Qualla: RAF North Pickenham

RAF North Pickenham: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit British Government, Public domain. In the words of one veteran of the 492nd Bombardment Group, 'the whole group was wiped out.' He was speaking, with the bluntness of a man who had been there, about the summer of 1944 at RAF North Pickenham. In three months of operations from May to August, the 492nd flew 64 missions and lost 51 of its B-24 Liberators to enemy action, plus six more to other causes. The unit was so badly broken that the survivors were transferred to other B-24 groups and the 492nd itself was reassigned to RAF Harrington for special operations duty. By the time North Pickenham closed for good in 1967, the airfield's runways had hosted bomber crews, Thor nuclear missiles, and the experimental Hawker P.1127 that would evolve into the Harrier jump jet.

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Image: British Government | Public domain

RAF North Pickenham: Class A Heavy Bomber Station

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Deben Dave, CC BY-SA 3.0. North Pickenham was built in 1942 and 1943 as a Class A heavy bomber station, with the standard three-runway pattern, T2 hangars, dispersal points, and accommodation for thousands of personnel. It was handed to the USAAF Eighth Air Force in April 1944 and designated Station 143. ...

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Image: User:Deben Dave | CC BY-SA 3.0

RAF North Pickenham: The Group That Was Wiped Out

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit British Government, Public domain. The 492nd's brief operational life was one of the war's most catastrophic. Its squadrons, the 856th, 857th, 858th, and 859th, entered combat in May 1944 and were essentially destroyed by August. The factors that piled up against B-24 groups in the spring of 1944 included intensif...

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Image: British Government | Public domain

RAF North Pickenham: Circle Z Takes Over

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit British Government, Public domain. The 491st Bombardment Group (Heavy), Circle Z tail code, moved in from RAF Metfield in August 1944 to occupy the suddenly empty hardstands. Their target list ran across Germany's industrial map: Berlin, Hamburg, Kassel, Cologne, Gelsenkirchen, Bielefeld, Hanover, Magdeburg. Once ...

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Image: British Government | Public domain

RAF North Pickenham: Thor Missiles and the Cold War

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JohnArmagh, CC BY-SA 3.0. After the USAAF evacuated in August 1945, North Pickenham passed through a series of RAF Maintenance Command roles. Then, on 1 December 1958, it was reopened for a very different mission. The newly reformed No. 220 Squadron RAF arrived equipped with Thor intermediate-range ballis...

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Image: JohnArmagh | CC BY-SA 3.0

RAF North Pickenham: Harrier Tests and Turkey Sheds

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit British Government, Public domain. The runways still had one more chapter. In the mid-1960s, North Pickenham was used for testing the Hawker P.1127, an experimental vertical takeoff aircraft that would evolve into the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the jump jet that would become one of the most distinctive aircraft of t...

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Image: British Government | Public domain