Rackheath
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STATION 145
467th Bomb Group March 1944 to July 1945
Location:
Rackheath airfield was situated approximately five miles north-east of Norwich between the A1151 (Wroxham) road and the road to Salhouse.
All sites are now private property and permission must be obtained prior to visiting. Please contact Memorial Library staff.
Remaining buildings. etc.:
Very little of the runways, perimeter track, or hardstands remain. Most of the concrete has been broken up for hardcore, and the airfield site returned to farming.
The technical site has become the Rackheath Industrial Estate (reached from Green Lane) with several of the wartime buildings being modified or extended, and used for light industry. One of the access roads on the estate has been named Wendover Road to commemorate the airbase in the US where the 467th Bomb Group was formed.
The control tower is in reasonable condition for its age (60 years) although its external appearance does somewhat give a view of dilapidation; internally the structure is very sound. Tentative plans are in hand to restore the tower to its original condition by the new owners and use it as an administrative building. The T2 hangar nearby is virtually beyond recognition as to how it looked in 1943. Brickwork has been added to the front and the whole building has been repainted cream and green. The hangar is now used by Solus Garden & Leisure, Wholesale Gardening Distributors. Inside the building the roof girders appear to be original and identical to those seen on photographs taken in 1944. The other hangar on the eastern side of the airfield was dismantled many years ago.
Remains of some of the living quarters and associated buildings on the west side of Green Lane are on private property, as are the remains of the former main runway; permission needs to be obtained before entering these sites. Rackheath Hall itself, the former home of Sir Edmund Stracey, is being converted to residential apartments.
Memorials:
A memorial to the 467th Bomb Group consisting of a plaque and a bench was dedicated in 1983, and is situated near the village sign (featuring a B24) on the Salhouse Road, adjacent to Holy Trinity Church.
There is also a framed photograph commemorating the 467th Bomb Group in the "Green Man" public house on the Wroxham Road just opposite the airfield site, part of the Friends of the Eighth "pictures-in-pubs" project.
Another memorial relating to the 467th Bomb Group is a plaque in Kirby Bedon church which is about five miles from Norwich just to the north of the A146 Beccles Road. The plaque is in memory of four crew members of "Broad and High", a 788th Bomb Squadron Liberator who were killed in a crash near the church on the 18th August, 1944.
In July 1990, during a 2nd A.D.A. reunion, a new Memorial to the 467th B.G. was dedicated. It is situated at Rackheath Industrial Park (Wendover Road).
A plaque in memory of Private Dan Miney, who was killed on the night of 22nd April 1944 when a German ME-410 aircraft bombed the base, was dedicated on 22nd April 1996. The plaque was originally fixed on the very same building in which Private Miney worked. In 2002 the property was demolished by the current owner and a new building erected on the same site. The memorial plaque has been repositioned and can be seen on the north wall of the building which is just past the hangar, travelling west, and on the opposite side of Wendover Road.
There is also a Memorial at the village of Barsham (near Beccles) in honor of the seven 467th crewmen who were killed in a crash there on 22nd April 1944.
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Revised 12 July 2007
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