EAST WRETHAM
An area of Breckland heath six miles north-east of Thetford, south-west of East Wretham village, came into use as a satellite for Honington in 1940. As with most hurriedly acquired sites for satellite aerodromes East Wretham started out with requisitioned properties and a few hastily-erected huts and even tents. Eventually, two grass runways were developed, NE-SW, measuring 1,880 yards and NNE-SSE at 1,400 yards. Over the next two years, 24 Macadam hardstandings with long access tracks were put down, and a technical site erected on the west side, with two Bellman and six Blister hangars at various points round the perimeter. The dispersed camp sites were north-west and north-east of the airfield and consisted of eight domestic, a communal and sick quarters. Wretham Hall was requistioned and used as an officers mess.
The station first came into use during the spring of 1940 as a dispersal for Honington's Wellingtons. In later months a more economic policy developed whereby a squadron from the parent station would be moved into the satellite and in mid-September 1941 this was No. 311 Squadron, which had started operations earlier in the month from Honengton, which was the first and only Czech manned squadron in Bomber Command. It flew from East Wretham until April 1942 when it was permanently transferred to Coastal Command, departing for Northern Ireland. During its stay at East Wretham, its Wellingtons had participated in some 145 raids with a loss of 20 aircraft. A Wellington equipped training unit for the Czechs, No. 1429 Operational Training Flight, was called upon to participate in two of the Thousand Bomber raids before it left in July.
In June 1942, East Wretham was allocated to the USAAF for development into a bomber station to Class A standard. This work was delayed and when runway laying commenced at Mildenhall when No. 115 Squadron was moved into East Wretham with its Wellingtons. One of the virtues of the airfield was the free-draining nature of its sandy soil and no problems were anticipated when No. 115 was converted to the radial powered Lancaster II in March 1943 and a conversion unit formed with this mark in the same month. The first Lancaster operation from East Wretham was flown on March 20, 1943. In June the plan to turn East Wretham into a Class A standard airfield was abandoned and instead the station was re-allocated to the USAAF for fighter use. No. 115 Squadron took its Lancasters to Little Snoring in August, there being no other suitable stations available in the traditional area of No. 3 Group. This was the end of RAF Bomber Command's association with the airfield, which had seen 60 aircraft lost: 39 Wellingtons and 21 Lancasters.
Officially transferred to the US Eighth Air Force in September 1943, the 359th Fighter Group and its three squadrons arrived in October and went into action in December flying P-47 Thunderbolts. The group converted to Mustangs the following spring and remained in occupation until the late autumn of 1945. East Wretham was officially returned to the RAF on November 1, 1945.
No further flying units were based at the station which was retained in a care and maintenance state under three different commands during the early post-war years. The camp was used to house Polish veterans and their families in the late forties. Although parts of the site were sold off in the 1950s, several of the camp sites were retained for use by the Army. Later still, a large part of the old airfield was incorporated into the adjoining Stanford Training Area.
