RAF Martlesham Heath

File:Martheath-July946.jpg

Martlesham Heath Airfield - 9 July 1946.

RAF Martlesham Heath is a former Royal Air Force airfield in England. The field is located 1 1/2 miles SW of Woodbridge in Suffolk.

RAF Use

Martlesham Heath was first used as an airfield during World War I. In 1917 it became associated with experimental aircraft and was later the home of the Aircraft and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE), which tested many of the aircraft and much of the equipment that would later be used in during World War II.

The A&AEE moved to RAF Boscombe Down just prior to the outbreak of hostilities in 1939 and Martlesham then became the most northerly station of RAF No. 11 Group, Fighter Command. Squadrons of Bristol Blenheim bombers, Hawker Hurricanes, Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Typhoons operated fmm this airfield and among the many pilots based there were such famous men as Roland Stanford-Tuck and Douglas Bader. Ian Smith, the post-war Rhodesian prime minister, was at Martlesham for a time.

USAAF Use

In 1943, Martlesham Heath became one of a group of grass-surfaced airfields earmarked for use by fighters of the Eighth Air Force. The airfield was assigned USAAF designation Station 369.

356th Fighter Group

The airfield was opened in May 1943 and was first used by the United States Army Air Force Eighth Air Force 356th Fighter Group, arriving from RAF Goxhill on 5 October 1943. The group was under the command of the 67th Fighter Wing of the VIII Fighter Command. Aircraft of the 356th were identified by a magenta/blue diamond pattern around their cowlings.

The group consisted of the following squadrons:

• 359th Fighter Squadron (QC)
• 360th Fighter Squadron (PI)
• 361st Fighter Squadron (QI)

The 356th FG served in combat from October 1943, participating in operations that prepared for the invasion of the Continent, and supporting the landings in Normandy and the subsequent Allied drive across France and Germany.

The group flew P-47's until they were replaced by P-51's in November 1944. From October 1943 until January 1944, operated as escort for B-17/B-24 bombers that attacked such objectives as industrial areas, missile sites, airfields, and communications.

Fighters from the 356th engaged primarily in bombing and strafing missions after 3 January 1944, with its targets including U-boat installations, barges, shipyards, airdromes, hangars, marshalling yards, locomotives, trucks, oil facilities, flak towers, and radar stations. Bombed and strafed in the Arnheim area on 17, 18, and 23 September 1944 to neutralize enemy gun emplacements, and received a Distinguished Unit Citation for this contribution to the airborne attack on Holland.

The group flew its last combat mission, escorting B-17's dropping propaganda leaflets, on 7 May 1945. It returned to Camp Kilmer New Jersey and was inactivated on 10 November 1945.

Postwar Use

With the departure of the USAAF, the airfield reverted to the RAF. In the immediate post-war years, Fighter Command squadrons were in residence at Martlesham hut the proximity to Ipswich and the physical limitations on lengthening the runways restricted jet operation. In an effort to improve the station the main runway was extended in 1955.

Early in 1946, the Bomb Ballistics and Blind Landing Unit moved in which, in 1950, was rechristened the Armament and Instrument Experimental Unit (A&IEU) remaining at Martlesham until disbanding in 1957.

An RAF Police flight had also occupied the station from 1951 - 1953. The following year, the A&IEU was disbanded and the station was retained in reserve status during which time an Air Sea Rescue helicopter unit was in residence.

In 1958, another Reserve Flight arrived and a Station HQ formed; No. 11 Group Communications flight moved in to be followed by HO No. 11 Group. These units were deactivated by the end of 1960, after which the airfield reverted to care and maintenance status before the Air Ministry closed the facility on 25 April 1963.

Martlesham Heath has now become an industrial and dormitory satellite of Ipswich and the four pre-war hangars and technical site buildings are now used for light industry and storage. Suffolk County Constabulary also have a new headquarters building on what was part of the airfield while dominating all is the colossal Post Office Research Centre situated on the north-east side just behind the old RAF technical site.

Nearby, on the old RAF parade ground. can be seen the memorial erected to the memory of those members of the 356th Fighter Group who lost their lives in World War II.

See also

• List of RAF stations
• USAAF Eighth Air Force - World War II

References

• Freeman, Roger A., Airfields Of The Eighth, Then And Now, 1978
• www.controltowers.co.uk Martlesham Heath
• 356th Fighter Group on www.littlefriends.co.uk