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 Ridgewell in Essex was a major USAAF heavy bomber station, designated USAAF Station 167. Built as a Class A airfield, it became closely associated with the 381st Bombardment Group (Heavy), which arrived in June 1943 and operated Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses from Ridgewell until the final phase of the air war in 1945. The airfield’s wartime identity is therefore deeply embedded in the Eighth Air Force’s strategic bombing campaign and the East Anglian landscape of bomber bases.
The 381st carried the ‘Triangle-L’ tail marking and consisted of four bomb squadrons: the 532nd Bomb Squadron (code VE), 533rd (VP), 534th (GD) and 535th (MS). From Ridgewell, these squadrons flew B-17s on missions against industrial and transportation targets across occupied Europe and Germany. As the campaign progressed, the emphasis shifted according to strategic priorities: early focus on aircraft production and U-boat infrastructure, later growing pressure on oil and transport networks, and increasing tactical support to Allied ground operations through attacks on rail yards, bridges and communications nodes.
A B-17 station ran on precision organisation. Crews received detailed briefings on targets, routes, flak defences and fighter threat. Aircraft were serviced on dispersal hardstands; engines and propellers were maintained meticulously; gunners’ turrets and radios were tested; and bomb loads were prepared to meet the mission’s demands. Ridgewell’s runways and perimeter tracks were designed for mass operations: staggered take-offs, assembly into group formation, then integration into a larger combat wing. Return flights brought damaged aircraft – some with engines out, some with wounded crew – requiring emergency handling, crash crews and rapid repair decisions.
Ridgewell’s human history is inseparable from its operational role. The Eighth Air Force sustained heavy losses during periods of strong enemy fighter resistance, and each base carried the weight of missing crews and empty huts. At the same time, the station fostered strong community connections with local Essex villages and towns. Social events, charity drives, and the everyday interactions of wartime Britain and visiting Americans formed part of the station’s lived experience. Those local ties remain a key part of the commemorative landscape around former USAAF airfields.
After V-E Day, the 381st returned to the United States and Ridgewell’s operational role ended, with post-war use including storage and disposal arrangements typical of many former bomber airfields. Yet the station remains historically valuable because it offers a concentrated view of how a B-17 group operated from England: squadron structure, airfield layout, mission tempo and the evolving focus of the strategic bombing campaign from 1943 through to the end of the war.
WW2 units, roles and aircraft:
- USAAF Station 167 – Eighth Air Force
- 381st Bombardment Group (Heavy) – Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress; tail mark ‘Triangle-L’
- Bomb squadrons: 532nd (VE), 533rd (VP), 534th (GD), 535th (MS)
Ridgewell’s place within the broader Essex and East Anglia bomber landscape also makes it useful for visitors tracing Eighth Air Force history. A short drive between former stations reveals how wings were concentrated to enable mass raids. Ridgewell’s ‘Triangle-L’ identity is one thread in that wider map of airfields that together sustained the air offensive.