RAF Debach

RAF Debach USAAF Station 152
Located Near Woodbridge, Suffolk
Aerial Photo of Debach Airfield - 15 April 1946
RAF Debach RAF Debach, shown within Suffolk
Coordinates	52°08′19.95″N 001°16′11.06″E / 52.1388750°N 1.2697389°E / 52.1388750; 1.2697389Coordinates: 52°08′19.95″N 001°16′11.06″E / 52.1388750°N 1.2697389°E / 52.1388750; 1.2697389
Type	Royal Air Force station
Site information
Controlled by	Royal Air Force United States Army Air Forces
Site history
Built	1943
In use	1944-1946
Battles/wars	European Theatre of World War II Air Offensive, Europe July 1942 - May 1945

Royal Air Force Debach or more simply RAF Debach is a former Royal Air Force station located 3 miles (4.8 km) northwest of Woodbridge, Suffolk, England.

Debach was one of the last Eighth Air Force heavy bomber stations to be occupied. being built by the 820th Engineer Battalion (Aviation) of the US Army during 1943/1944. It was assigned USAAF designation Station 152 (DC).

USAAF Station Units assigned to RAF Debach were:

The airfield was opened in April 1944 and was used by the United States Army Air Forces 8th Air Force 493d Bombardment Group (Heavy), arriving from RAF Elveden Hall. The 493d was assigned to the 93d Combat Bombardment Wing, and the group tail code was a "Square-X" while equipped with B-24s. Its operational squadrons were:

The group flew both the Consolidated B-24 Liberator and the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress as part of the Eighth Air Force's strategic bombing campaign. Debach airfield was the last Eighth Air Force heavy bomber station to become operational, the group flying its first mission on D-Day. Unfortunately the American engineers had not made a very satisfactory job of constructing the runway and the concrete soon started to break up. By the end of 1944, the runway was so bad that the group had to move temporarily to RAF Little Walden while runways were repaired and strengthened. The group returned to Debach in March 1945.

The 493d BG used B-24's until they were replaced with B-17's in September 1944. The group operated chiefly against industrial and military installations in Germany, attacking an ordnance depot at Magdeburg, marshalling yards at Cologne, synthetic oil plants at Merseburg, a railroad tunnel at Ahrweiler, bridges at Irlich, factories at Frankfurt, and other strategic objectives. On 25 September, a bombardment of Strasbourg left a number of buildings destroyed in the historical city centre.