458th Bombardment Group at Horsham St Faith

It was activated on 1 July 1943 at Wendover Field, Utah. The group was organised at Gowen Field in Idaho, before moving to Kearns Field, Utah in early September.

The final training was held in Nevada at Tonopah Airfield from late October until December 1943.

The ground crew left the United States on 18 January 1944, travelling on the USS Florence Nightingale.

The air crews flew their planes via the southern ferry route, with the last aircraft arriving on 18 February 1944 at their new base at Horsham St Faith.

This airfield had been used by the Royal Air Force and had permanent brick buildings, causing some envy among those assigned to other airfields in Norfolk!

The first mission was flown six days later. This was a diversionary mission along the coast of the Netherlands, to allow other bomber units to fly deep into Germany.

The first bombing mission flown by the 458th was on 2 March 1944 over Frankfurt, Germany.

Overall, it flew 240 missions, with its final mission on 25 April 1945.

During that time, the 458th lost 47 aircraft in combat from 5,759 sorties flown.

The 458th was redeployed to the United States in the summer of 1945, with aircraft leaving on 14 June and the ground crews following via the Queen Mary on 6 July 6.

The 458th was inactivated on 17 October 1945 with the end of the Second World War.

If you want to view photographs and other records related to the 458th, you can visit our digital archive.

It was home to the 56th Fighter Group at Boxted from April to July 1943 and the base for the 458th Bomb Group from January 1944 to June 1945.

The local council bought the site in 1967 after the departure of the RAF and it became a regional airport and industrial estate.

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 (now Norwich Airport) lies four miles north of the city centre to the east of the A140 road to Cromer.  

Two of the five large pre-war hangars are still being used for aircraft maintenance and aircraft refinishing.

Two have been converted for commercial use, with the third housing an aeronautical academy in association with Norwich City College.

The original control tower used by the 458th still exists.

Air traffic continued to be controlled from this building until a new tower was built near the main runway in 1992.

Other wartime buildings now form part of the industrial estate and are intermingled with many newer structures.

The blocks used as enlisted men's living quarters situated towards Catton have been demolished to allow a housing development to be built on the site.

However, some of the housing on the other side of the Fifers Lane has been converted into private dwellings complete with their wartime camouflage brickwork.

As for the runways, taxi-tracks, etc, these largely remain.

Only one runway is now used and the east-west runway, 10-28, which was extended eastwards by the RAF in 1956, has become the main runway to avoid take-offs and landings over built-up areas.

The old main runway has been converted into a taxiway for larger aircraft and a parking area.

The north-west corner of the airfield now lies under the Northern Distributor Road, which opened in 2018 to take traffic around the north of Norwich.

This features photographs, paintings and a plaque commemorating the group's service at the airfield.

There is also a small display commemorating the brief stay of the 56th Fighter Group in the early summer of 1943.

A memorial dedicated to all personnel (British and American) who were based at Horsham St Faith is situated on the grass verge adjacent to the terminal building. It's pictured below.

Another memorial relating to the 458th Bomb Group is a plaque set into the wall of a block of flats in Heigham Street, Norwich.

This is in memory of the crew of a 753rd Bomb Squadron aircraft, who were all killed in a crash at nearby Barker Street in November 1944.

It includes a display featuring the 458th Bomb Group.

A small memorial commemorating the 458th is situated near the entrance to the museum complex.

Access to the museum is through the village of Horsham St Faith.

For more information visit the City of Norwich Aviation Museum website. 

Among those histories are:

• Peter Bodle and Mike Bailey: The 458th Bomb Group in Norfolk: A Pictorial History 
• Ron Mackay, Mike Bailey and Darin Scorza: Liberators over Norwich: The 458th Bomb Group (H), 8th USAAF at Horsham St Faith 1944-45 
• George A Reynolds: The 458th Bombardment Group (Heavy) 
• George A Reynolds: The 458th Bombardment Group (Heavy) IV 
• George A Reynolds: Folded Wings of the 458th Bombardment Group 

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.

Related website

You can also visit the 458th Bombardment Group (H) website for more information.

The site includes a list of personnel as well as information about missions, aircraft and more.