RAF Knettishall

Royal Air Force Station Knettishall USAAF Station 136
Located Near Thetford, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Aerial Photo of Knettishall Airfield - 12 May 1951
RAF Knettishall Map showing the location of RAF Knettishall within Suffolk.
Coordinates	52°22′26″N 000°52′41″E / 52.37389°N 0.87806°E / 52.37389; 0.87806Coordinates: 52°22′26″N 000°52′41″E / 52.37389°N 0.87806°E / 52.37389; 0.87806
Type	Military airfield
Code	KN
Site information
Controlled by	United States Army Air Forces
Site history
Built	1942
In use	1943-1957
Battles/wars	European Theatre of World War II Air Offensive, Europe July 1942 - May 1945
Garrison information
Garrison	Eighth Air Force
Occupants	388th Bombardment Group

RAF Knettishall is a former World War II airfield in England. The field is located 6 miles SE of Thetford in Suffolk between the villages of Knettishall and Coney Weston, which lies to the south. This location is on the southern side of the Little Ouse Valley and bordering the area of heath and forest known as the Breckland.

Knettishall was built for United States Army Air Forces Eighth Air Force use during 1942/1943 by W. & C. French Ltd. It was a late-design, heavy bomber airfield to Class A specification, and had the standard fifty-yard-wide concrete runways, the main being 6,000 feet long and the two intersecting secondary runways of 4,200 feet each in length, with an encircling perimeter track. There were fifty hardstands, two T2-type hangars and full technical services. Mark II airfield lighting permitted night flying.

Accommodation – largely Nissen huts – was provided in some dozen dispersed sites to the south of the flying airfield in the village of Coney Weston. The bomb store was situated on the far side of the field in a wood near Knettishall village.

Knettishall was one of several stations in East Anglia which was associated with a single Eighth Air Force unit for the whole of its operational period. It was assigned USAAF designation Station 136.

The airfield was opened on 10 June 1943 and was used by the USAAF 388th Bombardment Group (Heavy). The 388th arrived from Wendover AAF Utah and was assigned to the 45th Combat Bombardment Wing. Its group tail code was a "Square-H". Its operational squadrons were:

The group flew Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses as part of the Eighth Air Force's strategic bombing campaign.

The 388th BG began combat operations on 17 July 1943 by attacking an aircraft factory in Amsterdam. The unit functioned primarily as a strategic bombardment organization until the war ended. Targets included industries, naval installations, oil storage plants, refineries, and communications centers in Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, Norway, Romania and the Netherlands.