Qualla: RAF Lavenham

RAF Lavenham: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit British Government, Public domain. His portrait hangs in the Swan Hotel in Lavenham to this day. The landlord was his friend, and he came up to the village from the airfield to drink in the bar with the timbered ceiling. On Christmas Eve 1944, Brigadier General Frederick Castle took off from RAF Lavenham at the head of the largest Eighth Air Force mission of the entire war: more than 2,000 heavy bombers covered by over 800 fighters, sent against eleven German airfields east of the Rhine. An engine failure forced him out of the lead. Rather than jettison his bombs over friendly troops, he stayed slow, became a target, and gave the bail-out order while remaining at the controls so his crew could get out. He went down with the aircraft. The Medal of Honor was awarded posthumously - the last one given to a member of the Eighth Air Force in Europe, and the highest decoration ever bestowed on a man who had taken off from this particular Suffolk field.

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Image: British Government | Public domain

RAF Lavenham: Building Station 137

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit assumed USAAF, Public domain. RAF Lavenham was not in Lavenham. The airfield, also called Cockfield in some records, sat a few miles north of the medieval wool town near the village of Alpheton. It was built through 1943, an enormous undertaking for a country at war: 190,000 cubic yards of concrete for the ru...

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Image: assumed USAAF | Public domain

RAF Lavenham: Gentlemen From Hell

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit British Government, Public domain. The 487th Bombardment Group (Heavy) arrived from Alamogordo Army Air Field in New Mexico on 5 April 1944, assigned to the 4th Combat Bombardment Wing of the 3rd Air Division. The group's tail code was a Square-P. They had four squadrons: the 836th, 837th, 838th and 839th Bombardm...

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Image: British Government | Public domain

RAF Lavenham: From D-Day to Berlin

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit British Government, Public domain. The 487th bombed airfields in France in May 1944 in preparation for the invasion of Normandy, then attacked coastal defences, road junctions, bridges and locomotives during the invasion itself. On D-Day, 6 June 1944, they aided ground forces. In July they hit German positions nea...

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Image: British Government | Public domain

RAF Lavenham: Castle's Mission

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit British Government, Public domain. On 24 December 1944, the Eighth Air Force launched its largest operation of the war. The objective was to bomb eleven German airfields east of the Rhine while another 634 heavy bombers attacked communication centres west of the river. Brigadier General Frederick Castle, the highe...

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Image: British Government | Public domain

RAF Lavenham: What's Left

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit British Government, Public domain. The 487th returned to Drew Army Air Field in Florida during August and September 1945 and was inactivated on 7 November. The airfield was closed in 1948 and the land returned to farming. The concrete cracked. Nature crept in across the dispersals. Most of the runways have been re...

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Image: British Government | Public domain