RAF Lavenham

Lavenham Airfield - 3 April 1946.

Ford B-24H-15-FO Liberator Serial 42-52618 "Chief Wapello" of the 839th Bomb Squadron. This aircraft was later transferred to 44th Bomb Group and crashed in the Netherlands on 28 January 1945.

Lockheed/Vega B-17G-85-VE Fortress Serial 44-8878 of the 836th Bomb Squadron over Paris.

RAF Lavenham (Also known as Cockfield) is a former World War II airfield in England. The field is located 7 miles N of Sudbury in Suffolk.

USAAF Use

Lavenham airfield was built during 1943. The technical site and administrative buildings were on the southern side of the airfield as were most of the dispersed temporary buildings which gave accommodation for 2,900 personnel. Concrete for the runways and three-and-a-half miles of perimeter track totalled 190,000 cubic yards and that for roads and buildings 52,000 cubic yards. Bricks used in buildings ran to 4,500,000 and excavations for all sites amounted to 679,000 cubic yards.

The airfield was opened in April 1944 and was used by the United States Army Air Force Eighth Air Force. Lavenham was given USAAF designation Station 137 (LV).

487th Bombardment Group (Heavy)

The 487th Bombardment Group (Heavy) arrived from Alamogordo AAF New Mexico on 5 April 1944. the 487th was assigned to the 4th Combat Bombardment Wing, and the group tail code was a "Square-P". It's operational squadrons were:

• 836th Bomb Squadron (2G)
• 837th Bomb Squadron (4F)
• 838th Bomb Squadron (2C)
• 839th Bomb Squadron (R5)

The group flew both the B-24 Liberator and the B-17 Flying Fortress as part of the Eighth Air Force's strategic bombing campaign and began combat in May 1944, bombing airfields in France in preparation for the invasion of Normandy; then pounded coastal defenses, road junctions, bridges and locomotives during the invasion.

Attacked German troops and artillery positions to assist British forces near Caen in July; struck gun emplacements to support the Allied effort at Brest in August and to cover the airborne attack on Holland in September 1944. Flew a few missions against German industries, refineries, and communications during the period May-Aug 1944, but operated almost solely against strategic targets from August 1944, when conversion to B-17's was completed in March 1945.

The 487th also attacked oil refineries in Merseburg, Mannheim, and Dulmen; factories in Nurnberg, Hannover, and Berlin; and marshalling yards in Cologne, Munster, Hamm, and Neumunster. Aided ground forces during the Battle of the Bulge, Dec 1944-Jan 1945, and turned again to support and interdictory operations in March 1945 as the Allies crossed the Rhine and made the final thrust into Germany.

The group returned to Drew AAF Florida during Aug-Sep 1945, and was inactivated on 7 November 1945.

Postwar Use

After the war, the field was closed in 1948. Today the airfield has now reverted back to agricultural use. While many of the roadways remain, the concrete has cracked, and nature is gradually encroaching. The runways have been removed to a large extent although a few sections do still remain. These are mainly used as roads for farming purposes such as haystacks and bales. The buildings, by and large, still exist, but are in various stages of dilapidation. The exception is the Control Tower, which is maintained

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 Lavenham
• mighty8thaf.preller.us Lavenham

External links

• 487th Bomb Group Website
• Lavenham Airfield Website
• Lavenham Airfield Photo Website
• Aerial Photo of RAF Lavenham from Multimap.Com