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{{Short description|Former Royal Air Force station in Suffolk, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2013}}
{{Infobox military installation
|name= RAF Metfield<br />USAAF Station 366
|ensign=[[File:Ensign of the Royal Air Force.svg|90px]]
[[File:Eighth Air Force - Emblem (World War II).png|60px]]
|location= Located near [[Metfield]], [[Suffolk]], England
|coordinates = {{coord|52.367|1.396|type:landmark|display=inline}}
|image= Metfield-18Jan1947.png
|image_size= 300px
|caption= RAF Metfield - January 1947
|map_type = Suffolk
|map_size =
|map_alt =
|map_caption =Location in Suffolk
|type= [[List of former Royal Air Force stations|Royal Air Force station]]
|code=
|built={{Start date|1943}}
|builder=
|materials=
|height=
|used=1943-{{End date|1945}}
|demolished=
|condition=
|ownership=[[Air Ministry]]
|controlledby={{air force|United Kingdom}}<br />[[File:US Army Air Corps Hap Arnold Wings.svg|20px]]&nbsp;[[United States Army Air Forces]]
|garrison=[[File:Eighth Air Force - Emblem (World War II).png|20px]]&nbsp;[[Eighth Air Force]]
|commanders=
|occupants=[[File:353rd fighter gp.png|20px]]&nbsp;[[353d Fighter Group]]<br />[[File:491patch.png|20px]]&nbsp;[[491st Bombardment Group]]
|battles= [[European theatre of World War II]]<br />Air Offensive, Europe July 1942 - May 1945
}}
[[File:RAF Metfield - Control Tower.jpg|thumb|The control tower at RAF Metfield, on 30 May 1944, AAF personnel waiting for returning aircraft.]]
[[File:B-24h-42-95219-491bg-metfield.jpg|thumb|Ford B-24H-25-FO Liberator Serial 42-95219 of the 854th Bomb Squadron]]
'''Royal Air Force Metfield''' or more simply '''RAF Metfield''' is a former [[Royal Air Force]] [[List of former Royal Air Force stations|station]] located just to the southeast of the village of [[Metfield]], [[Suffolk]], England.

Metfield was built as a standard, Class-A bomber design airfield, consisting of three intersecting concrete [[runway]]s, fifty dispersal points and two T-2 type [[hangar]]s.   Additional buildings were also erected to house about 2,900 personnel on former farmland to the southwest.  When it was constructed in 1943, it necessitated the closure of the B1123 road between [[Halesworth]] and [[Harleston, Norfolk|Harleston]].

==History==

===USAAF use===
The airfield was built for the [[United States Army Air Forces]] (USAAF) [[Eighth Air Force]] as a heavy bomber field.  During the [[World War II|Second World War]] it was known as '''USAAF Station 366'''.  Metfield was one of the most isolated [[Eighth Air Force]] stations in Suffolk.

====353rd Fighter Group====
The first American occupants of Metfield was the [[353rd Fighter Group]], moving in from [[RAF Goxhill]] on 3 August 1943.  The 353rd was assigned to the 66th Fighter Wing, at Sawston Hall, [[Cambridge]].

Operational squadrons of the 353d were:
* [[350th Fighter Squadron]] (LH)
* [[351st Fighter Squadron]] (YJ)
* [[352nd Fighter Squadron]] (SX)

Group markings were black, yellow, black, yellow spinners, with a 48-inch black and yellow check band around the cowling to the end of the exhaust stubs.

Equipped with [[Republic P-47 Thunderbolt|Republic P-47D Thunderbolts]], operations commenced on 12 August 1943.  It was the fourth P-47 unit to join the Eighth Air Force.   From Metfield the 353rd flew numerous counter-air missions and provided escort for bombers that attacked targets in western Europe, made counter-air sweeps over France and the [[Low Countries]], and dive-bombed targets in France.

On 12 April 1944 the 353rd moved to [[RAF Raydon]].

====491st Bombardment Group (Heavy)====
With the departure of the P-47's of the 353d, a [[Consolidated B-24 Liberator]]s bombardment group, the '''[[491st Bombardment Group]] (Heavy)''' moved in.  The 491st starting arriving on 15 May and the last aircraft arrived on 30 May 1944.

The 491st was assigned to the '''95th Combat Wing''' at [[RAF Halesworth]].  The group tail code was a '''Circle "Z"'''. Its operational squadrons were:
* [[852nd Bombardment Squadron]] (3Q)
* [[853rd Bombardment Squadron]] (T8)
* [[854th Bombardment Squadron]] (6X)
* [[855th Bombardment Squadron]] (V2)

The squadrons were unusual in it having its ground complement recruited from other stations of the 2nd Air Division.  The group commenced operations on 2 June 1944.

The 491st attacked airfields, bridges, and coastal defenses both preceding and during the [[D-Day|invasion of Normandy]].   After D-Day, the unit concentrated its attacks on strategic objectives in Germany, striking communications centers, oil refineries, storage depots, industrial areas, shipyards, and other targets in such places as Berlin, [[Hamburg]], [[Kassel]], [[Cologne]], [[Gelsenkirchen]], [[Bielefeld]], [[Hannover]], and [[Magdeburg]].

On one occasion the 491st attacked the headquarters of the German General Staff at [[Zossen]], Germany.

On 15 August 1944, the 95th Combat wing was broken up and the 491st was moved to [[RAF North Pickenham]].<ref name="Freeman2001p00">{{Harvnb|Freeman|2001|p=00.}}</ref><ref name="Maurer1980p00">{{Harvnb|Maurer|1980|p=00.}}</ref>

====1409th Army Air Force Base Unit====
After the 491st moved, a small number of B-24's were still assigned to Metfield, under the command of the European Division of Air Transport, United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe (USSTAF).  These aircraft were used by the '''1409th Army Air Force Base Unit''', a classified unit engaged in clandestine transport operations to Sweden, flying out special materials and ferrying personnel.

The 1409th operated from Metfield until the end of the war operating the B-24s, as well as [[Douglas C-47 Skytrain]]s and [[Douglas C-54 Skymaster]]s.  The unit also used [[RAF Leuchars]] in Scotland as an advanced base.

On 4 March 1945 during "Operation Gisela" RAF Metfield was strafed by a [[Junkers Ju 88#JU88 G|Junkers Ju 88G-6]] of the [[Luftwaffe]], killing one man in the control tower.  The aircraft crashed just south of the airfield, after attempting to attack an inbound B24 with its ''[[Schräge Musik]]'' upward-firing cannon.

====Metfield explosion====
On 15 July 1944 at 7:30pm there was a major explosion at the Metfield bomb dump. Some soldiers from the 2218th Quartermaster Truck Company had arrived to deliver bombs. When they arrived, soldiers at the dump who operated the hoist were on a meal break; impatient, the Quartermaster group decided to unload the bombs without the crane. However these bombs were more sensitive than previous munitions: when they used a previously successful technique to drop the bombs off the back of the truck, one bomb landed on another, and they both exploded, detonating 1,200 tons of high-explosive and incendiary bombs at the bomb store, shaking the countryside for a radius of several miles. Six men were killed.<ref name="Brazier">{{cite book |last1=Brazier |first1=Roy |title=The USAAF in Suffolk |date=2017 |publisher=Fonthill Media |location=Stroud |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=84klDwAAQBAJ&q=2218th+Quartermaster+Truck+Company+%28Aviation%29&pg=PT347 |language=en}}</ref> Three soldiers, Privates Donald P. Adkins, Donald L. Hurley and Steve W. Suchey are memorialised at [[Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial|Cambridge American Cemetery]] as [[missing in action]].<ref name="abmc">{{cite web |title=2218th Quartermaster Truck Company, Aviation {{!}} American Battle Monuments Commission |url=https://www.abmc.gov/db-abmc-burial-unit/2218th-quartermaster-truck-company-aviation |website=www.abmc.gov |publisher=American Battle Monuments Commission |access-date=22 February 2020}}</ref> Five B-24 bombers in nearby hardstands were damaged beyond repair, and six more were severely damaged.<ref name="AAMB">{{cite web |title=Metfield |url=http://www.americanairmuseum.com/place/248 |website=www.americanairmuseum.com |publisher=American Air Museum in Britain |date=27 September 2014}} {{Better source needed|date=September 2023|reason=cites Wikipedia as source, amongst reliable sources.}}</ref> There is an eyewitness account of being blown flat 3.5 miles away from the explosion.

After the explosion, an extended loop road was built to by-pass the crater left by the explosion; the crater became a dump for all manner of discarded items.

===Royal Air Force use===

In May 1945, RAF Metfield was closed and returned to the RAF.  It was subsequently abandoned, but remained in the hands of the [[Air Ministry]].

==Post-war==
[[File:Memorial To U.S.A.A.F. - geograph.org.uk - 315654.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Memorial plaque to U.S.A.A.F. to [[353rd Fighter Group]] and [[491st Bombardment Group|491st bomb group]]]]
RAF Metfield was not used by the Air Ministry after the Second World War ended and for years it sat abandoned and empty.  In 1964 and 1965 the airfield and support buildings were sold to private individuals.

The former airfield was returned to agricultural use; however, the site of the bomb dump explosion could be seen for many years as a lake. When it was drained and cleaned out, all types of discarded equipment were found, including several unexploded bombs. Ordnance that had been tossed into the air in the bomb dump explosion was found over the years in the fields surrounding Metfield.  Pieces of metal from the exploded bombs are still found scattered over the area.

In the late 1960s the main runways, taxiways and parking aprons were mostly torn up, with some turned into single-lane agricultural roads.

Only a few brick buildings, deteriorating Quonset (Nissen) huts, and some concrete aircraft taxiways remain to indicate that there had been an airfield there.

==See also==
{{Portal|United Kingdom|Aviation}}
*[[List of former Royal Air Force stations]]

==References==
{{Air Force Historical Research Agency}}

===Citations===
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
*{{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Freeman|2001}}|reference=Freeman, R. ''Airfields of the Eighth - Then and Now. After the Battle''. London, UK: Battle of Britain International Ltd., 2001. {{ISBN|0-9009-13-09-6}}.}}
* Freeman, Roger A. (1991) The Mighty Eighth The Colour Record. Cassell & Co. {{ISBN|0-304-35708-1}}
*{{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Maurer|1980}}|reference=Maurer, M. ''Air Force Combat Units of World War II''. USAF Historical Division. Washington D.C., USA: Zenger Publishing Co., Inc, 1980. {{ISBN|0-89201-092-4}}.}}
* [http://home.att.net/~jbaugher/usafserials.html USAAS-USAAC-USAAF-USAF Aircraft Serial Numbers&mdash;1908 to present]

==External links==
{{Commons category|RAF Metfield}}
* [http://www.491st.org 491st Bombardment Group website]
* [http://mighty8thaf.preller.us/php/1Loc.php?Base=Metfield United States Army Air Forces - Metfield]
* [http://8thcontrails.com/ipw-web/gallery/album68 Historic Metfield photo gallery]
* [https://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/TM3106579826 Photographs of RAF Metfeld from the Geograph British Isles project]

{{Royal Air Force}}
{{USAAF 8th Air Force UK}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Metfield}}
[[Category:Royal Air Force stations in Suffolk|Metfeld]]
[[Category:Airfields of the VIII Bomber Command in Suffolk]]