The history of Station 554

Every historical fact on this site is backed by a cited source. Please get in touch if you have corrections or further information, it will be much appreciated.

• This day in history - 4 August 1944 saw the first Operation Aphrodite missions take off from Fersfield, and the tragic death of 1st Lt. John W. Fisher

  Operation Aphrodite begins - a summary of the first day of missions on 4th August 1944

• RAF Fersfield — USAAF Station 554

  The story of Fersfield airfield, Norfolk: built in secret as a satellite of Knettishall, home to the Aphrodite drone project and the launch point of the Copenhagen Shellhus raid.

• Operation Aphrodite — the drones, and the death of Joe Kennedy

  From Fersfield in 1944, volunteer crews flew explosive-packed bombers they intended to bail out of — early television-guided drones aimed at Hitler's V-weapon bunkers. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. never got the chance to jump.

• Operation Carthage — the Copenhagen raid

  On 21 March 1945, Mosquitos flying from Fersfield destroyed the Gestapo headquarters in the centre of Copenhagen — a raid of extraordinary precision, a resistance saved, and a school struck by tragedy.

• What remains today

  Farm roads that were perimeter track, hut ruins in the hedgerows, a wartime hangar full of malting barley, and a granite memorial — what's left of Station 554, and what happened to the rest.