Page 19 - Oundle Life August 2024

STATION
128 HEROES
Deenethorpe Airfield
They provided air support for the Battle of the Bulge, they prepared the way for the D-Day landings, and they took part in the airborne attack across the River Rhine. Those lucky enough to survive their missions headed home, using the River Nene and the soaring spire of St Peter’s Church in Oundle to guide them.
Limping back in their war-torn B-17 Flying Fortresses, the pilots and crews of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) would have viewed Deenethorpe Airfield – just six miles west of Oundle – as a safe haven, after the horrors they had to endure on every mission over Europe.
Deenethorpe Airfield was just farmland before the war, but in 1943 it was transformed into a bustling active base for the 401st Bombardment Group (Heavy) and named Station 128.
Most of the missions carried out from the airfield were against strategic targets including submarine pens, shipyards, missile sites and airfields. The skies over Oundle thundered with the sound of scores of mighty B-17s taking off and landing, but both manoeuvres were fraught with danger.
On 5th December 1943, a B-17 – named Zenobia El Elephanta by her crew – failed
to take off safely and careered over farmland before crashing into a cottage on the outskirts
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