RAF Fersfield 1.87

Royal Air Force Fersfield or more simply RAF Fersfield is a former Royal Air Force station located 16mi southwest of Norwich, Norfolk, England.HistoryBuilt in 1943/1944, the airfield was originally a satellite of RAF Knettishall. It was constructed to Class A bomber specifications, with a main 6000ft runway (08/26), and two secondary runways (02/20, 14/32) of 4200ft. Accommodation for about 2,000 personnel were in Nissen huts along with an operations block and two T-2 hangars.The facility was originally named Winfarthing when it was allocated to the United States Army Air Forces in 1942. Assigned to the VIII Bomber Command, it was renamed Fersfield when used by the Americans. Winfarthing was assigned USAAF station number 140; Fersfield was reassigned 554.Not used by the USAAF, it was transferred to the United States Navy for operational use. The airfield is most notable as the operational airfield for Operation Aphrodite, a secret plan for remote controlled Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers (redesignated as BQ-7s) to be used against German V-1 flying bomb sites, submarine pens, or deep fortifications that had resisted conventional bombing.