RAF Sudbury
Encyclopedia
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
airfield in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The field is located between the villages Acton
Acton, Suffolk
Acton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. The parish also includes the hamlets of Cuckoo Tye and Newman's Green. According to Eilert Ekwall the meaning of the name is Village by the Oaks....
, Great Waldingfield
Great Waldingfield
Great Waldingfield is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England about two miles north-east of Sudbury and two miles south-west of its sister village, Little Waldingfield. The village is split into two separate parts; the older and smaller part around the St...
and Chilton
Chilton, Suffolk
Chilton is a civil parish on the eastern outskirts of Sudbury in Suffolk, England.Once a normal village, Chilton today consists of scattered clusters of housing and an isolated Church of St Mary, and is a prime example of a deserted medieval village....
, around 2 miles east of Sudbury
Sudbury, Suffolk
Sudbury is a small, ancient market town in the county of Suffolk, England, on the River Stour, from Colchester and from London.-Early 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...
.
USAAF use
Sudbury airfield was opened in 1944 and was built to the standard Class A heavy bomber base with three intersecting concrete runways of standard lengths with Fifty hardstands and two T2 hangars to meet the USAAF bomber requirements. The airfield had a slight gradient towards the north-east and was constructed on what had been farmland. Most of the temporary building accommodation for some 3,000 men was situated around the village street of Great Waldingfield to the east of the airfield and accessible by crossing the B1115 road from Sudbury to Lavenham. The facility was used by the 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....
. Sudbury was given USAAF designation Station 174 (SU).
486th Bombardment Group (Heavy)
The 486th Bombardment Group (Heavy) arrived from Davis-Monthan AAFDavis-Monthan Air Force Base
Davis–Monthan Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located within the city limits, and approximately south-southeast of downtown, Tucson, Arizona....
Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
during March 1944. the 486th was assigned to the 4th Combat Bombardment Wing, and the group tail code initially was a "Square-O". When the group converted from B-24s to B-17s during the summer of 1944, the Group ID was changed to "Square-W", perhaps to avoid confusion with the Square-D on B-17s of the 100th Bomb Group. The 486th was the only group to change its ID.
Its operational squadrons were:
- 832d Bombardment Squadron832d Bombardment SquadronThe 832d Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last was assigned to the 486th Bombardment Group, stationed at Drew Field, Florida. It was inactivated on 7 November 1945.-History:...
(3R) - 833d Bombardment Squadron833d Bombardment SquadronThe 835th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last was assigned to the 486th Bombardment Group, stationed at Drew Field, Florida. It was inactivated on 7 November 1945.-History:...
(4N) - 834th Bombardment Squadron834th Bombardment SquadronThe 834th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last was assigned to the 486th Bombardment Group, stationed at Drew Field, Florida. It was inactivated on 7 November 1945.-History:...
(2S) - 835th Bombardment Squadron835th Bombardment SquadronThe 835th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the 486th Bombardment Group, based at Drew Field, Florida. It was inactivated on 7 November 1945.-History:...
(H8)
The group flew both the Consolidated B-24 Liberator and the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress as part of the Eighth Air Force's strategic bombing campaign and operated chiefly against strategic objectives in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
until May 1945. Targets included marshalling yards in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, and Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
; airfields 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 :...
and Münster
Münster
Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...
; oil refineries and storage plants in Merseburg
Merseburg
Merseburg is a town in the south of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt on the river Saale, approx. 14 km south of Halle . It is the capital of the Saalekreis district. It had a diocese founded by Archbishop Adalbert of Magdeburg....
, Dollbergen, and Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
; harbours in Bremen 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...
; and factories in Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
and Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
.
Other missions included bombing airfields, gun positions, V-weapon sites (total of nine "No Ball
Operation Crossbow
Crossbow was the code name of the World War II campaign of Anglo-American "operations against all phases of the German long-range weapons programme—operations against research and development of the weapons, their manufacture, transportation and their launching sites, and against missiles in flight"...
" missions beginning June 20), and railway bridges in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in preparation for or in support of the invasion of Normandy
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...
in June 1944; striking road junctions and troop concentrations in support of ground forces pushing across France, July-August 1944; hitting gun emplacements near 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...
to minimize transport and glider losses during the airborne invasion of Holland in September 1944; and bombing enemy installations in support of ground troops during the Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...
(December 1944-January 1945) and the assault across the Rhine
Operation Varsity
Operation Varsity was a successful joint American–British airborne operation that took place toward the end of World War II...
(March-April 1945).
The 468th Bomb Group returned to the Drew AAF
MacDill Air Force Base
MacDill Air Force Base is an active United States Air Force base located approximately south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida...
Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
during August 1945 and was deactivated on 7 November.
After the war, the field was closed in 1945. The base was returned to the RAF, who re-established 16 Recruit Centre (which had been disbanded in 1943), which was in operation from 11 October 1945 to 1946.
Civil use
With the end of military control, Sudbury airfield was returned to agriculture and was covered in vegetation or been dug up in sections so as to plant crops. Sections of the runways and hardstands have long been removed (though some still remain) and piles of concrete sit in dumps.The hangars are now used for grain storage, but only the base of the control tower remains.
See also
Sources
- Freeman, Roger A. (1978) Airfields of the Eighth: Then and Now. After the Battle ISBN 0900913096
- Freeman, Roger A. (1991) The Mighty Eighth The Colour Record. Cassell & Co. ISBN 0-304-35708-1
- Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0892010924.
- Sudbury
- mighty8thaf.preller.us Sudbury
- USAAS-USAAC-USAAF-USAF Aircraft Serial Numbers--1908 to present