First allocated to the Eighth Air Force as a bomber base in August 1942, Rackheath was then earmarked as a fighter base but, because of delay in construction, was never used as such. Built during 1943, the station had three concrete runways, 50 loop hardstandings and two dispersed T2 hangars. The 467th Bomb Group, equipped with B-24s, occupied Rackheath from March 1944 to July 1945. During that period it flew 212 combat missions and, during the last few months of the war, led the Eighth Air Force in bombing accuracy. Witchcraft , a B-24H of the Group, held the record of 130 combat missions, the most for this type of bomber in the Eighth Air Force. Returned to the RAF and closed in 1945, the airfield quickly reverted to agriculture, with most of the concrete surfaces broken up for aggregate. However, the technical site became the Rackheath Industrial Estate, with several of the wartime buildings modified or extended. The Control Tower has been preserved and renovated as offices.