Qualla: RAF Hethel

RAF Hethel: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pipin81, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 1 August 1943 a second lieutenant named Lloyd Herbert Hughes flew a Consolidated B-24 Liberator at low altitude over burning oil refineries in Romania, with fuel streaming from holes that flak had torn in his wings. He pressed the bomb run, dropped his ordnance on target, and tried to put the airplane down in a forced landing it could not survive. He was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously. The airfield he had taken off from a few weeks earlier - and would never see again - sat in Norfolk fields seven miles south-west of Norwich, and today it is owned by Lotus Cars, which uses two and a half miles of his old runways as a sports-car test track.

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Image: Pipin81 | CC BY-SA 3.0

RAF Hethel: Station 114

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Evelyn Simak, CC BY-SA 2.0. Hethel was built in 1942 for the Americans and never really served the RAF as a wartime bomber base of its own. The USAAF designated it Station 114. The first arrivals in September 1942 were the 320th Bombardment Group flying Martin B-26 Marauders, who treated Hethel as a staging...

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Image: Evelyn Simak | CC BY-SA 2.0

RAF Hethel: The 389th Bombardment Group

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit assumed USAAF, Public domain. The unit that defined Hethel arrived on 11 June 1943 from Lowry AAF, Colorado. The 389th Bombardment Group (Heavy) - tail code Circle-C, four squadrons coded YO, EE, RR, and HP - flew B-24 Liberators in the Eighth Air Force's strategic bombing campaign. They had barely settled in...

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Image: assumed USAAF | Public domain

RAF Hethel: The Years of Maximum Effort

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Valyer at English Wikipedia., Public domain. From their return through April 1945 the 389th flew strategic missions against shipbuilding yards at Vegesack, industrial districts in Berlin, the oil plants at Merseburg, factory complexes at Munster, the marshalling yards at Sangerhausen, and the V-weapon sites stretched along ...

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Image: The original uploader was Valyer at English Wikipedia. | Public domain

RAF Hethel: Polish Squadrons, Polish Refugees, Lotus Cars

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Evelyn Simak, CC BY-SA 2.0. After the Americans left, Hethel was returned to RAF Fighter Command. Polish RAF personnel flying North American Mustangs were among the first arrivals - Polish flyers had been with the RAF since 1940 and many had nowhere to go home to after Yalta. From 1948 about 900 Polish disp...

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Image: Evelyn Simak | CC BY-SA 2.0