RAF Knettishall
Encyclopedia
RAF Knettishall is a former World War II airfield in England. The field is located 6 miles SE of Thetford
in Suffolk
between the villages of Knettishall
and Coney Weston
, which lies to the south. This location is on the southern side of the Little Ouse Valley and bordering the area of heath and forest known as the Breckland.
use during 1942/1943 by W. & C. French Ltd. It was a late-design, heavy bomber airfield to Class A specification, and had the standard fifty-yard-wide concrete runways, the main being 6,000 feet long and the two intersecting secondary runways of 4,200 feet each in length, with an encircling perimeter track. There were fifty hardstands, two T2-type hangars and full technical services. Mark II airfield lighting permitted night flying.
Accommodation - largely Nissen huts - was provided in some dozen dispersed sites to the south of the flying airfield in the village of Coney Weston. The bomb store was situated on the far side of the field in a wood near Knettishall village.
. The 388th arrived from Wendover AAF
Utah
and was assigned to the 45th Combat Bombardment Wing. Its group tail code was a "Square-H". Its operational squadrons were:
The group flew Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses as part of the Eighth Air Force's strategic bombing campaign.
The 388th BG began combat operations on 17 July 1943 by attacking an aircraft factory in Amsterdam
. The unit functioned primarily as a strategic bombardment organization until the war ended. Targets included industries, naval installations, oil storage plants, refineries, and communications centers in Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, Norway, Romania and Holland.
The group received a Distinguished Unit Citation for withstanding heavy opposition to bomb a vital aircraft factory at Regensburg
on 1 August 1943. The 388th received another DUC for three outstanding missions: an attack against a tire and rubber factory in Hanover
on 26 July 1943; the bombardment of a synthetic oil refinery in Brux
on 12 May 1944; and a strike against a synthetic oil refinery at Ruhland
on 21 June 1944, during a shuttle raid from England to the Soviet Union.
The unit attacked many other significant targets, including aircraft factories in Kassel
, Reims
, and Brunswick
; airfields in Bordeaux
, Paris, and Berlin; naval works at La Pallice, Emden
, and Kiel
; chemical industries in Ludwigshafen; ball-bearing plants in Schweinfurt
; and marshalling yards in Brussels
, Osnabrück
, and Bielefeld
. Operations also included support and interdictory missions. Helped prepare for the invasion of Normandy
by attacking military installations in France, and on D-Day struck coastal guns, field batteries, and transportation. Continued to support ground forces during the campaign that followed, hitting such objectives as supply depots and troop concentrations. Bombed in support of ground forces at Saint-Lô
in July 1944 and at Caen
in August. Covered the airborne assault on Holland in September 1944 by attacking military installations and airfields at Arnheim
. Aided the final drive through Germany during the early months of 1945 by striking targets such as marshalling yards, rail bridges, and road junctions.
Altogether the 388th flew 331 raids to European targets including nineteen Operation Aphrodite
missions from nearby RAF Fersfield
. After V-E Day, the group flew food to Holland to relieve flood-stricken areas.
The 388th returned to Sioux Falls AAF
South Dakota
and was inactivated on 28 August 1945.
as the base of the Depot Battalion, Royal Army Service Corps
(RASC). The various sections were scattered about in the buildings of the airfield. The Depot Battalion was a transit organisation of the RASC for movements around the world. There was a permanent staff and always good cricket and football teams.
The station was declared surplus to requirements on 22 February 1957 and was sold.
Today little is left of Knettishall airfield. A few single-lane farm roads are all that remains of the runways and taxiways, along with a handful of wartime buildings in various states of deterioration. An eight hundred metre grass airstrip has been constructed, adjacent to, and north of the line of the old east/west runway. Three small hangars house around six light aircraft. On a double loop hardstand to the west of the airfield three nissen-type huts and an old T-2 wartime hangar provides warehouse, storage and office space.
Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland district of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just south of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , has a population of 21,588.-History:...
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
between the villages of Knettishall
Knettishall
Knettishall is a village and civil parish in the St Edmundsbury district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located on the south bank of the River Little Ouse , in 2005 it had a population of 40...
and Coney Weston
Coney Weston
Coney Weston is a village in Suffolk, within the St. Edmundsbury district. It is a primarily rural residential town that has dormitory town status. It is north of Ixworth and from Bury St...
, which lies to the south. This location is on the southern side of the Little Ouse Valley and bordering the area of heath and forest known as the Breckland.
Overview
Knettishall was built for United States Army Air Force Eighth Air ForceEighth Air Force
The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana....
use during 1942/1943 by W. & C. French Ltd. It was a late-design, heavy bomber airfield to Class A specification, and had the standard fifty-yard-wide concrete runways, the main being 6,000 feet long and the two intersecting secondary runways of 4,200 feet each in length, with an encircling perimeter track. There were fifty hardstands, two T2-type hangars and full technical services. Mark II airfield lighting permitted night flying.
Accommodation - largely Nissen huts - was provided in some dozen dispersed sites to the south of the flying airfield in the village of Coney Weston. The bomb store was situated on the far side of the field in a wood near Knettishall village.
USAAF use
Knettishall was one of several stations in East Anglia which was associated with a single Eighth Air Force unit for the whole of its operational period. It was assigned USAAF designation Station 136.388th Bombardment Group (Heavy)
The airfield was opened on 10 June 1943 and was used by the USAAF 388th Bombardment Group (Heavy)388th Fighter Wing
The 388th Fighter Wing is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Combat Command Twelfth Air Force. The unit is stationed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.-Mission:...
. The 388th arrived from Wendover AAF
Wendover Air Force Base
Wendover Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base in Utah now known as Wendover Airport. During World War II it was a training base for B-17 and B-24 bomber crews. It was the training site of the 509th Composite Group, the B-29 unit which dropped the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs...
Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
and was assigned to the 45th Combat Bombardment Wing. Its group tail code was a "Square-H". Its operational squadrons were:
- 560th Bombardment Squadron
- 561st Bombardment Squadron
- 562d Bombardment Squadron
- 563d Bombardment Squadron
The group flew Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses as part of the Eighth Air Force's strategic bombing campaign.
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. The unit functioned primarily as a strategic bombardment organization until the war ended. Targets included industries, naval installations, oil storage plants, refineries, and communications centers in Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, Norway, Romania and Holland.
The group received a Distinguished Unit Citation for withstanding heavy opposition to bomb a vital aircraft factory at Regensburg
Regensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
on 1 August 1943. The 388th received another DUC for three outstanding missions: an attack against a tire and rubber factory in Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
on 26 July 1943; the bombardment of a synthetic oil refinery in Brux
Brux
Brux is a commune in the Vienne department in the Poitou-Charentes region in western France.-External links:*...
on 12 May 1944; and a strike against a synthetic oil refinery at Ruhland
Ruhland
Ruhland is a town in the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district, in southern Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated on the river Schwarze Elster, 12 km southwest of Senftenberg....
on 21 June 1944, during a shuttle raid from England to the Soviet Union.
The unit attacked many other significant targets, including aircraft factories in Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
, Reims
Reims
Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....
, and Brunswick
Braunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....
; airfields in Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, Paris, and Berlin; naval works at La Pallice, Emden
Emden
Emden is a city and seaport in the northwest of Germany, on the river Ems. It is the main city of the region of East Frisia; in 2006, the city had a total population of 51,692.-History:...
, and Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
; chemical industries in Ludwigshafen; ball-bearing plants in Schweinfurt
Schweinfurt
Schweinfurt is a city in the Lower Franconia region of Bavaria in Germany on the right bank of the canalized Main, which is here spanned by several bridges, 27 km northeast of Würzburg.- History :...
; and marshalling yards in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Osnabrück
Osnabrück
Osnabrück is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80 km NNE of Dortmund, 45 km NE of Münster, and some 100 km due west of Hanover. It lies in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest...
, and Bielefeld
Bielefeld
Bielefeld is an independent city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 323,000, it is also the most populous city in the Regierungsbezirk Detmold...
. Operations also included support and interdictory missions. Helped prepare for the invasion of Normandy
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
by attacking military installations in France, and on D-Day struck coastal guns, field batteries, and transportation. Continued to support ground forces during the campaign that followed, hitting such objectives as supply depots and troop concentrations. Bombed in support of ground forces at Saint-Lô
Saint-Lô
Saint-Lô is a commune in north-western France, the capital of the Manche department in Normandy.-History:Originally called Briovère , the town is built on and around ramparts. Originally it was a Gaul fortified settlement...
in July 1944 and at Caen
Caen
Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....
in August. Covered the airborne assault on Holland in September 1944 by attacking military installations and airfields at Arnheim
Arnheim
Arnheim may refer to:* Edith Arnheim , Swedish tennis player* Fritz Arnheim , German historian* Gus Arnheim , American band leader* Rudolf Arnheim , German American author...
. Aided the final drive through Germany during the early months of 1945 by striking targets such as marshalling yards, rail bridges, and road junctions.
Altogether the 388th flew 331 raids to European targets including nineteen Operation Aphrodite
Operation Aphrodite
Aphrodite and Anvil were the World War II code names of United States Army Air Forces and United States Navy operations to use B-17 and PB4Y bombers as precision-guided munitions against bunkers such as those of Operation Crossbow....
missions from nearby RAF Fersfield
RAF Fersfield
RAF Fersfield is a former World War II airfield located southwest of Norwich, Norfolk.Built in 1943/1944, the airfield was originally a satellite of RAF Knettishall. It was constructed to Class-A bomber specifications, with a main runway , and two secondary runways of...
. After V-E Day, the group flew food to Holland to relieve flood-stricken areas.
The 388th returned to Sioux Falls AAF
Sioux Falls Regional Airport
Sioux Falls Regional Airport , also known as Joe Foss Field, is a joint civil and military use airport located three nautical miles northwest of the central business district of Sioux Falls, a city in Minnehaha County, South Dakota, United States...
South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
and was inactivated on 28 August 1945.
Postwar military use
After the war, Knettishall was placed in the hands of a Royal Air Force holding group. Between 1946 and late 1948 it was used by the British ArmyBritish Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
as the base of the Depot Battalion, Royal Army Service Corps
Royal Army Service Corps
The Royal Army Service Corps was a corps of the British Army. It was responsible for land, coastal and lake transport; air despatch; supply of food, water, fuel, and general domestic stores such as clothing, furniture and stationery ; administration of...
(RASC). The various sections were scattered about in the buildings of the airfield. The Depot Battalion was a transit organisation of the RASC for movements around the world. There was a permanent staff and always good cricket and football teams.
The station was declared surplus to requirements on 22 February 1957 and was sold.
Civil use
With the end of military control, the runways and many of the buildings were broken up or demolished in the late 1950s.Today little is left of Knettishall airfield. A few single-lane farm roads are all that remains of the runways and taxiways, along with a handful of wartime buildings in various states of deterioration. An eight hundred metre grass airstrip has been constructed, adjacent to, and north of the line of the old east/west runway. Three small hangars house around six light aircraft. On a double loop hardstand to the west of the airfield three nissen-type huts and an old T-2 wartime hangar provides warehouse, storage and office space.