The Memorial is located on the site of the former Oulton airfield.

 

Oulton started life as one of the hastily acquired satellite landing grounds on which aircraft from a main station could be dispersed to lessen the risk of loss through air attack. In this case the main station was Horsham St Faith.
The site to the east of the B 1149 Norwich to Holt road,which lay largely in the parish of Oulton Street, had been requisitioned earlier that year and the majority of the aircrews were initially accommodated in civilian property, including the historic Blickling Hall.
No. 114 conducted its operations from Oulton until March 1941 when it was sent to Thornaby to aid Coastal Command, seven of the squadron's Blenheims failing to return from operations while at the airfield.
No. 2 Group then moved No. 18 Squadron's Blenheims to Oulton from Great Massingham in April 1941 and out to Horsham St Faith in July. No. 18 returned in November for a few weeks before returning once more to Horsham St Faith.
In December, No. 139 Squadron appeared with Lockheed Hudsons on which it trained before being shipped to the Far East. The Hudsons lingered on at Oulton for a while in the hands of No. 1428 Flight that had been formed to provide conversion training.
During the summer of 1942, Oulton was loaned to Coastal Command, which placed a Beaufighter shipping strike squadron No. 236 on the station, which arrived in July, and stayed until September, when No. 2 Group transferred in the Bostons of No. 88 Squadron from Attlebridge. On the last day of October, a 250 pound high explosive bomb that had failed to release from a Boston during a sortie, exploded while being removed killing six ground crew . Only limited operations were undertaken during the winter of 1942-43 as the squadron was hampered by a shortage of aircraft. It was moved to Swanton Morley in March and its place at Oulton taken by No. 21 Squadron, which had to move from Methwold when that station was returned to No. 3 Group.
No. 21 conducted operations from Oulton until September by which time No. 2 Group came under the Second Tactical Air Force. No. 2 Group's airfields in Norfolk were then transferred to No. 3 Group control, Oulton being one although it never received any of that group's squadrons.
In September 1942, work began on bringing the airfield up to Class A standard. This involved closing the Oulton Street to Cawston road across which the main runway was extended. The three runways were 12-30 at 2,000 yards and 07-25 and 17-35, both 1,400 yards long. The hardstanding consisted of 32 loop type and 11 pans. Three of the pans put down in earlier years on the south side near the old railway line were isolated and another four incorporated in the new bomb dump off the north-west side between runway heads 12 and 17. Two T2 hangars were on the technical site on the east side between runway heads 25 an 30 near Oulton Street. Another T2 was located between runway heads 30 and 35, and a fourth T2 north of runway head 12 near the Manor House. Two of these T2s were for housing gliders.
Prestige & Co Ltd were involved in the construction of buildings. The early camp was around Blickling Hall where there were four domestic sites, but additional sites - three domestic, a communal and sick quarters - were located nearer the east side of the airfield. Total accommodation was provided for 1,782 personnel male and female.
Oulton was re-opened in May 1944 under No. 100 Group, No. 214 Squadron was moved in from Sculthorpe, which was closing for major reconstruction. No. 214 was one of the few RAF squadrons equipped with Fortress aircraft, this type chosen for its deep bomb-bay capable of taking special equipment necessary for radio counter-measure operations, and for a while the squadron tutored a USAAF provisional squadron at Oulton in this role.
In August 1944 No. 223 Squadron re-formed at Oulton to fly Liberators with Mandrel electronic detection equipment, and thereafter both squadrons continued RCM activities until the end of the war. A total of 56 Bomber Command aircraft were lost flying in operations from Oulton: 34 Blenheims, two Bostons, a Ventura, 16 Fortresses and three Liberators. No. 100 Group's presence at Oulton came to an end in late July 1945 when both the resident squadrons were disbanded. Later that year the station came under No. 274 Maintenance Unit's administration and was another site for the collection of surplus Mosquitos. By 1948 the RAF had departed and the road between Cawston and Oulton Street was reopened. As with most old raf stations, much of the land was reclaimed for agriculture, however, the runways remained and were used for locating poultry houses.

Source: Martin Alford (nephew of Donald Alford)

Also see http://www.arxitecture.org.uk/lh5.htm

Source: Leslie Barker (nephew of Leslie Hadder)

Blickling Hall
Album contains 30 photographs - last updated 29 July 2010

Pictures kindly provided by Shaun Broaders and John Edwards

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Chedburgh

A suitable location for a satellite station for Stradishall was found near Chedburgh, some six miles south of Bury St Edmunds. Work on constructing a Class A heavy bomber airfield commenced here during the first nine months of 1942.Major building work was carried out by John Laing and Son ltd.It was provided with the standard three concrete runways and a perimeter track, around which were 34 pan and 2 loop hardstandings. Initially only two steel hangars of the T2 type were erected, but a third B1 type was added in 1943 to enable easier servicing of the large bombers Later two more B1 hangers were added for glider storage. A bomb dump was built towards Rede village, with the technical site on the north side of the airfield. Dispersed along the country lanes further to the west, were the many Nissen huts and messes etc, that could accommodate over 1,800 personnel (male and female).

The station was taken over by No.3 Group, Bomber Command on the 7th of September 1942. On the 1st of October, No.214 Squadron moved in from the parent station, complete with around twenty Short Stirling, four-engined heavy bombers.

Unfortunately the Stirling aircraft was a poor performer; therefore it suffered heavy losses due to it having to fly lower than the other types.During its fourteen months at chedburgh, the squadron lost more than 50 stirlings on operations and in crashes This shortcoming led to them being withdrawn from front line bombing in late 1943, when they were relegated to mine laying. However, prior to this decision, part of the squadron broke away and helped to form a new bomber squadron (No.620) on the 17th of June 1943.

From the above date onwards, both squadrons participated on normal night bombing missions, even though their losses were usually higher than their Lancaster equipped counterparts. On the 23rd of November 1943, No.620 was withdrawn from the bomber role and transferred to Leicester East to become involved with the Airborne Forces, where their Stirlings were used to tow large gliders.

On the 10th of December 1943, the resident No.214 Squadron also departed as a new role had already been decided for Chedburgh, when it became involved with the training of new bomber crews for No.3 Group. For this task No. 1653 Heavy Conversion Unit had already formed here on the 21st of November, although it was late December 1943 before the unit was up to strength of 30 aircraft, and ready for training to commence. As previously mentioned, the role of this type of unit was to train new crews who had recently completed their training on twin-engined Wellington aircraft at an Operational Training Unit, but now needed to be trained to operate the four-engined heavy bomber. Up to this point there had only been five in a crew, but now an extra air gunner and a flight engineer joined them. The discarded Stirlings were relegated to this training role, both at Stradishall and its other satellite at Wratting Common.

On 27th November 1944, No.3 Group decided to move this training commitment further to the west, consequently No.1653 Heavy Converstion Unit departed to North Luffenham. Chedburgh then returned to being an operational bomber station, when on the 5th of December 1944, No.218 Squadron arrived from Methwold. Fortunately they had converted from Stirlings to Lancasters in the previous August, so they were fully operational on the type, so immediately entered into bombing missions several times per week, weather permitting.

At the end of the war, 218 squadron and their lancasters were used for taking food over to the Netherlands, as well as bringing P.O.Ws back to England. Bomber Command strength was being drastically reduced after the war, which led to No.218 Squadron being disbanded here on the 10th of August 1945.

Transport Command then took over Chedburgh, as they still had a requirement for airfields that could house transport squadrons engaged in uplifting troops and materials, to and from Europe. During the first week of September 1945 two Polish manned squadrons arrived (Nos.301 and 304), equipped with Warwick aircraft, which had been converted to carry troops and equipment. Transport flights to Italy, Norway and Greece were performed regularly until April 1946.

During hostilities 83 bombers were lost flying from Chedburgh , 71 being stirlings and the other 12 being lancasters.

The station was handed over to the clearance party to rid it of all the equipment and stores, after which it was still held in reserve by the Air Ministry. Local farmers were given permission to cultivate the landing area, but the runways had to be kept clear. This continued to be the case until October 1952 when the entire site was sold. Today the technical site is used for various civilian businesses. Most of the perimeter track is still there, however, most of the runways were dug up to be used as hardcore.The majority of the rest of the bomber station has been returned to agriculture.

Source: Martin Alford (nephew of Donald Alford)

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