RAF North Pickenham
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Royal Air Force North Pickenham or more simply RAF North Pickenham 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 East of
Swaffham Swaffham () is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District and English county of Norfolk. It is situated east of King's Lynn and west of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of and in the 2001 census had a population of 6,9 ...
,
Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
, England. It was originally opened in 1944 and finally closed in 1967.


History


USAAF use

North Pickenham was constructed in 1942/1943 as an "A" class heavy bomber station. It was handed over to 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 ...
(USAAF)
Eighth 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 Force ...
in April 1944. It was assigned USAAF designation Station 143.


492nd Bombardment Group (Heavy)

The first USAAF group to use North Pickenham was the 492nd Bombardment Group (Heavy), arriving from Alamogordo AAF,
New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
on 18 April 1944. The 492nd was assigned to the 14th Combat Bombardment Wing, and the group tail code was a "Circle-U". Its operational squadrons were: * 856th Bombardment Squadron (5Z) *
857th Bombardment Squadron The 857th Bombardment Squadron is one of the two predecessors of the 557th Tactical Air Support Squadron, an inactive United States Air Force unit, formed in 1985 by the consolidation of the 857th with another inactive bombardment squadron. It ...
(9H) * 858th Bombardment Squadron (9A) *
859th Bombardment Squadron The 859th Special Operations Squadron is a reserve unit of the United States Air Force. It was first activated in October 1942 as the 517th Bombardment Squadron, when the Army Air Forces replaced National Guard observation units that had been m ...
(X4) The group flew
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 ...
s as part of the Eighth Air Force's strategic bombing campaign. The 492nd Bomb Group entered service in May 1944, and suffered tremendous losses in July. In the words of one veteran, "the whole group was wiped out." In the three months it was operational it had flown a total of sixty-four missions losing fifty-one aircraft to enemy action and six by other causes. Subsequently, due to its heavy losses the organization was transferred to
RAF Harrington Royal Air Force Station Harrington or more simply RAF Harrington is a former Royal Air Force station in England about west of Kettering in Northamptonshire south of the village of Harrington off the A14 road. During the early Cold War, it wa ...
on 5 August for special operations duty less personnel and equipment and the surviving personnel transferred to other B-24 units.


491st Bombardment Group (Heavy)

With the departure of the 492d BG, North Pickenham was assigned to the 491st Bombardment Group (Heavy), relocating from RAF Metfield in Suffolk, in August 1944. The 491st was assigned to the 14th Combat Bombardment Wing, and the group tail code was a "Circle-Z". Its operational squadrons were: * 852nd Bombardment Squadron (3Q) * 853rd Bombardment Squadron (T8) * 854th Bombardment Squadron (6X) *
855th Bombardment Squadron The 855th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. The squadron was first activated as the 522d Bombardment Squadron at Lantana Airport, Florida, in October 1942, when it assumed the personnel and equipment of a Nationa ...
(V2) The group flew
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 ...
s as part of the Eighth Air Force's strategic bombing campaign. The 491st Bomb Group, less the air echelon, was transferred without personnel and equipment to North Pickenham initially in February 1944 briefly before being transferred to
RAF Metfield Royal Air Force Metfield or more simply RAF Metfield is a former Royal Air Force station located just to the southeast of the village of Metfield, Suffolk, England. Metfield was built as a standard, Class-A bomber design airfield, consisting ...
in March. With the withdrawal of the 492nd Bomb Group from operational missions in August the group was transferred back to North Pickenham . Upon its return, the 491st concentrated its attacks on strategic objectives in Germany, striking communications centers, oil refineries, storage depots, industrial areas, shipyards, and other targets in such places as Berlin,
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
,
Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
,
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 ...
,
Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; wep, Gelsenkiärken) is the 25th most populous city of Germany and the 11th most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River (a tributary of the Rhine), it lies ...
,
Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...
,
Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
, and
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 ...
; on one occasion attacked the headquarters of the
German General Staff The German General Staff, originally the Prussian General Staff and officially the Great General Staff (german: Großer Generalstab), was a full-time body at the head of the Prussian Army and later, the German Army, responsible for the continuou ...
at
Zossen Zossen (; hsb, Sosny) is a German town in the district of Teltow-Fläming in Brandenburg, about south of Berlin, and next to the B96 highway. Zossen consists of several smaller municipalities, which were grouped together in 2003 to form the cit ...
, Germany. While on a mission to bomb an oil refinery at Misburg on 26 November 1944, the group was attacked by large numbers of enemy fighters; although about one-half of its planes were destroyed, the remainder fought off the interceptors, successfully bombed the target, and won for the group a
Distinguished Unit Citation The Presidential Unit Citation (PUC), originally called the Distinguished Unit Citation, is awarded to units of the uniformed services of the United States, and those of allied countries, for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enem ...
. Although engaged primarily in strategic bombardment, the group also supported ground forces at
Saint-Lô Saint-Lô (, ; br, Sant Lo) is a commune in northwest France, the capital of the Manche department in the region of Normandy.
in July 1944; assaulted V-weapon sites and communications lines in France during the summer of 1944; dropped supplies to paratroops on 18 September 1944 during the airborne attack in the Netherlands; bombed German supply lines and fortifications 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; supported Allied forces in the airborne drop across the Rhine in March 1945; and interdicted enemy communications during the Allied drive across Germany in April 1945. The 491st Bomb Group returned to McChord AAF
Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
on 17 July 1945 and was inactivated on 8 September 1945.


Post-war RAF use

The USAAF evacuated North Pickenham in August 1945 with the airfield becoming an RAF satellite for No. 258 Maintenance Unit RAF (MU) at
RAF Shipdham Royal Air Force Shipdham or more simply RAF Shipdham is a former Royal Air Force station located 3 miles south of Dereham, Norfolk, England. The airfield now operates as Shipdham Airfield. History USAAF use RAF Shipdham was the first US ...
. North Pickenham was transferred to RAF Bomber Command in March 1948 and became inactive on 26 October. In August 1949, the airfield was transferred back to
RAF Maintenance Command RAF Maintenance Command was the Royal Air Force command which was responsible for controlling maintenance for all the United Kingdom-based units from formation on 1 April 1938 until being renamed RAF Support Command on 31 August 1973. History ...
and became home to No. 281 MU. On 1 December 1958 the station was reopened as the home for the newly reformed
No. 220 Squadron RAF No. 220 Squadron of the Royal Air Force (RAF) was founded in 1918 and disbanded in 1963 after four separate periods of service. The squadron saw service in both the First and Second World Wars, as a maritime patrol unit, and finally as part of Brit ...
, equipped with Thor nuclear missiles; the squadron was deactivated in October 1963 and the missiles removed. North Pickenham was later used for testing the Hawker P.1127, an experimental aircraft which would later evolve into the
Hawker Siddeley Harrier The Hawker Siddeley Harrier is a British military aircraft. It was the first of the Harrier series of aircraft and was developed in the 1960s as the first operational ground attack and reconnaissance aircraft with vertical/short takeoff and ...
, and the site was finally sold in 1967 at which point the station was officially closed.


Current use

With the end of military control, the airfield was developed into the site of a large
turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
farm with sheds built along all three runways. Later on a karting circuit was developed using part of the perimeter track and dispersal pans. Only a T2 hangar and a few bomb stores remain on the airfield site, however at some of the dispersed sites in and around North Pickenham village a few of the wartime buildings can still be found, including the headquarters block. A memorial stone in honour of the two Bomb Groups that flew from North Pickenham was dedicated during a 2d Air Division reunion in 1987. It is situated at the entrance to what was Site 4, the old mess site. On 11 November 1990 a quartz clock was presented to the villagers of North Pickenham by the 492d Bombardment Group. It hangs in the sanctuary of the parish church. A plaque in the church at
Metfield Metfield is a village in Suffolk, England, but its name is derived from Medefeld or 'Meadow feld' (see ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names''). It is situated close to the border with Norfolk, being approximately 5 miles south eas ...
was dedicated in 1992. A
memorial bench A memorial bench, memorial seat or death bench is a piece of outdoor furniture which commemorates a dead person. Such benches are typically made of wood, but can also be made of metal, stone, or synthetic materials such as plastics. Typically mem ...
in honour of the 491st Bombardment Group stands adjacent to the North Pickenham Village sign.


See also

*
List of former Royal Air Force stations This list of former RAF stations includes most of the stations, airfields and administrative headquarters previously used by the Royal Air Force. The stations are listed under any former county or country name which was appropriate for the du ...


References


Citations


Bibliography

* * Freeman, Roger A. (1991) ''The Mighty Eighth: The Colour Record''. Cassell & Co. *
controltowers.co.uk page



mighty8thaf.preller.us Pickenham Airfield



External links


492d Bomb Group website

491st Bomb Group website



"YouTube contemporary film of Thor missiles at North Pickenham"
{{DEFAULTSORT:North Pickenham Royal Air Force stations in Norfolk Airfields of the VIII Bomber Command in the United Kingdom Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom