NHER 8170 (Monument record) - Site of World War Two airfield at Rackheath

Airfield. World War Two, presumably a satellite field to Horsham St Faith.
Road now laid across it. Most of runways remain (one used as a coal store), though some parts removed for agriculture.
E. Rose (NAU), 20 July 1977.

Control tower now used by a scrap merchant.
E. Rose (NAU).

1942: constructed for the USAF. Home from March 1944 to the 467th Bomb Group, the 'Rackheath Aggies', flying B-24 Liberators. By the end of the war the group had completed 212 missions, dropping over 13,000 tons of bombs, and was credited with the best overall bombing accuracy in the 8th Air Force. One Liberator called 'Witchcraft' flew a record 130 missions.
1945: RAF maintenance base; had private rail siding.
1959: closed.
1960: in private use.
See (S1) in file.
E. Rose (NAU), 3 August 1983.

Press cuttings (S1), (S2) and photograph (S3) in file.

December 2007. Norfolk NMP.
The World War Two airfield described above is visible as earthworks, structures and buildings on aerial photographs (S4)-(S8), with its runways centred at TG 2867 1413. The outline of the runways and perimeter track has been mapped by the NMP, together with significant structures such as hangars and the control tower. Unfortunately, although some aerial photographs from 1945 were available (S4), the first coverage of the site as a whole dated to April 1946 (S5). By this time, no clearly defined perimeter boundary was visible, and therefore to aid in defining the extent of the site (shown in the NMP mapping by the ‘Monument Polygon’), some of the smaller, more isolated structures were also mapped. It has also not been possible to record the chronological development of the site from the available aerial photographs; the site has been mapped, somewhat selectively, as visible in April 1946, by which time much of it was under cultivation, with parts of the runways perhaps already removed (shown by ‘Extent of Area’). It includes what were by then detached elements such as the small gun emplacements which surrounded the site (e.g. that at TG 2832 1501). Some of these emplacements (e.g. at TG 2830 1335) may have been for spigot mortars.
The airfield extended across an area measuring some 2.3km north to south by 1.5km east to west, incorporating, or at least running up to, Salhouse Station to the east. What is probably the control tower, which still survives, is visible at TG 2838 1368. Two hangars (recorded as Type T2 hangars by NMR TG 21 SE 25) are visible, one on the east side of the airfield, the other on the west (at TG 2924 1422 and TG 2816 1372 respectively). A cluster of huts and other structures around the westernmost of these, in the vicinity of what is now Rackheath Industrial Estate, marks the technical site. (The domestic site was dispersed across Rackheath Park to the southwest and is recorded separately as NHER 50740.) A bomb store and ammunition dump was located to the northwest of the runways, around TG 2873 1494 (see NMR TG 21 SE 25 and compare Seething Airfield, NHER 10466). Two circular structures at TG 2922 1397 may have been water towers and/or observation posts (one probably appears in the background of press cutting (S2)).
On more recent aerial photographs parts of the runways and tracks remain visible, together with the control tower. Other elements may also survive but this cannot be verified from the available aerial photographs.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 6 December 2007.

November 2008.
Proposal to reinstate observation post on the control tower.
See (S9) for further details
H. White (NLA) 28 January 2009.

For further information on the operational history of the airfield and photographs of remaining buildings, see (S10).
A. Cattermole (NLA), 13 January 2010.

Second World War Liberators were stationed at Rackheath Airfield.
See (S11) for further details.
L.Allison (NLA), 5 August 2010.

November 2022. Photographic Survey.
Photographic survey of extensive concrete pad exposed at proposed development site adjacent to Green Lane West (TG 2812 1346). This was the site of a fuel storage compound and a number of buildings marked as 'work service huts' on a 1944 plan.
See report (S12) and NHER 67559 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 6 November 2023.