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RAF East Wretham sits near Thetford in Norfolk and is a good example of a wartime airfield that changed hands and missions as the campaign evolved. Built in 1939 and used from March 1940, it began as a Bomber Command station with grass runways. That early period reflected the RAF’s rapid wartime expansion: stations were brought into use quickly, sometimes with temporary surfaces, and then rebuilt or repurposed when operational requirements shifted.
By late 1943 East Wretham had been allocated to the United States Army Air Forces as Station 133. Its most famous tenant was the 359th Fighter Group, part of VIII Fighter Command. The group arrived from the United States and entered combat in mid-December 1943. Early operations were flown with Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, a powerful high-altitude escort fighter that could protect bomber formations but was limited by range. In April 1944 the group converted to the North American P-51 Mustang, the aircraft that transformed long-range escort and helped break the Luftwaffe’s ability to contest Allied bombing deep over Germany.
From East Wretham, 359th Fighter Group missions included bomber escort, patrols, strafing and dive-bombing, and weather reconnaissance. The escort task was central. Fighters would climb to meet incoming B-17 and B-24 formations, then shepherd them across the Channel and deep into occupied Europe, positioning themselves to counter enemy interceptors and to keep bombers together. As the war progressed, the group’s work expanded into armed reconnaissance and ground attack, targeting railways, bridges, road traffic and airfields – actions designed to paralyse German mobility and reduce the enemy’s ability to regroup.
East Wretham’s operational calendar maps directly onto key phases of the campaign. In June 1944 the group supported the Normandy landings by patrolling the Channel and striking transportation links close to the battle area. During the later summer and autumn it supported the push across France and the Low Countries, while winter operations included the renewed pressure of the Battle of the Bulge and the air war’s final push into Germany. These missions were long, exhausting and often flown in poor weather, demanding disciplined fuel management and navigation at a time when a single error could leave a pilot short of the English coast on return.
Behind the fighters stood a large station organisation: servicing squadrons, weather and signals units, engineering parties and security. Their work was as decisive as the combat: keeping engines tuned, guns harmonised, drop tanks fitted, and airframes repaired quickly so aircraft numbers remained high.
After the 359th departed in 1945 the airfield’s wartime role ended, but the story remains a sharp illustration of how East Anglia became the launchpad for Allied air superiority: a landscape of fighter bases whose daily business was escorting the bomber streams and fighting for control of the skies.
The airfield’s code letters and distinctive unit markings were part of a visual language across Eighth Air Force fighter bases, allowing aircraft to be identified quickly on the ground and in the air. Those details, small in isolation, mattered in crowded skies and busy dispersal areas.