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 Chedburgh, in Suffolk, began as a satellite bomber airfield and quickly became part of the heavy night-bombing machine that characterised RAF Bomber Command’s mid-war offensive. Built as a standard ‘Class A’ bomber station with concrete runways, perimeter track and dispersed hardstands, it was closely linked with the nearby main station at RAF Stradishall. This relationship mattered: satellites like Chedburgh absorbed overflow aircraft, supported training and conversion, and provided resilience when weather, damage or operational pressures made a single base insufficient.
From 1942 Chedburgh operated within Bomber Command’s Group system and hosted Short Stirling units during a period when the four-engined Stirling carried much of the burden of early heavy-bomber operations. Stirling squadrons based here flew to targets in Germany and occupied Europe, and also undertook minelaying missions that attempted to disrupt enemy shipping routes. The airfield’s working rhythm was typical of a bomber station: pre-flight briefings in the afternoon, long hours of servicing and armament, then a surge of activity as aircraft took off into the night.
Chedburgh’s operational record includes both front-line squadrons and support units. Heavy Conversion Units were responsible for taking crews trained on twins and preparing them for four-engined heavies, a demanding transition that required extensive circuit work, night flying, instrument training and emergency drills. Chedburgh also became associated with the Polish Air Forces in Britain after the end of hostilities, when Polish-manned squadrons operated transport types and continued flying for a period before disbandment. This post-war chapter reflects the wider human story of allied airmen who had fought from British soil and then faced uncertain futures in a changed Europe.
The airfield, like many bomber bases, paid a price in accidents as well as combat losses. Heavy bombers operating at maximum weight in darkness and poor weather made airfield operations inherently hazardous. Nearby villages would have known the sound of engines at take-off power and the long, tense minutes after a raid when damaged aircraft attempted to return with wounded crew or failing systems. Even when crews survived, crash sites, dispersal repairs and runway patches became part of daily life.
- Primary role: Bomber Command heavy bomber operations and associated crew conversion training.
- Aircraft strongly linked with the station: Short Stirling, alongside other heavy types during later periods.
- Notable wartime and immediate post-war associations: bomber squadrons, Heavy Conversion Units, and later Polish-manned units.
After the war, Chedburgh followed the familiar path of many temporary wartime stations: flying ceased, buildings were stripped or repurposed, and much of the site returned to agriculture. Yet the layout of runways and dispersals still maps the wartime logic of survival and output, and its history sits squarely within the wider Suffolk landscape of bomber stations that sustained the RAF’s night offensive.