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 Horsham St Faith, near Norwich in Norfolk, was a major USAAF heavy bomber station and later became widely known through its post-war transformation into Norwich Airport. In wartime it was designated USAAF Station 123 and built to ‘Class A’ standards: long concrete runways, extensive dispersal hardstandings, and the infrastructure required to operate four-engined bombers at high sortie rates.
The station is most closely linked to the 458th Bombardment Group (Heavy), operating Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers as part of the Eighth Air Force. Entering combat in 1944, the group’s operational period overlapped with the invasion and the final push into Germany. B-24 operations demanded careful planning – fuel, weight and route calculations were critical – and maintenance was intensive. Engines and turrets were worked hard, and airframes accumulated fatigue from long sorties over water and defended targets. The base therefore functioned like a factory, with skilled ground trades keeping availability high.
Missions from Horsham St Faith reflect the mature daylight campaign. Targets included transportation hubs, airfields, industrial sites and, increasingly, oil and fuel infrastructure. In the Normandy context, bomber operations helped isolate the battlefield by striking rail yards and bridges. As Allied forces advanced, the focus moved deeper into Germany and toward targets that directly reduced the enemy’s ability to move, supply and produce. Weather and flak remained constant challenges, and the return phase often involved damaged aircraft and emergency procedures, highlighting the importance of crash and rescue readiness at the station.
The airfield also had a strong community dimension. Thousands of American personnel lived in and around Norwich, and the interaction between US forces and local communities became part of the social memory of the war years. For Norfolk residents, the air war was heard and seen daily: aircraft assembling overhead, engines at dawn, and the occasional crash or forced landing that brought the danger home.
- USAAF identity: Station 123.
- Key unit: 458th Bombardment Group (Heavy), flying B-24 Liberators.
- Primary wartime role: Eighth Air Force daylight heavy bomber operations in 1944-45.
After the war, the airfield’s location and runways made it suitable for civil aviation, and that continuity helps keep its wartime story visible. RAF Horsham St Faith is therefore a useful case study: a Liberator base in the late-war peak, and an example of how wartime infrastructure shaped Britain’s post-war aviation landscape.
The airfield also demonstrates how wartime infrastructure shaped peace. Converting a bomber base into a civil airport required work, but the core investment – runways, approaches and space – already existed because of wartime necessity. That means Horsham St Faith is a clear example of a Second World War station whose legacy continued directly into the civilian world, preserving the physical imprint of 1944-45 operations.
For historians, the post-war continuation of flying on the same site provides a rare continuity. It allows the wartime geography – approaches, runway alignments and dispersal logic – to be interpreted in a living landscape, helping modern visitors understand how a 1944 bomber base functioned as a self-contained operational system.