Mousehold Heath in Norwich was a decoy landing area in WWII and currently there is a memorial to Bristol Beaufort DE121, from 1 Flight Ferry Training Unit that crashed on 25.7.42 taking the lives of all four crew.
Also remembered on the memorial is the pilot of Handley Page Hampden AE141 that crashed on 12th February 1942. It had been damaged by flak on Operation Fuller or the Channel Dash as it is better known. See here for a memorial to Swordfish crews also lost on this operation.
As with much of the UK in WWII Norfolk beaches were heavily mined as a deterrent against a possible German invasion. Thankfully the mines were never needed in this way but consequently they had to be removed subsequently to make the coast safe again. Sadly this resulted in a number of deaths amongst bomb disposal units. This memorial at Mundesley remembers 27 personnel lost between 1944 and 1953.
Jolly 22 was the call sign of a USAF HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter. Flying out of Lakenheath on 7th January 2014 it passed at low level over a nature reserve at Cley Marshes, Norfolk and impacted a flock of geese which appears to have disabled both pilot and co-pilot with the tragic result that the helicopter crashed killing all four crew on board.
A memorial to the crew has subsequently been put in place at Cley close by to the crash site.
Little Snoring opened in 1943 and was used mainly by Lancasters and Mosquitos. It was relinquished by the RAF in the 1950s but remains in use for general aviation via part of one of the original runways. I was passing by yesterday so detoured to have a quick look. Not much is accessible since it is an active airfield but the other end of the current runway was quite clear, albeit covered with piles of gravel, and the original control tower is still extant. An airfield memorial stone has been erected in the recent past.
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I last visited North Creake 9 years ago (airfield review) but since then a new memorial in the form of a roll of honour and a Stirling 'sculpture' have been erected and I called by today for a quick look and found it a quite impressive addition.
Incidentally, since my last visit the control tower has been completed as planned and is up and running as a B&B.
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Since my last visit to the former airfield at Langham a few years ago a new memorial has been erected. It is in memory of Richard Younghusband, an RAF pilot who joined the RAF in 1931 and went on to fly with Bristol Aeroplane Company as a test pilot, for Fairey Surveys and Marshalls of Cambridge. On 23rd July 1953 whilst with the Civilian Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit he took off from Langham in a silver MkIX Spitfire but crashed fatally nearby between Cockthorpe and Binham.
This replica Spitfire, donated by the RAF Museum Hendon, has been put up in his memory.
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