Royal Air Force Debach or more simply RAF Debach is a former

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

station located at

Debach Debach is a small village about four miles northwest of Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK. History At the time of the Domesday Book, 1086, it was called Debenbeis or Debeis, Depebecs, Debec or Debes and located in the Hundred of Wilford. The book lists t ...

, northwest of

Woodbridge Woodbridge may refer to: Places Australia *Woodbridge, Western Australia formerly called ''West Midland'' *Woodbridge, Tasmania Canada *Woodbridge, Ontario England *Woodbridge, Suffolk, the location of ** Woodbridge (UK Parliament constituency ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

United States Army Air Forces use

Debach was one of the last Eighth Air Force heavy bomber stations to be occupied. being built by the 820th Engineer Battalion (Aviation) of the US Army during 1943/1944. It was assigned USAAF designation Station 152 (DC). USAAF Station Units assigned to RAF Debach were: * 480th Sub-Depot * 18th Weather Squadron * 330th Station Complement Squadron * 1143rd Military Police Company * 1227th Quartermaster Company * 1788th Ordnance Supply & Maintenance Company * 878th Chemical Company * 2117th Engineer Fire Fighting Platoon

493rd Bombardment Group (Heavy)

RAF Debach - Consolidated B-24J Liberator 44-40321 Crew

493d Bombardment Group B-17 Flying Fortress Formation

The airfield was opened in April 1944 and was used by the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

8th Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces ...

493d Bombardment Group (Heavy), arriving from

Elveden Hall Elveden Hall is a large stately home on the Elveden Estate in Elveden, Suffolk, England. The seat of the Earls of Iveagh, it is a Grade II* listed building. It is located centrally to the village and is close to the A11 and the Parish Church. Curre ...

. The 493d was assigned to the 93d Combat Bombardment Wing, and the group tail code was a "Square-X" while equipped with B-24s. Its operational squadrons were: *

860th Bombardment Squadron The 860th Bombardment Squadron is a former United States Army Air Forces unit that was assigned to the 493d Bombardment Group during World War II. It was part of the last bombardment group to be assigned to Eighth Air Force. It flew combat mi ...

(NG) * 861st Bombardment Squadron (G6) *

862d Bombardment Squadron 86 may refer to: * 86 (number), a natural number * 86 (term), a slang term for getting rid of something Dates * 86 BC, a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar * AD 86, a common year of the Julian calendar * 1986, a common year of the Gregorian ...

(8M) * 863d Bombardment Squadron (Q4) The group flew both the

Consolidated B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

and the

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

as part of the Eighth Air Force's strategic bombing campaign. Debach airfield was the last Eighth Air Force heavy bomber station to become operational, the group flying its first mission on

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

. Unfortunately the American engineers had not made a very satisfactory job of constructing the runway and the concrete soon started to break up. By the end of 1944, the runway was so bad that the group had to move temporarily to

RAF Little Walden Royal Air Force Little Walden or more simply RAF Little Walden is a former Royal Air Force station primarily used by the United States Army Air Forces located north of Saffron Walden, Essex, England. The following units were here at some poin ...

while runways were repaired and strengthened. The group returned to Debach in March 1945. The 493d BG used B-24's until they were replaced with B-17's in September 1944. The group operated chiefly against industrial and military installations in Germany, attacking an ordnance depot at

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

, marshalling yards at

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

, synthetic oil plants at

Merseburg Merseburg () is a town in central Germany in southern Saxony-Anhalt, situated on the river Saale, and approximately 14 km south of Halle (Saale) and 30 km west of Leipzig. It is the capital of the Saalekreis district. It had a diocese ...

, a railroad tunnel at

Ahrweiler Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler () is a spa town in the German Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate that serves as the capital of the Ahrweiler district. The A61 motorway connects the town with cities like Cologne and Mainz. Formed by the merging of the ...

, bridges at Irlich, factories at

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, and other strategic objectives. On 25 September, a bombardment of Strasbourg left a number of buildings destroyed in the historical city centre. Additional operations included striking airfields, bridges, and gun batteries prior to and during the

invasion of Normandy Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...

in June 1944; hitting enemy positions to assist ground forces south of

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Saint-Lô Saint-Lô (, ; br, Sant Lo) is a commune in northwest France, the capital of the Manche department in the region of Normandy.airborne attack on the Netherlands in September 1944; attacking enemy communications during the

Battle of the Bulge The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive (military), offensive military campaign, campaign on the Western Front (World War II), Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted fr ...

, December 1944-January 1945; and assisting the airborne assault across the Rhine in March 1945. The 493d Bomb Group flew its last combat mission, an attack on marshalling yards at

Nauen Nauen is a small town in the Havelland district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is chiefly known for Nauen Transmitter Station, the world's oldest preserved radio transmitting installation. Geography Nauen is situated within the Havelland Luch glac ...

, on 20 April 1945. The unit returned to Sioux Falls AAF

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

and was inactivated on 28 August 1945.

Postwar use

After the war, Debach was used first as a

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. P ...

for German PoWs and later for

displaced person Forced displacement (also forced migration) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of persecution, conflict, g ...

s before being abandoned about 1948. It was sold in 1963-64, the main N–S runway becoming the boundary between two adjoining farms. The more interesting western side includes the control tower and several original buildings. The northern end of the main runway was sold in 1969 for the construction of a mushroom farm. Much of the concrete runways and taxiways were ground into aggregate for use during road building, and the land reclaimed to be used for agricultural crops. Many of the buildings on the former Technical site were torn down with one man being killed during the removal of the north-east T2 hangar. The other hangar is now a farm grain store. The control tower still stands and has been completely restored with other close buildings being used to display artefacts and act as a museum to 493rd Bomb Group. Pylons carrying electricity now cross the southern edge of the former airfield.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Arbib, Robert S. Jnr (1947), ''Here We Are Together'', The Right Book Club. Describes the life of the 820th building the airfield. * Freeman, Roger A. (1978) ''Airfields of the Eighth: Then and Now''. After the Battle * Freeman, Roger A. (1991) ''The Mighty Eighth: The Colour Record''. Cassell & Co. * Maurer, Maurer (1983). ''Air Force Combat Units of World War II''. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. .
www.controltowers.co.uk Debach

External links

Debach Airfield photo album

493d Bomb Group website

Tom Landry at The Lone Star Flight Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Debach Airfields of the VIII Bomber Command in Suffolk Royal Air Force stations in Suffolk