The history of Station 554

Every historical fact on this site is researched, but primary sources are rare. Please get in touch if you have corrections or further information, it will be much appreciated.

• RAF Fersfield - USAAF Station 554

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

• Operation Aphrodite and Anvil overview

  During the summer of 1944, Fersfield operated under strict secrecy for Operation Aphrodite (USAAF) and Operation Anvil (NAVY). Volunteer pilots took off in worn-out B-17 and PB4Y-1 bombers packed with high explosives, aiming to arm the systems in flight and bail out over England before the aircraft were guided remotely to heavily fortified V-weapon sites in Europe. It was on one such mission from Fersfield that Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. and LT Wilford John "Bud" Willy were killed when their explosives-laden drone detonated prematurely in mid-air.

• Operation Carthage overview

  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 of RAF Fersfield today

  Today, much of the airfield has returned to farmland. Sections of the perimeter track serve as farm access roads, nissen huts sit hidden in the hedgerows, and a surviving wartime hangar stores malting barley near the memorial stone - what's left of Station 554