# RAF Thorpe Abbotts / USAAF Station 139



## hamishsfriend (Apr 4, 2011)

On occasion of a second visit to RAF Thorpe Abbotts / USAAF Station 139 I was able to explore a few more areas. I found this map > http://wikimapia.org/#lat=52.3774855&lon=1.2073803&z=14&l=0&m=b very helpful in that it shows all the different sites that used to surround the airfield, and their former uses. I am also grateful to Ron Batley of the Thorpe Abbotts Memorial Museum for all the information he kindly provided. 

Thorpe Abbotts airfield was built in 1942/43 for the RAF (as a satellite airfield for RAF Horham). During the war it was home to the 100th Bombardment Group (Heavy) and given the USAAF designation 'Station 139'. There used to be some seventy such sites spread across East Anglia, which for two years during World War II had become launch pads for USAAF's bombing raids into occupied Europe. Each airfield was home to 2000-3000 airmen, most of them volunteers. These sites became known as 'the fields of Little America'. After the war the field was transferred back to the RAF. It closed in 1956 and has since been returned to agricultural use. 

Of the various sites outlined on the map, USAAF Communal Site A is probably the most interesting to visit because there are a number of buildings still to be seen in what is now just a woodland. The first two buildings I found adjoin each other. They are a pump house, where the bore hole that connected the pump with the water table below can still be seen. Next to it there is the water treatment plant which has two concrete tanks at one side. None of the machinery remains.



























Next I came across the remains of the Sergents' shower block, the water tower. It is damaged and the roof has been fixed by using corrugated iron sheets. The adjoining shower block has long since been demolished but its outlines can still be seen on the ground.











The shower block stands beside a fairly large square building that used to house the emergency generator set. The generators were never needed and apart from what I take to be an extractor fan, the building is entirely empty.


























Following the track leading away from the generator house and towards USAAF Site 1, which used to be the 351st Squadron accomodation site, takes you past a long and very derelict Nissen hut. This was the Red Cross girls' hut. 











After the war it was converted into private living units, comprising a living area, a kitchen and a bedroom, to serve as homes to those who had lost theirs during the war. The only thing of interest I found was a primitive type of kitchen stove and a very much overgrown car that was probably dumped here at some later time.


























Beside the concrete track leading past the western edge of the woodland I photographed an old cast iron 'sluice valve' marker. 






The track leads past USAAF Site 2 but apart from a few overgrown blast shelters I did not see anything of interest, and nothing remains on the site of the former USAAF sick quarters. A small very derelict Nissen hut is the only building I saw at the north-western edge of the woodland.






Communal Site B (in the south), USAAF Headquarters (centre), WAAF site and the Technical Site (north) were located in the woodland on the other side of the public road. Communal Site B and the site of the headquarters are very much overgrown and apart from overgrown blast shelters there is nothing left to see here. 

A small building with a crumbling blast wall, situated beside a small stream in the northern section of the woodland and home to the Technical Site, housed the Speech Broadcast Centre. 





















This brick structure with its entrance secured by a blast wall stands at the north-western edge, what purpose it served I do not know.


----------



## Foxylady (Apr 5, 2011)

Some fabulous remains on that site. Cheers for such an interesting tour, H. 
The last structure is a Mech & Eng plinth, btw.


----------



## hamishsfriend (Apr 6, 2011)

Thanks, *Foxylady*, also for additional info re the structure depicted in the last photo!


----------



## stop line (Apr 7, 2011)

Some amazing photos and a shame that such remains are not given more protection. I think WW2 communal / domestic sites are much overlooked and disregarded. Soon they will no longer exist and this in my opinion is the strength of DP in recording them before they disappear.


----------



## night crawler (Apr 8, 2011)

That was very interesting and well researched, nice one.


----------



## hamishsfriend (Apr 8, 2011)

stop line said:


> Some amazing photos and a shame that such remains are not given more protection. I think WW2 communal / domestic sites are much overlooked and disregarded. Soon they will no longer exist and this in my opinion is the strength of DP in recording them before they disappear.



Thank you, I am glad you found the post interesting. I agree, it is more or less up to people like us to record what is left, and to the volunteers who run the museums that are often attached to WWII airfields, to preserve what they possibly can.


----------



## King Al (Apr 9, 2011)

Nice report H, there seems to be a lot left after 55 years  that poor Nissen huts seen beter days though!!


----------



## hamishsfriend (Apr 9, 2011)

King Al said:


> Nice report H, there seems to be a lot left after 55 years  that poor Nissen huts seen beter days though!!



Thank you. Yes, there are quite a few buildings left on Communcal Site A and on the depot site, a bit further to the south, there are also some scattered buildings on some of the farms in the area. I believe the Nissen huts only survived because they'd been converted to domestic use for families in need of a home after the war. Some were in use until the 1960s.


----------

