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RAF Hardwick, near Norwich in Norfolk, was a USAAF heavy bomber station best known for hosting one of the Eighth Air Force’s earliest and most experienced Liberator groups. Built as a ‘Class A’ airfield and designated USAAF Station 104, it had long concrete runways, extensive dispersal hardstandings and large technical areas – exactly what was required to operate four-engined bombers at scale.
The airfield’s principal wartime tenant was the 93rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), operating Consolidated B-24 Liberators. The 93rd was among the first American heavy bomber groups to arrive in Britain, and its operational history spans the transition from early, highly dangerous raids toward the more mature daylight offensive once escort coverage and tactics improved. Hardwick therefore represents not only the ‘peak’ of 1944-45 but also the learning curve of 1942-43, when formations pushed deep into occupied Europe under intense fighter threat and flak.
From Hardwick, B-24 formations attacked a wide range of strategic targets: ports and submarine facilities, aircraft and armaments production, transportation infrastructure, and later the fuel and oil system that became a central priority. Liberators demanded careful handling and careful planning. Fuel and weight calculations mattered, and maintenance was relentless – engines, hydraulics, turrets, bomb-release gear and structural fatigue all had to be managed to keep aircraft available. The base community was therefore a highly organised industrial operation, with armourers, fitters, electricians, radio specialists, drivers and support staff working around the clock.
Hardwick also has a strong home-front story. Thousands of Americans lived on and around the station, in camps and billets that reshaped local villages for the duration. The landscape became an operational factory: convoys of fuel and bombs, constant aircraft movement, and the emotional reality of waiting for aircraft to return. The ‘counting of dispersals’ – measuring losses by empty hardstands – was part of daily life at every heavy bomber base, and it remains central to understanding the human dimension behind mission statistics.
- USAAF identity: Station 104.
- Key unit: 93rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), flying B-24 Liberators.
- Primary wartime role: Eighth Air Force daylight heavy bomber operations from 1942 onward.
After 1945, Hardwick demobilised rapidly and much of the site returned to agriculture, but its wartime footprint still conveys scale. RAF Hardwick is a strong example of an early-arriving USAAF bomber base that sustained operations through the long middle years of the air war and into the final push for victory.
Hardwick’s story also captures the change in emphasis as the war progressed. Early raids often targeted ports and U-boat-related sites, while later operations increasingly focused on transport and fuel as the quickest route to strangling German mobility. The airfield’s long operational use makes it a useful lens on how target priorities shifted in response to intelligence and the evolving ground campaign.
Hardwick also highlights how an airfield’s impact could be measured by continuity. Keeping one group flying through changing tactics and equipment required stable leadership, skilled trades and a mature maintenance culture. That continuity, repeated over hundreds of sorties, was itself a strategic contribution.