Norfolk Military History

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

• Air Force
• Army
• Navy
• World War I
• World War II
• Other Resources

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
  • City of Norwich Aviation Museum Horsham St Faiths (North side of Norwich Airport), Norfolk.
    The RAF 100 Group and American 8th Army Airforce were based here.
  • The Royal Air Force - Air Defence Radar Museum at Neatishead, Norfolk
  • Fenland and West Norfolk Aviation Museum (follow links).
  • Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum Flixton, Bungay, Suffolk
  • Air Museum at Duxford, Cambs.
  • 2nd Air Division Memorial Library (USAAF) at the Forum, Millennium Plain, Norwich.
  • 44th Bomb Group, Shipdham Airfield, Shipdham. (this is a link to an archived copy)
      Site now Shipdham Flying Club where small museum is located.
  • 389th Bomb Group Memorial Exhibition and Museum, The Old Chapel, Potash Farm, Hethel
  • 448th Bomb Group Collection, Seething
  • Blickling Hall (Small Museum on RAF Oulton)
• 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
  • Royal Anglian Regimental Museum at Duxford, Cambs.

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

• Imperial War Museum, London
• National Army Museum is the British Army's own museum.
• Norfolk Record Office holds some military history records.
• See also the main page of GENUKI on Military History of United Kingdom and Ireland.
• Wartime Memories Project (WWI and WWII)

See also the page on Norfolk Military Records

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Copyright © Mike Bristow.
April 2015