RAF Attlebridge

RAF Attlebridge lay about eight miles north-west of Norwich and opened in June 1941, built by the contractor Richard Costain Ltd. Its first occupants flew under RAF Bomber Command: No. 88 Squadron with Blenheim IVs and later Bostons from 1941, and from March 1943 the Dutch-manned No. 320 Squadron with B-25 Mitchells.

Under American control the airfield became USAAF Station 120. After a brief spell hosting the B-26 Marauders of the 319th Bombardment Group in late 1942, it became the long-term home of the 466th Bombardment Group, the “Flying Deck”, which arrived in the spring of 1944 with B-24 Liberators and its four squadrons, the 784th, 785th, 786th and 787th. The group’s first mission, on 22 March 1944, was to Berlin — said to be the longest opening mission flown by any group in the European theatre, a feat acknowledged by General Doolittle. The Liberators supported the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944 and went on to fly more than 5,600 sorties across 231 missions; 333 of its men were killed and close to a hundred aircraft lost, while the 785th Squadron completed a run of 55 consecutive missions without loss.

The last mission was flown on 25 April 1945. Attlebridge closed in 1956 and much of the site was given over to poultry rearing, though its control tower survives.