Duxford is Europe's premier aviation museum and has one of the finest collections of tanks, military vehicles and naval exhibits in the country. This famous heritage site began as an airfield in the First World War and played a vital role in the Second World War as an RAF fighter station and later as an American fighter base. There are a variety of exhibitions including Air Space, an exhibition of British and Commonwealth aviation, the American Museum, a memorial to the 30,000 American airmen who gave their lives flying from UK bases during the Second World War, and the Land Warefare Hall taking visitors on a journey from the First World War to the Gulf War and beyond.