Former RAF Little Snoring | RAF - Royal Air Force, closed / former military

 RAF - Royal Air Force, draw only border, closed / former military

 Upload a photo

By the time Little Snoring was available for use in the summer of 1943, No. 2 Group was in the process of moving its units south and the airfields in north Norfolk were available to No. 3 Group. In August No. 115 Squadron with its radial-engined Lancaster IIs moved in from East Wretham which was to become an American fighter base. In the same month No. 3 Group's Lancaster conversion unit, No. 1678 HC Flight, also removed from East Wretham to Little Snoring for a few weeks before moving on to Foulsham. However No. 3 Group's extended domain was soon reduced with the proposed formation of the Bomber Support Group, No. 100.

In November 1943, No. 115 moved back west to Witchford having lost three Lancasters in operations from Little Snoring. Early in December No. 169 Squadron arrived from Ayr and a week later it was joined by No. 515 from Hunsdon. No. 169, a recently re-formed unit training on Mosquitos for the Serrate role, flew its first sorties seeking enemy night fighters during the Bomber Command raid to Berlin on January 20/21, 1944. No. 515 Squadron was equipped with Beaufighters on its arrival, but it started to convert to Mosquitos in February, undertaking its first sorties from Little Snoring in early April 1944. In June, No. 169 was moved to Great Massingham and No. 23 Squadron, newly returned from the Mediterranean area, took its place to practice No. 100 Group techniques. Nos. 23 and 515 Squadrons remained in residence to the end of hostilities, the latter disbanding in June 1945 and No. 23 in September. Another Mosquito squadron, No. 141, was moved in from West Raynham in July 1945 preparatory to disbandment two months later. A total of 55 Bomber Command aircraft were lost in operations flown from Little Snoring: 12 Lancasters and 43 Mosquitos.

In the immediate post-war period Little Snoring was used to store aircraft, mainly Mosquitos. It was then on care and maintenance until an anti-aircraft co-operation unit on civilian contract operated from the airfield over the Wash ranges for several years during the 1950s. Spitfires, the main type employed, gave way to Vampires before the unit was disbanded in 1958 and thereafter the airfield became redundant. The road to Thursford was reopened in the 1960s using part of the eastern perimeter track as the new route.

Local flying interest, sustained by the Cushing family who owned much of the land taken for the airfield, ensured that Little Snoring was maintained for club and private flying over the next three decades. The eastern and southern parts of all three runways have been removed but the remainder is retained for flying. Memorial plaques to the No. 100 Group squadrons - recording that they claimed 66 enemy aircraft destroyed and 75 damaged - are to be found in Little Snoring church.

www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/s24.html