Thorpe Abbotts airfield - Sub-Depot site

Derelict Places

Help Support Derelict Places:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

hamishsfriend

Veteran Member
Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2011
Messages
249
Reaction score
503
Location
Norfolk
According to local knowledge, the derelict Nissen huts nestling in a small woodland located between Billingford and Thorpe Abbotts are associated with the site of a nearby WWII airfield A closer look around the camp site reveals that there are about 10 very dilapidated Nissen huts still standing. All have identical interior layouts and most have wooden ends, but some do have brick walls. There are also a number of overgrown brick-built blast shelters, mainly situated around the perimeter of the site.

ph026.jpg


ph006.jpg


ph011.jpg


ph073.jpg


ph088.jpg


There used to be some seventy such sites spread across East Anglia, which for two years during World War II had become launch pads for USAAF's bombing raids into occupied Europe. Each airfield was home to 2000-3000 airmen, most of them volunteers. These sites became known as 'the fields of Little America' - and this is part of one of them.

ph079.jpg


ph054.jpg


ph066a.jpg


ph094.jpg


Thorpe Abbotts airfield was built in 1942/43 for the RAF (as a satellite airfield for RAF Horham). During the war it was home to the 100th Bombardment Group (Heavy) and given the USAAF designation 'Station 139'. After the war the field was transferred back to the RAF. It closed in 1956 and has since been returned to agricultural use. The cluster of Nissen huts quietly decaying in a nearby woodland once formed the airfield's Sub-Depot. (One of the huts was reportedly removed later and shipped to the "Mighty Eighth Heritage Centre" in Savannah, Georgia.)

ph024.jpg


ph020.jpg


ph035.jpg


ph034.jpg


After the war, these huts were converted into private dwellings comprising living area, kitchen and bedroom. They served as homes to those who had lost theirs during the war.

ph051.jpg


ph091.jpg


ph082.jpg


ph086.jpg


ph150.jpg


ph062.jpg


This is the only building still standing on the site of the 350th Air Refueling Squadron. It is located on the edge of a private woodland, across the field from the sub-depot site.

ph103.jpg


ph106.jpg


ph123.jpg


ph121.jpg


ph115.jpg
 
Thorpe Abbotts

The 100th Bomb Group (The Bloody Hundredth), 13th Combat Wing, 3rd Air Division operated B17 Flying Fortesses from Thorpe Abbotts (Station 139) June 1943 - April 1945.

The average life of an 8th Air Force B-17 crewman in 1943 was eleven missions!

Good find, excellent photographs
 
Thank you, Wallsey, for additional information. I believe that the 100th's losses were exceptionally high.
 
Only just noticed this report in my unreads. Love these tumbledown nissen huts, and it's humbling to think that they also became homes to those who'd lost theirs.
Really great site and fab pics as always, H. :)
 
what a good find, I was going to say what a rare find the old phone was, then noticed that you also found printed pornography which is even rarer. Proper dereliction, with hints of the past. just how i like it. Thanks.
 
struggle to think of a place I've been to which hasn't had printed pornos in! Haha.


lol thats so true, best collection is in a underground bomb store in wiltshire, not thats wansdyke staff would be using it ;)
 

Latest posts

Back
Top