| RAF Metfield USAAF Station 366  .png) | |
|---|---|
| Located nearMetfield,Suffolk, England | |
 RAF Metfield - January 1947 | |
| Site information | |
| Type | Royal Air Force station |
| Owner | Air Ministry |
| Controlled by |  Royal Air Force United States Army Air Forces |
| Location | |
  RAF Metfield USAAF Station 366 Location in Suffolk | |
| Coordinates | 52°22′01″N1°23′46″E / 52.367°N 1.396°E /52.367; 1.396 |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1943 (1943) |
| In use | 1943-1945 (1945) |
| Battles/wars | European theatre of World War II Air Offensive, Europe July 1942 - May 1945 |
| Garrison information | |
| Garrison | Eighth Air Force |
| Occupants |  353d Fighter Group 491st Bombardment Group |
Royal Air Force Metfield or more simplyRAF Metfield is a formerRoyal Air Forcestation located just to the southeast of the village ofMetfield,Suffolk, England.
Metfield was built as a standard, Class-A bomber design airfield, consisting of three intersecting concreterunways, fifty dispersal points and two T-2 typehangars. Additional buildings were also erected to house about 2,900 personnel on former farmland to the southwest. When it was constructed in 1943, it necessitated the closure of the B1123 road betweenHalesworth andHarleston.
The airfield was built for theUnited States Army Air Forces (USAAF)Eighth Air Force as a heavy bomber field. During theSecond World War it was known asUSAAF Station 366. Metfield was one of the most isolatedEighth Air Force stations in Suffolk.
The first American occupants of Metfield was the353rd Fighter Group, moving in fromRAF Goxhill on 3 August 1943. The 353rd was assigned to the 66th Fighter Wing, at Sawston Hall,Cambridge.
Operational squadrons of the 353d were:
Group markings were black, yellow, black, yellow spinners, with a 48-inch black and yellow check band around the cowling to the end of the exhaust stubs.
Equipped withRepublic P-47D Thunderbolts, operations commenced on 12 August 1943. It was the fourth P-47 unit to join the Eighth Air Force. From Metfield the 353rd flew numerous counter-air missions and provided escort for bombers that attacked targets in western Europe, made counter-air sweeps over France and theLow Countries, and dive-bombed targets in France.
On 12 April 1944 the 353rd moved toRAF Raydon.
With the departure of the P-47's of the 353d, aConsolidated B-24 Liberators bombardment group, the491st Bombardment Group (Heavy) moved in. The 491st starting arriving on 15 May and the last aircraft arrived on 30 May 1944.
The 491st was assigned to the95th Combat Wing atRAF Halesworth. The group tail code was aCircle "Z". Its operational squadrons were:
The squadrons were unusual in it having its ground complement recruited from other stations of the 2nd Air Division. The group commenced operations on 2 June 1944.
The 491st attacked airfields, bridges, and coastal defenses both preceding and during theinvasion of Normandy. After D-Day, the unit 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,Kassel,Cologne,Gelsenkirchen,Bielefeld,Hannover, andMagdeburg.
On one occasion the 491st attacked the headquarters of the German General Staff atZossen, Germany.
On 15 August 1944, the 95th Combat wing was broken up and the 491st was moved toRAF North Pickenham.[1][2]
After the 491st moved, a small number of B-24's were still assigned to Metfield, under the command of the European Division of Air Transport, United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe (USSTAF). These aircraft were used by the1409th Army Air Force Base Unit, a classified unit engaged in clandestine transport operations to Sweden, flying out special materials and ferrying personnel.
The 1409th operated from Metfield until the end of the war operating the B-24s, as well asDouglas C-47 Skytrains andDouglas C-54 Skymasters. The unit also usedRAF Leuchars in Scotland as an advanced base.
On 4 March 1945 during "Operation Gisela" RAF Metfield was strafed by aJunkers Ju 88G-6 of theLuftwaffe, killing one man in the control tower. The aircraft crashed just south of the airfield, after attempting to attack an inbound B24 with itsSchräge Musik upward-firing cannon.
On 15 July 1944 at 7:30pm there was a major explosion at the Metfield bomb dump. Some soldiers from the 2218th Quartermaster Truck Company had arrived to deliver bombs. When they arrived, soldiers at the dump who operated the hoist were on a meal break; impatient, the Quartermaster group decided to unload the bombs without the crane. However these bombs were more sensitive than previous munitions: when they used a previously successful technique to drop the bombs off the back of the truck, one bomb landed on another, and they both exploded, detonating 1,200 tons of high-explosive and incendiary bombs at the bomb store, shaking the countryside for a radius of several miles. Six men were killed.[3] Three soldiers, Privates Donald P. Adkins, Donald L. Hurley and Steve W. Suchey are memorialised atCambridge American Cemetery asmissing in action.[4] Five B-24 bombers in nearby hardstands were damaged beyond repair, and six more were severely damaged.[5] There is an eyewitness account of being blown flat 3.5 miles away from the explosion.
After the explosion, an extended loop road was built to by-pass the crater left by the explosion; the crater became a dump for all manner of discarded items.
In May 1945, RAF Metfield was closed and returned to the RAF. It was subsequently abandoned, but remained in the hands of theAir Ministry.
RAF Metfield was not used by the Air Ministry after the Second World War ended and for years it sat abandoned and empty. In 1964 and 1965 the airfield and support buildings were sold to private individuals.
The former airfield was returned to agricultural use; however, the site of the bomb dump explosion could be seen for many years as a lake. When it was drained and cleaned out, all types of discarded equipment were found, including several unexploded bombs. Ordnance that had been tossed into the air in the bomb dump explosion was found over the years in the fields surrounding Metfield. Pieces of metal from the exploded bombs are still found scattered over the area.
In the late 1960s the main runways, taxiways and parking aprons were mostly torn up, with some turned into single-lane agricultural roads.
Only a few brick buildings, deteriorating Quonset (Nissen) huts, and some concrete aircraft taxiways remain to indicate that there had been an airfield there.
This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
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