Hide

Norfolk Military History

hide
Hide

Some resources are difficult to classify. See also Norfolk Military Records

Air Force

This branch of the armed forces starts off with balloons followed by Air Battalions (inc. Airships and Planes etc.) which then became the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in 1912. The Royal Navy also had a Flying section which became the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). In 1918 the Royal Air Force was formed from the RFC and RNAS.

In the Second World War airfields in Norfolk were used by the RAF and United States Air Forces.

  • History of the formation of the UK Air Forces timeline.
  • Military Airfields
    There were a large number of airfields and landing sites in the county of Norfolk during WWI and WWII. More information can be found at web sites such as :-
    • Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust
    • Airfields in the County of Norfolk, England
    • Control Towers which has sections on "UK airfields" and "USAAF (in the UK) airfields".
    • The following is a list of places used at various times by the Air Forces for military purposes :-

       

      Attlebridge
      Bacton
      Barton Bendish
      Bircham Newton
      Bodney
      Burgh Castle
      Bylaugh
      Coltishall
      Deopham Green
      Docking
      Downham Market
      Earsham
      East Wretham
      Felthorpe
      Feltwell
      Fersfield
      Foulsham
      Freethorpe
      Gooderstone
      Great Massingham
      Great Yarmouth
      Hardwick
      Harling Road
      Hethel
      Hickling
      Hingham
      Holt
      Horsham St Faith
      Langham
      Little Snoring
      Ludham
      Marham
      Matlaske
      Methwold
      Narborough
      North Creake
      North Pickenham
      North Repps
      Norwich (Mousehold Heath)
      Old Buckenham
      Oulton (nr Aylsham)
      Pulham St Mary
      Rackheath
      Saxthorpe
      Sculthorpe
      Sedgeford
      Seething
      Shipdham
      Snarehill (nr Thetford)
      Snetterton Heath
      Sporle
      Swannington
      Swanton Morley
      Thorpe Abbots
      Tibenham
      Tottenhill
      Watton
      Wendling
      West Raynham
      West Rudham
      Weybourne
  • Museums
  • Airfields and Squadrons
    • RAF Bircham Newton Memorial Project
    • 93rd Bomb Group was based at Hardwick Airfield
    • 100th Bomb Group Museum, Thorpe Abbotts
      • Books
        • Baldwin, Jim
          RAF Sculthorpe - 50 Years of Watching & Waiting (Pamphlet)
          [Jim Baldwin, 1999, ISBN 9780948899065]
        • Bartram, Len
          Even when the sparrows are walking
          The Origin and Effect of No. 100 (Bomber Support) Group, RAF 1943-45
          [Librario Publishing, 2002, ISBN 0-9542960-0-1]
        • Bartram, Len
          RAF Docking & Bircham Newton, A Brief History
          [Scarborough, Prontaprint, 2012, Booklet]
        • Bartram, Len & Harrington, Janine
          RAF Foulsham 1942-1954 Norfolk Airfield.
          [Scarborough, Trevor Wise, 2012, Booklet]
        • Bartram, Len & Harrington, Janine
          RAF Langham 1940-1958, A Brief History
          Including RAF Weybourne
          [Scarborough, Trevor Wise, 2012, Booklet]
        • Bartram, Len
          RAF Matlaske 1940-1945
          [Scarborough, Trevor Wise, 2012, Booklet]
        • Bartram, Len & Harrington, Janine
          RAF North Creake (Egmere Drome) 1940-1947
          [Scarborough, Trevor Wise, 2012, Booklet]
        • Bartram, Len
          RAF Oulton 1940-1947
          [Scarborough, Trevor Wise, 2012, Booklet]
        • Bond, Steve and Forder, Richard
          "Special Ops Liberators" about the operation at Oulton is available.
          [Grub Street, 2011, ISBN 978-1-908-11714-4]
        • Bowman, Martin W:
          RAF Marham: Bomber Station
          [The History Press Ltd., 2008, ISBN 0752446940]
        • Bowman, Martin
          Memories of the Air War in East Anglia
          [Halsgrove, 2009, ISBN 9781841149387]
        • Harrington, Janine
          RAF Great Massingham, A Brief History 1940-1957
          [Scarborough, Prontaprint, 2013, Booklet]
        • Harrington, Janine
          RAF Little Snoring, A Brief History
          [Scarborough, Trevor Wise, 2013, Booklet]
        • Harrington, Janine
          RAF Swanton Morley : A Brief History 1940-1995
          [Scarborough, Prontaprint, 2013, Booklet]
        • Harrington, Janine
          RAF Swannington 1944-1947 Norfolk Airfield.
          [Scarborough, Prontaprint, 2013, Booklet]
        • Harrington, Janine
          RAF West Raynham 1939-1994
          [Scarborough, Prontaprint, 2013, Booklet]
        • Jacklin, David
          Up in all Weather: The Story of RAF Docking
          [David Jacklin, 2008, ISBN 9780955878831]
        • Jennings, Mick
          RAF Coltishall: Fighter Station.
          [Old Forge Publishing, 2007, ISBN 1 90618 301 1]
        • Sherlock, Ron
          I Remember RAF Coltishall
          Archive Edition DVD
          [Key Publishing Ltd, 2006]
    • General Books
      • Bodle, Peter
        Yank Bomber Boys in Norfolk
        A Photographic Record of the USAAF in the Second World War [Fonthill Media, 2014, ISBN: 1781553564]
      • Bowman, Martin
        Ghost Fields of East Anglia:
        Capturing Fading Memories of the Aerial War, 1942-45
        [Halsgrove, 2007, ISBN 9781841146539]
      • Bowyer, Michael J.F.
        Action Stations
        1 Wartime Airfields of East Anglia 1939-1945
        [Patrick Stephens Ltd, 1984, ISBN 0-85059-335-2]
      • Mackay, Ron
        Second to None
        A Photographic History of the 2nd Air Division
        [Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 2014, ISBN: 9780764343827]
      • McKenzie, Roderick
        Ghost Fields of Norfolk:
        Histories,Plans & Photographed Remains of 32 Norfolk Airfields
        [Larks Press,2004, ISBN 9781904006176]
      • Matthews, Rupert
        Heroes of Bomber Command - Norfolk
        [Countryside Books, Newbury, 2006, ISBN 1 84674 000 2]
      • Smith, Graham
        Norfolk Airfields in the Second World War
        (Airfields Series)
        [Countryside Books, Newbury, 1994, ISBN 1 85306 320 7]

Army

  • 1685 - Norfolk Regiment formed
    • Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum, Norwich Castle, Castle Hill, Castle Meadow/Farmer's Avenue, Norwich, Norfolk, NR1 3JU
    • Loraine Petre, F
      History of the Norfolk Regiment
      [Norwich, 1918]
  • 1757 - County Militia (Militia Act) (serve anywhere)
    Search at National Archives for Militia 1757-1914 (Armed Forces heading).
  • 1782-1961 Norfolk Yeomanry (The King's Own Royal Regiment)
  • 1807 - Local Militia Act (serve in NFK or adjacent counties)
    • Barney, John
      The Defence of Norfolk
      Norfolk in the Napoleonic Wars
      [Mintaka Books, 2000, ISBN 0 95378 091 0]
    • McGuigan, Ron
      The Forgotten Army:
      Fencible Regiments of Great Britain 1793-1816
      (Napoleon Series)
      Overview of book contents (which leads to other pages on the subject).
  • 1816 - Local Militia disbanded
  • See lists at regiments.org for details of all Norfolk Militia and Volunteers and their dates.
  • 1883 - Norfolk Military Organization from White's Directory.
    • Harvey, Sir Charles
      The History of the 4th Battalion Norfolk Regiment late East Norfolk Militia
      [1899]
    • Harvey, Lt.-Col. J R
      Records of the Norfolk Yeomanry Cavalry
      [London, 1908]
    • Smith, R J and Harris, R G
      The Yeomanry Cavalry of Norfolk
      (Vol 12 of series called "The Uniforms of the British Yeomanry Force 1794-1914")
      [Chippenham, Wilts - Picton Publishing Ltd, 1991, ISBN 0-9515714-3-5]
  • Stanford Training Area (STANTA) created in WWII. West Tofts Camp and Bodney Camp, both near Thetford, are the Army bases there.
  • Dad's Army Museum at Bressingham Gardens, Bressingham (near Diss), Norfolk
  • Hoare, Adrian David
    Standing Up to Hitler
    Story of Norfolk's Home Guard and Secret Army, 1940-44
    [Adrian Hoare, Countryside Books, UK, 2002, ISBN 1853067229]
  • The Muckleburgh Collection at Muckleburgh Hill (at site of military camp), near Weybourne, Holt, Norfolk
  • 1956 - Suffolk and Norfolk Yeomanry
    • Suffolk Regimental Museum at Gibraltar Barracks, Newmarket Road, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
  • 1964 - Royal Anglian Regiment

Navy

  • Maritime East Archive at the Time and Tide Museum at Blackfriars Road, Great Yarmouth contains some Naval records including books on Nelson.
  • Note that the Norfolk Nelson Museum at 26, South Quay, Great Yarmouth closed permanently in 2019.
  • See also the link to main GENUKI page under Other Resources.

World War I

  • Duff, Rosemary & Bulpett, Ed
    When the Peppermint Boys of Bracondale went off to fight in the First World War
    [Bracondale Residents Association, 2014, ISBN 0992742110]
  • McLaren, Stuart John
    They are Not Dead - A Norwich Parish in the First World War
    [Larks Press, 2014, ISBN 9781904006749]
  • Meeres, Frank
    Norfolk in the First World War
    [Phillimore, 2004, ISBN 1860772900]
  • Smith, Steve
    Great War Britain
    Norfolk - Remembering 1914-18
    [The History Press, 2014, ISBN 9780750959193]
  • Storey, Neil R
    The Pride of Norfolk
    An Illustrated History of the Territorials
    [Halsgrove, 2009, ISBN 1-84114-877-9]
  • Storey, Neil R
    Norfolk Goes to War
    The Dramatic Story of the County in the First World War
    [Halsgrove, 2014, ISBN 9780857042354]

World War II

  • Banger, Joan
    Norwich at War
    [Popplyland Publishing, 1989, ISBN 0 946148 61 9]
  • Bowman, Martin W.
    Norwich Blitz (Images of War)
    [Pen & Sword, 2012, ISBN 9781848847552]
  • Douglas Brown, R
    East Anglia 1941
    [Terence Dalton Ltd, 1986, ISBN 0-86138-019-3]
  • Meeres, Frank
    Norfolk at War: Wings of Friendship
    [Amberley Publishing, 2013, ISBN 1445604663]
  • Meeres, Frank
    Norfolk in the Second World War
    [Phillimore, 2006, ISBN 1860773893]
  • Simak, Evelyn & Pye, Adrian
    Churchill's Secret Auxiliary Units
    In Norfolk and Suffolk
    [Aspye, 2013, ISBN 9780955879777]
  • Snelling, Steve
    Norwich: A Shattered City
    Story of Hitler's Blitz on Norwich and Its People, 1942
    [Halsgrove, 2012, ISBN 9780857041289]
  • Storey, Neil R
    Norfolk at War (in Old Photographs WWI and WWII)
    [Budding Books, 1998, ISBN 1-84015-061-0]

Post WW II

  • Wilson, Jim
    Cold War: East Anglia
    [The History Press, 2014, ISBN 9780750956383]

Other Resources


See also the page on Norfolk Military Records

These pages are for personal use only. They may not be copied, and the links within them may not be harvested for use on your own web pages. Please see the Copyright Notice.

Copyright © Mike Bristow.
April 2015