Military site : airfield
Seething Field England, 448th Bomb Group, 715th Bom Squadron 1/11/1944 First mission over Germany in B-24 Liberator to bomb assembly factory for Messerschmitt (Me) 210 and Junkers (Ju) 88 airplanes. The group ahead of us had already hit the target and on the way back we bombed a factory in an unidentified German city near the Belgium border. Encountered heavy flack and about 15 ME 109 fighter planes. Had the shit shot out of us in 20 minutes with a 3 foot hole in our left wing, hydraulic system shot out. We were in a 6 ship formation but lost one of our planes. Our gunner shot down about 4 planes. Everything happened too damn fast but I was pretty scared. The German fighter is a damn good man but we are better and can lick them. The papers said it was the greatest air battle ever fought. We lost an unconfirmed 59 bombers and the Germans over 100 fighters. Having bullets and shells fired at you is very strange feeling one cannot comprehend until it actually happens. What I mean! A fellow really gets scared. If I would have had paper I would of wiped my ass “literally.” Funny I didn’t think of my past or anything but flying evasive action and keeping in the tightest formation. It is now the battle of “Germany” instead of the battle of Britain. Boy they are throwing every airplane they have into it. What a thrill, what a sight, we really hit our target. There were more planes in the air than there are stars in the heavens. God help those poor Germans who started the war we have only started. 2/6/1944 Mission to Gilze-Rijen Holland, Nazi occupied air base. 2/6/1944 Mission to Politz Germany, oil refineries 3/5/1944 My crew went down in Southern France. I was grounded. It was a pretty tough blow.
B-24J-5-FO 42-50767 "Wazzle Dazzle" Code: IO-S 448th BG - 715th BS
B-24J-1-FO #42-50699 "Fearless Fosdick" 448th BG - 713th BS
Official Air Ministry Record Site Plan-Dispersed Sites 1944
Official Air Ministry Record Site Plan-Airfield Site 1944
B-24H-15-CF, serial number 41-29489 Striped Ape
Main entrance Tonopah air field
Built during 1942-43 as an Eighth Air Force bomber base, Seething had three concrete runways, 51 hardstandings of both loop and 'frying-pan’ types, and two T2 hangars, one on each side of the airfield. It was home to the 448th Bomb Group, equipped with B-24s, from November 1943 to July 1945. On the evening of 22 April 1944, Luftwaffe Me 410 night-fighters caused havoc at Seething after following home a B-24 of the 714th Bomb Squadron, which was shot down along with two other B-24s, while a fourth B-24 crashed upon landing into wreckage on the runway. Handed over to the RAF in July 1945, the station was used temporarily as a surplus munitions store. Sold in 1959, the site mostly returned to agriculture after demolition. However, part of one wartime runway remains the heart of present-day Seething Airfield, operated by Wingtask 1995 Ltd, originally the Waveney Flying Group. The wartime Control Tower has been preserved as a Museum, home to the 448th Bomb Group Collection.
Not yet known
A former World War Two military airfield, opened in 1943 and closed in 1945. It was built in 1942-1943 by John Laing and Son Limited. The airfield was a "Class A" base completed to American specifications for use by the United States Army 8th Air Force 448th Bomb Group as Station 146. It was equipped with three concrete runways and hardstandings arranged around the perimeter track. There were two aircraft hangars (Type T2), one each on the north and south sides. The technical site was on the south edge of the airfield, communal and accommodation sites including barracks were dispersed in fields to the south of the flying field. A bomb store was situated to the west of the airfield. After the war the much of the airfield was used for agricultural purposes. The site is now home to the Seething Control Tower Museum, with the airfield being owned by a civilian flying group.
Group
The 448th Bomb Group was a B-24 Liberator Group that flew out of Seething, Norfolk. The Group flew their first mission on the 22nd December 1943 and over the next eighteen months the air crews flew 262 missions over occupied Europe. These bombing...
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Squadron
Browse 18th Weather Squadron photographs and other documents in the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library digital archive here: www.2ndair.org.uk/digitalarchive/Dashboard/Index/60
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Military | Staff Sergeant | Right Waist Gunner | 448th Bomb Group
Prisoner of War (POW) shot down by flak and crashed near Vez on 6/27/44 in B-24 #4250344
Military | Staff Sergeant | Top Turret Gunner | 448th Bomb Group
Killed in Action (KIA) crashed in B-24 'Daisy Mae' 42-94972
Military | Second Lieutenant | Observer / Top Turret Gunner | 448th Bomb Group
Assigned to 714BS, 448BG, 8AF USAAF. Failed to Return (FTR) Wessendorf in B-24 44-50838 'Red Bow' 4-Apr-45; A/C downed by fighters, broke up in flight near Lauenburg Killed in Action (KIA) MACR 13730
Awards: AM, PH.
Military | Second Lieutenant | Navigator | 448th Bomb Group
Shot down 19 May 1944 in B-24 #4252638 'SKEETER II'. Prisoner of War (POW).
POW
Military | Staff Sergeant | 448th Bomb Group
Killed in Action (KIA)
Military | Staff Sergeant | Left Waist Gunner | 448th Bomb Group
Assigned to 714BS, 448BG, 8AF USAAF. Failed to Return (FTR) Wessendorf in B-24 44-50838 'Red Bow' 4-Apr-45; A/C downed by fighters, broke up in flight near Lauenburg Killed in Action (KIA) MACR 13730
Awards: AM (3OLC), PH.
Military | Staff Sergeant | Right Waist Gunner | 448th Bomb Group
Crashed 1 April 1944 in B-24 #42110087. Evaded.
Military | Sergeant | Right Waist Gunner | 448th Bomb Group
Killed in Action (KIA) near Namur in B-24 'Lady Lora' #4250799
Military | Staff Sergeant | Radio Operator Gunner | 448th Bomb Group
Shot down 22 December 1943 in B-24 41-28609. Killed in Action (KIA).
Awards: PH.
Military | Second Lieutenant | Navigator | 448th Bomb Group
Assigned to 712BS, 448BG, 8AF USAAF. B-24H 41-28711 Stalled out into a spin due to ice build up over English channel on mission to Brux, Czechoslovakia, baled out before control was regained, 21-Apr-44. Killed in Action (KIA). MACR 4343.
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B-24 Liberator
Assigned to 713BS, 448BG, 8AF USAAF. Failed to Return (FTR) Hit by flak 25-Apr-44. Landed in Switzerland. 9 x Interned. MACR 4300.
B-24 Liberator
Assigned to 714BS, 448BG, 8AF USAAF. Failed to Return (FTR) mission to Ludwigshaven. Shot down Lt Detlef Grossfuss in Fw 190A-6 of JG 2/2y at Pontoise, France. 30-Dec-43 crew baled out. 9 x POW. 1 x KIA. MACR 4176.
B-24 Liberator
Assigned to 712BS, 448BG, 8AF USAAF. Failed to Return (FTR) mission to Brunswick, shot down by fighters 11-Jan-44. 5 x KIA, 5 x POW. MACR 2519.
B-24 Liberator
Assigned to 714BS, 448BG, 8AF USAAF. Failed to Return (FTR) mission to Ludwigshaven shot down 30-Dec-43, 6 x crew baled out, pilot, copilot, radio operator and engineer remained with A/C, with only the engineer surviving the crash. 7 x POW, 3 x KIA....
B-24 Liberator
Assigned to 713BS, 448BG, 8AF USAAF. Failed to Return (FTR) mission to Manheim, combat damaged 25-Apr-44. Landed in Switzerland. Destroyed by crew on landing. 10 x Interned. 10 x RTD. MACR 4364/15161.
B-24 Liberator
Assigned to 714BS, 448BG, 8AF USAAF. Failed to Return (FTR) mission to marshalling yards at Osnabruck hit by OberstLeutnant Peter Jenne JG 26/I killing Sgt Richard B Leing in the tail turret. Subsequently exploded in mid air. 2 x POW, 8 x KIA. MACR 2422.
B-24 Liberator
Assigned to 712BS, 448BG, 8AF USAAF. Failed to Return (FTR) mission to Brandenburg, Germany. Last seen crossing the coast with one engine feathered 9-Mar-44, crashed Nth of Arendonk, Belgium. 1 x RTD, 9 x POW. MACR 3339.
B-24 Liberator
Assigned to 458BG, 8AF USAAF. Transferred to 712BS, 448BG, 8AF USAAF. Flown by at least 13 different crews on 21 missions. Failed to Return (FTR) mission to Porcaro. Shot down by flak and fighters, crashed near Bonnehain 12-Jun-44. 8 x EVD, 1 x KIA....
B-24 Liberator
Assigned to 712BS, 448BG, 8AF USAAF. Stalled out into a spin due to ice build up over English channel on mission to Brux, Czechoslovakia, navigator baled out before control was regained, 21-Apr-44. Failed to Return (FTR) mission to Allach, Germany....
B-24 Liberator
B-24 41-28843, The Repulser, was attacked by heavily-armed ME 410 German fighters and crashed in the fields near Kessingland.
| Date | Contributor | Update |
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| 03 September 2019 12:49:39 | Emily | Changes to english heritage description |
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Historic England National Monument Record TM 39 NW 28 |
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| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 04 August 2016 23:34:19 | bloodsweatflak | Changes to media associations |
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Seething, England |
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| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 29 April 2015 17:54:11 | scooter6793 | Changes to media associations |
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Update |
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| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 27 September 2014 18:02:18 | AAM | AAM ingest |
| Sources | ||
Barry Anderson, Army Air Forces Stations (Alabama, 1985) / Roger Freeman, Airfields of the Eighth Then And Now (London, 1978) Roger Freeman, Mighty Eighth War Manual (2nd edn, London, 2001) Michael Bowyer, Action Stations 1: Wartime Military Airfields of East Anglia 1939-1945 (Cambridge, 1979) |
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