Qualla: RAF Debach https://qualla.com/raf-debach en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:34:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/2/b/raf-debach-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: RAF Debach https://qualla.com/raf-debach RAF Debach: Introduction https://qualla.com/raf-debach/ Photo credit Thomas Nugent, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 6 June 1944, while the first waves of Allied troops were wading ashore on the Normandy beaches, the men of the 493rd Bombardment Group flew their first combat mission from a Suffolk airfield that had only become operational the day before. RAF Debach was the last of the great Eighth Air Force heavy bomber stations to open - the last in a building programme that had paved East Anglia with concrete since 1942. The 820th Engineer Battalion of the US Army had been pouring runways here through 1943 and into 1944, racing to finish in time for the invasion. They made it. What they did not make were runways that would survive the winter.

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Image: Thomas Nugent | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/2/b/raf-debach-wp/u12b-raf-debach-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full RAF Debach: Built In Time, Built Too Fast https://qualla.com/raf-debach/ Photo credit Mohammed Tawsif Salam, CC BY-SA 3.0. Debach sits three miles north-west of Woodbridge, on flat Suffolk farmland chosen for its proximity to the Channel and its lack of natural obstacles. The 820th Engineers laid out a standard Class A bomber field - three intersecting runways, fifty hardstandings, two T2 hangars, an...

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Image: Mohammed Tawsif Salam | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/2/b/raf-debach-wp/u12b-raf-debach-built-in-time-built-too-fast.mp3 0:06 2 full RAF Debach: The Targets, Named https://qualla.com/raf-debach/ Photo credit Andrew Hill, CC BY-SA 2.0. The 493rd's mission list reads like an atlas of the final year of war in Europe. An ordnance depot at Magdeburg. Marshalling yards at Cologne. Synthetic oil plants at Merseburg - one of the most heavily defended targets in the German air defence zone, where Luftwaffe fighters and...

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Image: Andrew Hill | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/2/b/raf-debach-wp/u12b-raf-debach-the-targets-named.mp3 0:06 3 full RAF Debach: After the Last Mission https://qualla.com/raf-debach/ Photo credit LakeKnowledge, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the war ended, the airfield's purpose ended with it. The 493rd flew home to Sioux Falls Army Air Field in South Dakota and was inactivated on 28 August 1945. Debach itself was used briefly as a prisoner-of-war camp for German PoWs, and then for displaced persons - the millio...

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Image: LakeKnowledge | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/2/b/raf-debach-wp/u12b-raf-debach-after-the-last-mission.mp3 0:06 4 full RAF Debach: What Remains Above the Stubble https://qualla.com/raf-debach/ Photo credit Martin Pettitt, CC BY 2.0. The western side of the airfield kept its character. The control tower still stands, and has been completely restored. Around it, a cluster of surviving wartime buildings now serves as the 493rd Bomb Group Museum, run by volunteers who collect and display the photographs, log boo...

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Image: Martin Pettitt | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/2/b/raf-debach-wp/u12b-raf-debach-what-remains-above-the-stubble.mp3 0:06 5 full