RAF Deopham Green

RAF Deopham Green was a wartime airfield in Norfolk, lying roughly two miles north of Attleborough. Built during 1942 and 1943 and opened in January 1944, it was constructed to the standard heavy-bomber pattern with paved runways. Although owned by the Air Ministry, the station — allocated USAAF designation Station 142 — passed almost immediately into American hands and served as a base for the United States Eighth Air Force.

Its sole operational occupant was the 452nd Bombardment Group (Heavy), comprising the 728th, 729th, 730th and 731st Bombardment Squadrons, which flew the four-engined Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. The group opened its account on 5 February 1944 with a raid on Brunswick and went on to fly around 250 missions, supporting the D-Day landings of June 1944 before mounting its final attack against Ingolstadt in April 1945. The cost was heavy, with some 110 aircraft lost. Two airmen, First Lieutenant Donald Gott and Second Lieutenant William E. Metzger, were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for a mission flown on 9 November 1944.

After the American departure the field reverted to the RAF, hosting No. 258 Maintenance Unit, and it was closed on 1 January 1948. Much of the site has since returned to agriculture, with sections of the old runways and taxiways surviving and part incorporated into a public road.