Full WW2 control tower details and photos for this wartime airfield are coming soon. Please check back later as this is work progress. If you would like to contribute information or photos please get in touch.
RAF Debach, near Woodbridge in Suffolk, is inseparable from the story of the United States Army Air Forces’ Eighth Air Force and the strategic bombing campaign over Europe. Built as a standard wartime bomber station and later assigned to American use, Debach became the wartime home of the 493rd Bombardment Group, one of the last heavy bomber groups to arrive in Britain and enter combat.
The 493rd Bomb Group reached Debach in May 1944 after the long transatlantic ferry route via Iceland and Ireland. The group flew Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and was organised into multiple squadrons whose daily work combined intense preparation with high-risk daylight missions. As the last Eighth Air Force bombardment group to become operational, the 493rd’s timing placed it squarely in the decisive final year of the air war, supporting the invasion of Normandy and the push into Germany.
Debach’s first combat mission became historically resonant: the group flew its first operational strike on D-Day, 6 June 1944. From that point the station launched the steady rhythm typical of a heavy bomber base – briefings, engine starts, formations assembling over East Anglia, long flights under fighter escort, and the return of damaged aircraft and exhausted crews. The 493rd’s targets ranged from enemy troop concentrations and fortifications supporting the Normandy campaign, to transport hubs, industrial sites and oil infrastructure deeper in occupied Europe and Germany. The group also supported major Allied operations such as the breakout from Normandy (Operation Cobra), the attempt to secure a Rhine bridgehead in the Netherlands (Market Garden), and the final assaults into the Reich.
As with all B-17 bases, the human cost was real. Losses came from flak, fighters, accidents and weather. The presence of a museum and preserved control tower at Debach today reflects the strength of local memory and the continuing effort to tell the airfield’s story in personal terms – crews, ground staff, and the surrounding Suffolk communities that lived with the noise and risk of heavy bomber operations.
Debach also represents the logistical sophistication behind the Eighth Air Force. A bomber group required enormous support: maintenance of engines and airframes, armourers loading bombs and ammunition, fuel and oxygen supplies, weather and intelligence staff, medical services, and a disciplined airfield organisation to manage mass take-offs and landings. The physical layout – runways, perimeter track, dispersals – was designed to keep aircraft moving safely and efficiently even when damage occurred.
After the war Debach returned to quieter use, but the wartime footprint remains unusually accessible through preservation and interpretation. For visitors, the airfield offers a direct connection to the last, relentless phase of the Combined Bomber Offensive – when crews launched from Suffolk day after day to support liberation, break German industrial capacity, and bring the war in Europe to an end.
Debach’s preserved control tower and museum displays also make it a valuable educational site, allowing visitors to understand a heavy bomber base from the inside – from briefing rooms to runway operations and return procedures.