RAF HARDWICK AIR BASE
HOME OF THE 93rd Bomb GROUP

Runways

All runways were 50 yards wide and designed for heavily loaded B-24 Liberators. The airfield featured three concrete runways:

• Main Runway 1,975 yards (5,925 ft)
• Secondary 1,400 yards (4,200 ft)
• Secondary 1,400 yards (4,200 ft)

Perimeter Track

A complete perimeter taxiway surrounded the airfield. This arrangement allowed dozens of Liberators to taxi simultaneously before large mission launches. The perimeter track connected:

• Runways
• Hangars
• Technical site
• Squadron dispersals
• Bomb loading points

Aircraft Dispersals

Originally designed with approximately 30 hardstands, the airfield was expanded for American requirements to roughly 50 aircraft dispersals. Of these, 39 were frying-pan type hardstands and the remainder loop dispersals. The dispersals were organized by squadron and spaced around the perimeter track to reduce vulnerability to accidents or enemy attack.

Hangars

Hardwick possessed three T-2 hangars, the three-hangar arrangement was typical of large B-24 stations. The hangers positioned adjacent to the technical area. These facilities handled:

• Major maintenance
• Engine replacement
• Battle damage repair
• Aircraft modification
• Structural work

Technical Site

The technical area was located adjacent to the flying field. This area served as the operational heart of Station 104.

• Group Operations
• Wing Headquarters
• Intelligence section
• Briefing rooms
• Communications
• Engineering offices
• Armament workshops
• Fire station
• Control tower (Watch Office)

Bomb Dump

The bomb storage complex was located away from the active airfield for safety. Thousands of tons of ordnance passed through these facilities during the strategic bombing campaign. Facilities included:

• Earth-banked bomb stores
• Assembly buildings
• Ammunition magazines
• Bomb-loading roads

Fuel Storage

Fuel storage was dispersed around the station and connected through underground systems to refueling points. The station maintained sufficient aviation gasoline reserves to support frequent launches of large B-24 formations.

Domestic Camps

The dispersed layout reduced congestion and increased survivability. Accommodation areas were spread across multiple dispersed sites around the station. The facilities included:

• Officers' quarters
• Enlisted barracks
• Nissen huts
• Mess halls
• Hospital facilities
• Chapel
• Recreation buildings
• Motor transport sections

After the 93rd Bombardment Group Departure

After the 93rd Bombardment Group departed RAF Hardwick in June 1945, the airfield entered a very different chapter of its history. Like many Eighth Air Force bases in East Anglia, RAF Hardwick transitioned from a bustling wartime bomber station into a quiet rural landscape, with only scattered reminders of its important role during World War II.

Return to Royal Air Force Control

The United States Army Air Forces officially relinquished RAF Hardwick (USAAF Station 104) to the Royal Air Force on 25 June 1945. By that time, the need for hundreds of heavy bomber bases had disappeared, and the station was immediately placed in Care and Maintenance status. Rather than becoming an active RAF flying station, Hardwick was maintained only at a minimal level while the Air Ministry determined its long-term future.

Hardwick remained officially under RAF control until 1962, when the station was finally closed.

Following closure, most of the wartime infrastructure was gradually removed. The three large T-2 hangars, control tower, technical buildings, workshops, and many administrative structures were demolished. Thousands of tons of concrete from the taxiways and two of the three runways were broken up and reused as aggregate for local construction and road projects.

Unlike a few former RAF stations that remained active during the Cold War, Hardwick never became part of Britain's post-war air defense network. Instead, the landscape slowly returned to agricultural use.

Return to Farming

Today much of the former airfield is farmland. The expansive areas that once held B-24 Liberators are now cultivated fields. The wartime perimeter track still serves as farm roads in several places, and portions of the original concrete runway survive, providing a clear indication of the airfield's wartime layout.

Several dispersed accommodation sites were never completely removed and have been adapted for agricultural purposes. Some former military buildings continue to serve as storage barns, workshops, and farm buildings.

Remaining Wartime Features

Although much has disappeared, visitors can still identify numerous reminders of the wartime base:

• One runway remains substantially intact.
• Sections of perimeter track survive.
• Several dispersal hardstands remain visible.
• Nissen huts and brick service buildings still exist on former domestic sites.
• Foundations of wartime structures can still be found throughout the property.

These surviving features make Hardwick one of the better locations for understanding the layout of an early Eighth Air Force heavy bomber station.

93rd Bomb Group Museum

One of Hardwick's greatest historical assets is the 93rd Bomb Group Museum, located in restored wartime Nissen huts on Airfield Farm. Volunteers have spent decades recovering artifacts from the airfield and preserving the history of one of the Eighth Air Force's first B-24 Liberator groups in England. The museum preserves:

• Original 93rd Bomb Group artifacts
• Uniforms and equipment
• Aircraft components
• Wartime photographs
• Maps and mission records
• Personal stories of the airmen who served at Hardwick

Memorial to the Airmen

In 1987, veterans of the 93rd Bomb Group returned to Hardwick for a reunion and dedicated a stone memorial near one of the former barracks sites. The memorial has become a place of remembrance for veterans' families, historians, and visitors interested in the history of the Eighth Air Force.

The memorial honors:

• The men of the 93rd Bombardment Group
• American personnel stationed at Hardwick
• Their contribution to the Allied victory in Europe

Civil Aviation Use

Following military closure, portions of the former airfield found a new purpose in civilian aviation.

For many years, Mindacre Ltd., an agricultural aviation company, operated from Hardwick using Cessna A188 Agwagons for crop-spraying throughout Britain. In the early 1970s, aircraft and crews from Hardwick even deployed to Sudan for large-scale agricultural spraying contracts before returning to Norfolk. This marked one of the few periods when the wartime airfield again became an active flying base, albeit for peaceful agricultural work rather than military operations.

RAF Hardwick Today

Today RAF Hardwick is a quiet rural landscape where agriculture has replaced wartime activity. Yet the surviving runway, perimeter roads, scattered wartime buildings, museum, and memorial continue to preserve the legacy of the thousands of American airmen who served there.

As the wartime home of the 93rd Bombardment Group ("Ted's Travelling Circus"), Hardwick played a significant role in the Eighth Air Force's strategic bombing campaign. Although no longer an operational airfield, it remains one of Norfolk's most important surviving Second World War aviation heritage sites and continues to attract veterans' families, researchers, and aviation enthusiasts from around the world.