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RAF Metfield, in Suffolk, became a USAAF heavy bomber station during the Second World War and illustrates the scale and intensity of the American daylight offensive from East Anglia. Built as a ‘Class A’ airfield with long concrete runways and extensive dispersals, Metfield was designed to generate sorties for four-engined bombers at industrial tempo. It entered service as the US presence in Suffolk expanded rapidly, turning the countryside into a dense network of operational bases.
The station is best known for hosting the 491st Bombardment Group (Heavy), which flew Consolidated B-24 Liberators. Liberator operations demanded careful management of weight, fuel and range, and they placed heavy maintenance burdens on engines, hydraulics, turbo-supercharger systems and defensive turrets. The group’s missions were part of the Combined Bomber Offensive: striking industrial targets, transport infrastructure, airfields and other systems across occupied Europe and Germany. As 1944 progressed, the emphasis increasingly moved toward targets that could create systemic disruption – rail chokepoints, marshalling yards and, especially, oil and fuel infrastructure that limited both German mobility and Luftwaffe activity.
A heavy bomber base like Metfield operated as a disciplined process. Briefings integrated weather, intelligence and route planning. Aircraft were fuelled and armed on dispersed hardstands, then launched in sequence to assemble and join the wider bomber stream. Returns were unpredictable: aircraft might arrive damaged, with wounded crew, or with failing systems. Crash and rescue readiness was essential, as were medical facilities and rapid engineering response. Ground crews worked through cold nights to repair flak damage, change engines and keep aircraft serviceable for the next cycle.
Metfield also had a strong social footprint. Thousands of American airmen lived in and around local villages, creating a wartime community of camps, billets and shared local spaces. The emotional rhythm of the base – anticipation at briefing, the long wait during missions, and the relief or grief on return – was repeated across East Anglia and remains a core part of local memory. Metfield’s story therefore combines strategic impact with human experience, showing how national plans were executed by daily routine and individual risk.
- Key unit: 491st Bombardment Group (Heavy), operating B-24 Liberators.
- Primary wartime role: Eighth Air Force daylight heavy bomber operations from Suffolk.
- Why it mattered: generated sustained sortie output that contributed to the weakening of German industry, transport and fuel systems, especially in the decisive 1944-45 period.
After 1945, the bomber force demobilised quickly and Metfield returned largely to rural use, but its wartime significance remains clear. It represents the ‘workhorse’ reality of East Anglia’s air war: sustained effort, high risk, and the relentless ground organisation that turned air power into continuous pressure.
Metfield’s significance is also tied to the long arc of 1944-45. As the Luftwaffe weakened and Allied fighters gained dominance, the bomber force could concentrate on system targets with greater consistency. Stations that could maintain serviceability under high tempo helped turn that opportunity into results, keeping pressure on transport and fuel networks until the end of the war.