RAF Metfield USAAF Station 366 |
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Located near Metfield, Suffolk, England | |
RAF Metfield - January 1947
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Coordinates | 52°22′01″N 1°23′46″E / 52.367°N 1.396°E |
Type | Military airfield |
Site information | |
Owner | Air Ministry |
Controlled by |
Royal Air Force United States Army Air Forces |
Site history | |
Built | 1943 |
In use | 1943-1945 |
Battles/wars |
European theatre of World War II Air Offensive, Europe July 1942 - May 1945 |
Garrison information | |
Garrison | Eighth Air Force |
Occupants |
353d Fighter Group 491st Bombardment Group |
Royal Air Force Metfield or more simply RAF Metfield is a former Royal Air Force station located just to the southeast of the village of Metfield, Suffolk, England.
Metfield was built as a standard, Class-A bomber design airfield, consisting of three intersecting concrete runways, fifty dispersal points and two T-2 type hangars. Additional buildings were also erected to house about 2,900 personnel on former farmland to the southwest. When it was constructed in 1943, it necessitated the closure of the B1123 road between Halesworth and Harleston.
The airfield was built for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Eighth Air Force as a heavy bomber field. During the Second World War it was known as USAAF Station 366. Metfield was one of the most isolated Eighth Air Force stations in Suffolk.
The first American occupants of Metfield was the 353rd Fighter Group, moving in from RAF Goxhill on 3 August 1943. The 353d was assigned to the 66th Fighter Wing, at Sawston Hall, Cambridge.
Operational squadrons of the 353d were:
Group markings were black, yellow, black, yellow spinners, with a 48-inch black and yellow check band around the cowling to the end of the exhaust stubs.
Equipped with P-47D Thunderbolts, operations commenced on 12 August 1943. It was the fourth P-47 unit to join the Eighth Air Force. From Metfield the 353rd flew numerous counter-air missions and provided escort for bombers that attacked targets in western Europe, made counter-air sweeps over France and the Low Countries, and dive-bombed targets in France.
On 12 April 1944 the 353rd moved to RAF Raydon.