airport, Vernouillet Airport was seized by the Germans in June 1940 during the Battle of France. They used it as a major Luftwaffe military airfield during the occupation. It was liberated by Allied ground forces about 21 August 1944 during the Northern France Campaign. It was then used by the United States Army Air Force Ninth Air Force as a combat Advanced Landing Ground. Declared operational on 26 August, the airfield was designated as "A-41", and was used by combat units until the end of the war. Afterward the airport was returned to civil control.[4][5] The airport was closed after the war due to a conflict of airspace with the expanding Orly Airport near Paris, and is now a small grass airfield general aviation airport with no commercial traffic.[6][7]
Louis-Nicolas Robert (1761–1828), inventor of the Fourdrinier machine. He is commemorated by a statue in front of the church. Also, the Collège de Louis-Nicolas Robert in the quartier des Grandes Vauvettes is named in his honour.
^Johnson, David C. (1988), U.S. Army Air Forces Continental Airfields (ETO), D-Day to V-E Day; Research Division, USAF Historical Research Center, Maxwell AFB, Alabama.
^Maurer, Maurer. Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1983. ISBN0-89201-092-4.
^McAuliffe, Jerome J. (2005). US Air Force in France 1950-1967. San Diego, California: Milspec Press, Chapter 10, "Dreux-Louvillier Air Base". ISBN0-9770371-1-8.
