Two Norfolk airfields crucial to the Allies' efforts in the Second World War are to receive memorials in recognition of their role.
The Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust will unveil memorials at Swanton Morley and Horsham St Faith airfields over the weekend of September 30/October 1.
Swanton Morley opened at the height of the Battle of Britain in September 1940 and went on to become one of the country’s most important airfields as the base for RAF bomber units.
Later in the war, its role turned to bomber support and experimentation, and it was the base for the first American-manned bombing raids over occupied Europe in June and July 1942.
In peacetime, training duties predominated until the Central Servicing Development Establishment arrived in the late 1950s from Winthorpe in Nottinghamshire, staying until Swanton Morley closed in September 1995.
Horsham St Faith, known now as Norwich Airport opened in 1940, and was originally a base for RAF Bristol Blenheim bomber squadrons before coming under US control in the autumn of 1942.
This airfield became a base for the US 458th Bomb Group, which was equipped with Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombers.
After the Americans left in mid-1945, it served as a major RAF Fighter Command airfield until the start of the 1960s.
It closed later in that decade but the airport was running into the 1970s.
The charity’s objective is to commemorate each known major airfield in the United Kingdom with one of two forms of standardised granite memorial.
More than 200 have already been unveiled and there are plans for hundreds more.
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