RAF Knettishall

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Aerial Photo of Knettishall Airfield - 12 May 1951.

Boeing B-17F-90-BO Fortress Serial 42-30212 "Tom Paine" of the 388th Bomb Group. The group staff knew that nearby Thetford was the birthplace of Thomas Paine and decided to name the newly-arrived aircraft "Tom Paine" in his honour. The aircraft flew a number of operational sorties before supporting Operation Aphrodite missions. The aircraft was launched against a V-site at Watten on 6 August 1944. It experienced control problems and crashed into sea.

RAF Knettishall is a former World War II airfield in England. The field is located 6 miles SE of Thetford in Suffolk.

1 USAAF use
- 1.1 388th Bombardment Group (Heavy)
2 Postwar use
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] USAAF use

Knettishall was built for USAAF use during 1942/1943. It was assigned USAAF designation Station 136.

[edit] 388th Bombardment Group (Heavy)

The airfield was opened on 10 June 1943 and was used by the United States Army Air Force Eighth Air Force 388th Bombardment Group (Heavy). The 388th arrived from Wendover AAF Utah and was assigned to the 45th Combat Bombardment Wing. It's group tail code was a "Square-H". Its operational squadrons were:

560th Bomb Squadron
561st Bomb Squadron
562d Bomb Squadron
563d Bomb Squadron

The group flew 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 Russia.

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, Osnabruck, 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 St Lo 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. It was the 388th Group that was given the task of crewing the explosive-packed Fortresses of Project Aphrodite when the operation was begun on 23 June 1944. The idea was to pack 20,000 lbs of explosive into B-17s which had outlived their usefulness and for these to be flown towards their target by a crew of two. Before the aircraft left the British mainland, the crewmen would bale out leaving another aircraft to guide the flying bomb by radio to crash onto its target. Although the 560th Bomb Squadron was designated to operate the Aphrodites, the squadron was moved nearer the coast, however the bombers still had to fly over forty miles of populated countryside. The fear of a premature explosion became reality on 4 August when one explosive B-17 came to earth in a wood at Sudbourne Park, Suffolk leaving a crater 100 feet across.

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.

[edit] Postwar use

After the war, Knettishall was placed in the hands of a Royal Air Force holding group before the station was declared surplus to requirements on 22 February 1957. By the late 1960s, the runways and many of the buildings had been broken up or demolished. Today a few single-lane farm roads are what remains of the runways and taxiways, along with a few wartime buildings in various states of deterioration. An eight hundred metre grass strip has been constructed, adjacent to, and north of the line of the old east/west runway. Three small hangars house around six private light aircraft.