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RAF Coltishall, near Norwich in Norfolk, entered the Second World War as a new airfield built on the eve of conflict and brought into service in 1940. The station’s early identity was shaped by the urgent need to defend Britain’s eastern approaches and the North Sea coastline, a corridor used by both enemy raiders and friendly shipping.
Construction began in 1939 and the airfield was initially conceived as a bomber station, but it opened as a fighter base in May 1940. In its first active wartime phase, Coltishall hosted Bristol Blenheims and then became associated with the fighter battle over Britain. The station operated Hawker Hurricanes and formed part of the wider air defence system that reacted to raids, coastal probes and attacks on ports, industry and airfields across East Anglia.
One of the best-known names linked to Coltishall is Douglas Bader, appointed to lead No. 242 Squadron, a largely Canadian Hurricane unit. While not exclusive to Coltishall, the station represents the type of fighter airfield where morale, leadership and rapid operational learning mattered as much as aircraft performance. By 1941-42, as tactics evolved and threats shifted, many stations along the east coast also adopted night-fighting duties, and Coltishall followed this pattern. The move to night fighters reflected the growing importance of radar-guided interceptions against Luftwaffe night operations and the need to defend both cities and the bomber bases that were becoming central to Britain’s offensive strategy.
Coltishall’s wartime story also includes a naval dimension. At various points the Fleet Air Arm operated aircraft from the station over the North Sea, illustrating how airfields could be shared, adapted and re-tasked across services depending on operational demand. Late in the war, Coltishall again became linked to offensive action: in early 1945 it hosted No. 124 Squadron flying Spitfire IX.HFs on fighter-bomber tasks, including attacks on V-2 launch infrastructure in the Netherlands. This is a reminder that ‘fighter airfields’ did not only defend; they also projected force across the Channel when opportunity allowed.
As the war ended, Coltishall briefly became a base for Polish RAF squadrons, part of the wider, poignant story of Allied airmen who had fought for liberation but faced uncertain futures when peace arrived. That short post-war chapter is still part of the station’s Second World War footprint because it reflects the immediate aftermath of victory and the reshaping of units and personnel in 1945-46.
In later decades Coltishall became famous for Cold War interceptors and, eventually, Jaguars, but its Second World War significance lies in the airfield’s adaptability: moving from new-build station to coastal defence fighter base, into night fighting and joint-service activity, and finishing the conflict as a platform for late-war offensive operations and Allied reorganisation.
A few wartime hardstandings and defensive features survived long enough to be recognised in heritage listings, reinforcing Coltishall’s place among the dwindling number of Battle of Britain-era fighter stations with visible remains.