RAF Bodney

RAF Bodney opened in March 1940 as a grass airfield in Norfolk, lying a few miles west of Watton. In its early years it served Bomber Command’s No. 2 Group, hosting No. 21 and No. 82 Squadrons. These units flew the Bristol Blenheim IV on the daylight light-bomber operations that characterised the group, later operating types such as the Handley Page Hampden and the Lockheed Ventura; No. 90 Squadron also spent a short period there evaluating the Boeing Fortress Mk I.

From the summer of 1943 the station passed to the United States Army Air Forces as Station 141, becoming home to the 352nd Fighter Group of VIII Fighter Command, Eighth Air Force. Flying the P-47 Thunderbolt and then the P-51 Mustang, the group’s 328th, 486th and 487th Fighter Squadrons earned the nickname the “Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney” from the distinctive blue noses painted on their aircraft. The group briefly deployed to the Continent over the winter of 1944-45 in response to the German Ardennes offensive.

The airfield closed in November 1945. The unpaved site was largely returned to agriculture, and parts of it have since been used for Army training.