B24 Stop 6 was Wendling. Station 118. It's NW of East Dereham in Norfolk as was the most northerly 8th AF base. Built in 1942 by Taylor Woodrow it was used by both the RAF and the USAAF. The airfield building program was the biggest construction programme ever conducted in Great Britain. After the war it was used as a relief landing ground until 1961 when it passed back to agriculture. Like many former USAAF bases, they had two list war routes. Wendling went down the Turkey farm route where the runways have remained as bases for vast turkey sheds, most if not all original buildings have gone. The other route is for most of the runway and taxiway surfaces to be ripped up for road hardcore but some buildings to remain (Like Rackheath - but more later!). Back to Wendling:
Originally planned for use by RAF Bomber Command, in 1942 was assigned to the USAAF and became home to 392nd BG with B24s. The airfield had a NE/SW 6,000-foot (1,800 m) long main runway and two intersecting 4,200 feet (1,300 m) long secondary runways, all within a perimeter track.
Another twenty hardstands (loop type) were added to the thirty of the frying-pan type when the airfield was rescheduled as an 8th AF heavy bomber station. Two T2-type hangars were provided plus the usual full technical facilities, Mark II airfield lighting and dispersed accommodation for some 2,900 persons. The domestic sites were in the parish of Beeston to the west of the airfield and the bomb dump and ammunition stores were in Honeypot Wood to the south-east.
The 392nd BG arrived from New Mexico in July 1943. The tailcode was Circle-D. There were 4 bomb Squadrons; 576th, 577th, 578th and 579th. The BG was operational in Sept 43 flying missions all the way to April 45.
392nd BG attacked such targets as an oil refinery at Geisenkirchen, a marshalling yard at Osnabruk, a railroad viaduct at Bielfield, steel plants at Brunswick, a tank factory at Kassel, and gas works at Berlin.
The group took part in the intensive campaign of heavy bombers against the German aircraft industry during 20 – 25 February 1944, being awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for bombing an aircraft and component parts factory at Gotha on 24 February. The unit sometimes supported ground forces or carried out interdictory operations along with bombing airfields and V-weapon sites in France prior to the Normandy Invasion in June 1944 and struck coastal defences and choke points on D-Day.
The group hit enemy positions to assist ground forces at Saint-Lo during the breakthrough in July 1944. Bombed railroads, bridges, and highways to cut off German supply lines during the Battle of the Bulge December 1944 – January 1945. Dropped supplies to Allied troops during the air attack Hollandin September 1944 and during the airborne assault across the Rhine in March 1945 - takes us back to Easy Company and the 506th Easy Company and Upottery!
The 392nd Bomb Group flew its last combat mission on 25 April 1945, then carried food to the starving Dutch. The unit returned to the US to Charleston AFB South Carolina, in the north east of the USA on 25 June 1945 and was inactivated on 13 September 1945.
So what's at Wendling now, turkey sheds, but a wonderful memorial.