392nd Bombardment Group at Wendling

It was the first group in the Eighth Air Force to be fully equipped with nose-turreted B-24H Liberators.

The 392nd flew its first mission (Abbeville, France) on 9 September 1943 and the last (Hallein, Austria) on 25 April 1945.

The group received a Distinguished Unit Citation for its part in an attack on an aircraft factory at Gotha, Germany on 24 February 1944.

It took part in 285 missions and lost 184 planes, with 1,553 crewmen killed, missing or wounded in action.

If you would like to view photographs and other records relating to the 392nd Bomb Group, you can browse our digital archive.

It was opened in 1943 and was originally planned for RAF bomber use.

Instead it became home to the 392nd Bomb Group from August 1943 to June 1945.

All sites are now private property and you will need permission before you visit. 

The library has information on some base contacts and with their permission can pass this onto you. The Library itself is unable to organise site visits.

The airfield site is situated between the villages of Beeston and Wendling.

It is about four miles north-west of East Dereham, which is on the A47 trunk road between Norwich and King's Lynn.

However, no wartime buildings are now in existence on the airfield site itself.

Bernard Matthews Limited, the present owners, have built several large turkey sheds on parts of the former runways.

Part of the original HQ block can be seen further along the road from the memorial (see the following chapter), inside a structure that houses the Ben Burgess Agricultural Engineering Company.

The original Norden Bombsight Maintenance Store is also located on this site.

On the dispersed sites towards Beeston a few of the Quonset huts and other structures can be found.

The former combat officers' mess (now a car spares store) is of particular interest. It contains parts of a large mural which are still visible on one of the internal walls.

Other murals feature Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth.

Honeypot Wood

The woodland known as Honeypot Wood was cleared during the Second World War and concrete tracks and buildings installed.

It was mainly used as a bomb dump during this time.

Honeypot Wood was purchased by the Norfolk Naturalists Trust (now Norfolk Wildlife Trust) in 1987.

Today the concrete tracks are kept clear to provide easy access for wheelchair users and others.

It stands in a small plot just off the airfield, on the road to Beeston.

The obelisk and gardens were refurbished in 1989 and rededicated at a ceremony attended by a party of 392nd Bomb Group veterans.

You'll find photos of airmen, a Roll of Honor, aircraft listings and reunion information.

If you're looking to trace a particular airman, it also has a search facility.

The website can be found at www.b24.net.

Among those histories are:

• Col Robert L Vickers Jnr: Liberators from Wendling 
• Col Robert L Vickers Jnr: Wendling's Crusaders 
• Ian L Hawkins: 392nd Bombardment Group: 20th Century Crusaders 
• Peter Bodle and John Gilbert: The 392nd Bomb Group in Norfolk: A Pictorial History 

Information about the individual bases comes from from George H Fox's 8th Air Force Remembered: An illustrated guide to the memorials, memorabilia and main airfields of the US 8th Air Force in England in WW2 (London: ISO Publications, 1991).

For more on the history of the airfield, see:

• Martin Bowman: Bomber Bases of WW2: 2nd Air Division 8th Air Force USAAF 1942-45
• Michael Bowyer: Action Stations Revisited: No 1 Eastern England
• Ken Delve: The Military Airfields of Britain: East Anglia (Norfolk and Suffolk)
• Roger Freeman: Airfields of the Eighth Then and Now

If you're interested in any of these books you can find and reserve them at the Norfolk Online Catalogue.