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RAF Seething, in Norfolk’s countryside south-east of Norwich, became one of the many East Anglian ‘heavy bomber’ bases that formed the backbone of the Allied air offensive. Built to Class A specifications and allocated to the United States Army Air Forces, Seething was known to the Americans as Station 146. Its concrete runways, hardstandings and dispersals were designed to support four-engined aircraft operating at maximum weight, day after day, in all weathers.
The airfield’s wartime identity is inseparable from the 448th Bombardment Group (Heavy), part of the Eighth Air Force. The group arrived late in 1943 and flew Consolidated B-24 Liberators, with four operational squadrons – 712th, 713th, 714th and 715th Bomb Squadrons – distinguished by their individual squadron codes and the group’s ‘Circle-I’ tail marking. Seething’s B-24s flew their first combat mission on 22 December 1943 and were soon immersed in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany and occupied Europe.
From Seething, the 448th attacked a wide range of targets: aircraft factories, ball-bearing plants, U-boat facilities, marshalling yards and synthetic oil refineries. The group took part in ‘Big Week’ (20-25 February 1944), the concentrated assault on the German aircraft industry, and continued operations through the final months of the war. Like other Liberator bases, Seething experienced the full human cost of daylight bombing: long missions over hostile territory, heavy flak, fighter attacks, and the grim arithmetic of aircraft that did not return.
Beyond the operational story, Seething was a self-contained wartime community. The technical site, bomb stores, briefing rooms and dispersed accommodation areas kept thousands of personnel functioning as a machine: armourers loading bombs and ammunition, engineers changing engines and repairing battle damage, radio and radar specialists keeping systems operational, and intelligence staff debriefing crews to refine tactics. The Liberator itself demanded skilled maintenance, and the pace of operations meant ground crews often worked through the night to generate aircraft for the next day’s mission.
After Victory in Europe, Seething’s role diminished as American units returned home and the RAF rationalised its airfields. Today, the station is remembered through surviving structures and dedicated local preservation efforts. The presence of a museum and restored features helps keep alive the story of the men and machines of the 448th Bomb Group, and of Norfolk’s central place in the Allied air campaign that helped secure the liberation of Europe.
For researchers and visitors, RAF Seething can often be understood through the surviving pattern of its runways, perimeter track and dispersal points. Even where buildings have vanished, aerial photographs and ground traces can reveal the technical site, the former station entrance, and the ‘domestic’ camps where personnel lived. These physical clues help connect the local landscape to the wider wartime system of aircrew generation, logistics and operations.
The 448th Bomb Group’s presence also shaped local communities: villages around Seething saw the arrival of Americans, the construction of accommodation camps, and the daily spectacle of Liberator formations assembling overhead. Wartime airfields like this left long memories in rural Norfolk, from the sound of engines at dawn to the quiet of empty dispersals after the war ended.