Debach Airfield

Formerly Home of the 8th USAAF 493rd Heavy Bomber Group 1944 to 1945

History 1942 to 2001
(See mission list here and Roll of Honour here)

Debach was one of the last 8th Air Force heavy bomber stations to be occupied, being built by the 820th Engineer Battalion (Aviation) of the US Army during 1942-44. It was built to AMDGW specification for a class A heavy bomber station, and following the general pattern with a single 2000 yard runway and two intersecting 1400-yard runways. Two T2 Hangars and fifty aircraft had hard standings in common with other stations built towards the end of the construction programme. The hard standings were of the so-called “spectacle” type rather than the “frying pan” type. Accommodation was provided for 2,900 personnel in dispersed Nissen hut living sites to the south west of the field.

Occupied by the 493rd Bomb Group in April 1944 (named “Heltons Hellcats” after the groups first CO, Colonel Elbert Helton) Debach was the last Eighth Air Force heavy bomber station to become operational: the group flying its first mission on D-Day 6th June 1944.

Colonel Elbert Helton

Read his biography here

The Groups planes first landed at Debach 10th May 1944 having flown from McCook Airfield Nebraska via Iceland and Ireland.gerness to be the first to land at Debach, over shot the runway and took out a petrol truck, which fortunately did not explode! John Lindquist, bombardier in Paul Berry's crew recalls, “Six crews landed that first day, before the airbase was actually finished. The control tower was not in operation and we picked our own runway, which turned out to be the longest but only 4,500 feet. We had trained on 9-10,000 foot runways in the US and were a little surprised at such a short one. ”Things did not improve much for Shipley's crew, as Rob Grandy, a gunner on the crew, explains, “on our second mission we crashed at Woodbridge landing strip and the plane was a total wreck. However, we did have an excuse this time as we were badly shot up.”

In common with most other groups on the 93rd Combat wing the 493rd converted from B-24 Liberators to B-17 Flying Fortresses, the change being made in late August 1944.

The B-24 Liberators completed 46 missions, B-17 Flying Fortresses, 111 missions bringing the total of the 493rd to 158, the last on the 20th of April 1945. 41 aircraft went missing in action. 234 personnel lost their lives whilst serving at station 152 Debach during WW2.

After US Forces left, Debach was used first as a POW camp and later for displaced persons, before being abandoned in about 1948. It was sold in 1963, the N-S runway being the boundary between two adjoining farms. Both of the T2 hangars were removed before the sale. In 1969 the Northern end of the main runway was sold to build a mushroom farm, this being disbanded in the mid-seventies. The mushroom farm was later sold to be used for grain and general storage. Much of the concrete runways and taxi-ways were taken up, and crushed to use for road building, and the land reclaimed to be used for agricultural crops. Many of the buildings on the former Technical site fell down and some have now been restored. Others were built on the old sites and on the site of the T2 Hangar which is now a farm grain store. The control tower has been vandalized over the past years and it is our intention to restore this building to be used as a museum to the 493rd Bomb Group.