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RAF Snetterton Heath, near Attleborough in Norfolk, was one of the most important American heavy-bomber stations in East Anglia. Constructed as a Class A airfield with long concrete runways and extensive hardstandings, it was allocated to the United States Army Air Forces and became known as USAAF Station 138. Its wartime operational story shows how quickly a new airfield could be brought into use and then integrated into the vast machine of the Eighth Air Force.
The station briefly hosted the 386th Bombardment Group (Medium) in June 1943, operating Martin B-26 Marauders with squadrons such as the 553rd, 554th and 555th Bomb Squadrons. However, the 386th stayed only a few days before moving to RAF Boxted, as B-26 medium bomber groups were concentrated elsewhere. Soon after, Snetterton Heath became a major heavy bomber base when the 96th Bombardment Group (Heavy) arrived in June 1943.
The 96th Bomb Group flew Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and used the distinctive ‘Square-C’ tail marking. Its operational squadrons were the 337th, 338th, 339th and 413th Bomb Squadrons. From Snetterton, the group took part in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany: long daylight missions to industrial targets, transport nodes, airfields, oil facilities and fortified sites. Like other B-17 groups, the 96th relied on tight formation flying for mutual defence, with crews enduring flak-filled target areas and fighter attacks. The B-17’s ruggedness saved many lives, but the loss rate across the campaign remained severe, and Snetterton’s operational years were marked by both achievement and sacrifice.
On the ground, Snetterton functioned as a self-contained base community. Armourers and ordnance teams handled bomb loading and ammunitioning, engineering staff maintained engines and repaired combat damage, and intelligence officers debriefed crews to refine future missions. The airfield’s dispersal system allowed aircraft to be parked and serviced away from the main technical site, reducing vulnerability and keeping operations flowing even in periods of high activity. The combination of American personnel and Norfolk communities also created a distinctive wartime cultural footprint, with US servicemen living alongside local civilians in villages and temporary accommodation sites.
After the war the station passed through RAF maintenance use and then closed. Snetterton Heath found a famous peacetime afterlife when its runways and perimeter roads became the basis of the Snetterton motor racing circuit. Today, the relationship between wartime airfield geometry and modern track layout remains visible – a reminder that beneath the motorsport heritage lies the history of B-17s and B-26s that once took off from this Norfolk landscape to fight the air war over Europe.
For researchers and visitors, RAF Snetterton Heath 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.