RAF Wattisham opened on 5 April 1939 as a medium bomber station for Nos. 107 and 110 Squadrons and their Bristol Blenheims. On 4 September 1939, 29 hours after the declaration of war, bombers from Wattisham took off on the RAF’s first attack of the war, against German warships at Wilhelmshaven.

It went badly. Wikipedia’s history of No. 107 Squadron says that of the five aircraft it despatched only one returned, and that one still carried its bombs because it had not found the target. One Blenheim, N6189 flown by Flying Officer Herbert Lightoller, crashed into the cruiser Emden, causing slight damage but killing 11 of her crew and injuring about 30. Sergeant George Booth, a 107 Squadron navigator shot down that day, is described as the first British prisoner of war of the Second World War.

The Blenheim squadrons stayed until 1942, before the station was lent to the United States Army Air Forces in September 1942.

Under the Americans, Wattisham became a maintenance depot, officially called Hitcham, which Wikipedia says was responsible by 1944 for the maintenance of all American fighters in the UK. The 479th Fighter Group arrived around 15 May 1944 with P-38 Lightnings and flew its first mission later that month.

The group converted to the P-51 Mustang between 10 September and 1 October 1944. It received a Distinguished Unit Citation for destroying numerous aircraft on French airfields on 18 August and 5 September and for an air battle near Münster on 26 September 1944. Its second commander was Colonel Hubert ‘Hub’ Zemke, credited with 17.75 aerial victories, and one of its pilots was Major Robin Olds, credited with 12 German aircraft shot down and 11.5 destroyed on the ground.

The group left around 23 November 1945 and the RAF returned in 1946.

Wattisham spent the Cold War on the front line of Britain’s air defence, holding fighters on quick reaction alert in rotation with other stations. Nos. 257 and 263 Squadrons flew Hunters here from 1954 to 1956. No. 111 Squadron arrived on 18 June 1958 with the Hunters of the Black Arrows, the RAF’s premier display team until 1961, whose world-record loop of 22 Hunters in formation was flown at Farnborough in 1958. The squadron converted to the English Electric Lightning and stayed until 30 September 1974; No. 29 Squadron flew Lightnings here from 1967 to 1974 and No. 56 Squadron from 1975 to 1976.

The Phantom followed. No. 23 Squadron flew the FGR2 from 25 February 1976 to 30 March 1983 and No. 56 Squadron from 9 July 1976 to 31 July 1992. From 19 October 1984 No. 74 Squadron flew the F-4J(UK), second-hand US Navy Phantoms unique to that squadron in RAF service. Bloodhound surface-to-air missile detachments of Nos. XXV and 85 Squadrons were here from 1983 to 1991.

The end of the Cold War ended the fighter era. No. 74 Squadron left on 1 October 1992, and RAF Wattisham closed on 31 October 1992. Wikipedia’s station history, the source for these dates, rests on printed squadron histories such as Jefford and Lake.

The Army took the station over in September 1993. 3 Regiment AAC came from Soest in Germany that summer with 653, 662 and 663 Squadrons, and 4 Regiment, long based at Detmold, followed later in the 1990s. In 2005 the squadrons began converting from the Lynx to the Apache AH1, a licence-built AH-64D, and from 2006 Apaches flew in Helmand, Afghanistan, with 16 Air Assault Brigade; by April 2014 they had flown 50,000 hours on operations there.

In 2011 656 Squadron of 4 Regiment took its Apaches to sea. On 4 June it flew from HMS Ocean to strike a radar installation and a checkpoint near Brega in Libya, which the Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, called the first operational mission flown by British Army Apaches at sea. On 15 April 2019 663 Squadron of 3 Regiment left Wattisham for three months in Estonia, the type’s first deployment there.

The AH-64E replaced the AH1 from 2020. By January 2022 Wattisham had 14 of the new aircraft, with 36 more due; Wikipedia says 38 were with the two regiments by February 2024 and the AH1 was retired in March 2024. Defence Equipment and Support accepted the 50th and last on 6 March 2025. The station also housed B Flight of No. 22 Squadron RAF with search and rescue Sea Kings until 2015, and in 2018 Wikipedia counts 852 people in 3 and 4 Regiments and 429 in 7 Aviation Support Battalion REME.