RAF Wattisham

52.1206, 0.9443 — view on OpenStreetMap ↗

About

RAF Wattisham opened in Suffolk in 1939 as a light-bomber station in No. 2 Group, its Bristol Blenheims of Nos. 107 and 110 Squadrons attacking enemy shipping in the war’s early months. Handed to the USAAF in 1942, it became a fighter base, the 479th Fighter Group flying P-38 Lightnings and P-51 Mustangs from it. After the war it was a front-line RAF fighter station, flying Hunters, Lightnings and Phantoms on Quick Reaction Alert, before passing to the Army Air Corps in 1993 as Wattisham Flying Station.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including RAF Wattisham — Wikipedia and Wattisham — Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust. The text is original and has been written from factual source material; no source text has been copied unless specifically quoted and attributed.

Photographs

Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1939-1941. Bristol Blenheim Mark IV, R3600, of No. 110 Squadron RAF, undergoes an elaborate servicing for the photographer at RAF Wattisham, Suffolk. Armourers unload 250-lb GP bombs and Small Bomb Containers (SBCs) of incendiaries from a trolley, while other groundcrew refuel the aircraft and attend to the engines, the cockpit and the gun-turret, accompanied by a pet dog on the engine cowling.
ⓘ licence & creditDaventry B J (Mr), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bristol_Blenheim_-_Wattisham_-_Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1939-1941._CH364.jpgView source & full licence →
RAF Bomber Command 1940 Blenheim crews of No. 110 Squadron at Wattisham add Le Bourget to a list of recent targets, August 1940.
ⓘ licence & creditPress Agency photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RAF_Bomber_Command_1940_HU104640.jpgView source & full licence →
Nedging Tye water tower and part of RAF Wattisham south HAS. Nedging Tye water tower and part of RAF Wattisham south HAS. Photographed from inside RAF Wattisham in Park Wood. Summer 1999.
ⓘ licence & creditmartin more / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nedging_Tye_water_tower_and_part_of_RAF_Wattisham_south_HAS_-_geograph.org.uk_-_95586.jpgView source & full licence →
ⓘ licence & creditAdrian S Pye / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Another_Yarnold_Sangar_or_Yarnold_shelter_at_RAF_Wattisham_-_geograph.org.uk_-_4419300.jpgView source & full licence →
ⓘ licence & creditAdrian S Pye / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Yarnold_Sangar_or_Yarnold_shelter_at_RAF_Wattisham_-_geograph.org.uk_-_4419295.jpgView source & full licence →
Aerial photograph of the USAAF 4th Strategic Air Depot at RAFWattisham looking north, 3 April 1946. Photograph taken by No. 540 Squadron, sortie number RAF/106G/UK/1365. English Heritage (RAF Photography).
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:4th_Strategic_Air_Depot_-_3_Apr_1946_Airphoto.jpgView source & full licence →

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