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.
Overview
RAF Thorpe Abbotts was a wartime airfield at near Diss, Norfolk. During the Second World War it served as a USAAF Eighth Air Force heavy bomber base, home of the famous 100th Bomb Group (Heavy). opened as a wartime bomber station and used by the USAAF from 1943 until 1945.
Like most British wartime stations, RAF Thorpe Abbotts functioned as a small, self-contained town. Beyond the runways were technical areas for maintenance and armament, dispersed hardstandings to reduce losses during raids, and domestic sites where airmen, WAAFs or naval personnel lived, trained, and waited for the next tasking. On operational nights or intensive training days the routine revolved around briefings, meteorology, aircraft servicing, and a tight rhythm of take-off and recovery windows.
Units and aircraft
Aircraft commonly associated with wartime flying here: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
Records for RAF Thorpe Abbotts show a mix of operational and support activity. Some units were long-term residents with a stable identity, while others arrived as detachments – often for conversion training, gunnery work-ups, dispersal, or to cover a specific operational requirement. That pattern is typical of the RAF’s wartime system: stations were constantly re-tasked as the air war shifted from defence to offence, from the Battle of the Atlantic to the bomber offensive, and later to preparations for the invasion of Northwest Europe.
- 100th Bomb Group (Heavy)
- Component squadrons: 349th, 350th, 351st and 418th Bomb Squadrons
- Station support units: maintenance, armament and airfield services enabling sustained B-17 operations
Key moments
From Thorpe Abbotts the ‘Bloody Hundredth’ flew deep-penetration daylight raids over Europe, experiencing some of the heaviest loss rates of the campaign.
The group’s story includes major raids during 1943-44, the long transition from unescorted vulnerability to escorted mass formations, and continued operations through D-Day and the push into Germany.
Wider context: the RAF and its Allies depended on layered infrastructure. Training stations produced crews, conversion units taught them to survive in heavier or faster aircraft, and operational bases launched combat sorties. Even a ‘quiet’ airfield could be strategically important as a diversion, a dispersal site, or a specialist hub for ferrying, target-towing, glider operations, or meteorology.
After the war
The control tower is preserved as part of the 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum, keeping the station’s Eighth Air Force story tangible.
Landscape and flying conditions: RAF Thorpe Abbotts’s geography influenced operations. Prevailing winds dictated runway selection, while local terrain and weather shaped training and safety. In winter, short daylight and low cloud increased the workload; in summer, longer hours enabled intensive training programmes and high sortie rates. These practical factors are often reflected in accident reports and ORBs, which mention crosswinds, icing, fog, and diversion landings.
Landscape and flying conditions: RAF Thorpe Abbotts’s geography influenced operations. Prevailing winds dictated runway selection, while local terrain and weather shaped training and safety. In winter, short daylight and low cloud increased the workload; in summer, longer hours enabled intensive training programmes and high sortie rates. These practical factors are often reflected in accident reports and ORBs, which mention crosswinds, icing, fog, and diversion landings.