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

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

• 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
• Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum Flixton, Bungay, Suffolk
• Air Museum at Duxford, Cambs.
• RAF Bircham Newton Memorial Project
• Fenland and West Norfolk Aviation Museum
• 93rd Bomb Group Museum, Hardwick
• 100th Bomb Group Museum, Thorpe Abbotts
• 448th Bomb Group Collection, Seething
• Blickling Hall (Small Museum on RAF Oulton)
• Bowyer, Michael J.F. Action Stations
  1 Wartime Airfields of East Anglia 1939-1945
  [Patrick Stephens Ltd, 1984, ISBN 0-85059-335-2]
• 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]
• Sherlock, Ron
  I Remember RAF Coltishall
  Archive Edition DVD
  [Key Publishing Ltd, 2006]
• 2nd Air Division Memorial Library (USAAF) at the Forum, Millennium Plain, Norwich.

Army

• 1685 - Norfolk Regiment formed
  • Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum Shirehall, Market Avenue (by Castle), Norwich, Norfolk
  • Loraine Petre, F
    History of the Norfolk Regiment
    [Norwich, 1918]
• 1757 - County Militia (Militia Act) (serve anywhere)
  National Archives leaflet on the Militia 1757-1914 under 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.
• Norfolk Nelson Museum explores the life and times of Nelson at 26, South Quay, Great Yarmouth.

• See also the link to main GENUKI page under Other Resources.

World War I

• Meeres, Frank
  Norfolk in the First World War
  [Phillimore, 2004, ISBN 1860772900]

World War II

• Banger, Joan
  Norwich at War
  [Popplyland Publishing, 1989, ISBN 0 946148 61 9]
• Douglas Brown, R
  East Anglia 1941
  [Terence Dalton Ltd, 1986, ISBN 0-86138-019-3]
• Meeres, Frank
  Norfolk in the Second World War
  [Phillimore, 2006, ISBN 1860773893]
• Storey, Neil R
  Norfolk at War (in Old Photographs WWI and WWII)
  [Budding Books, 1998, ISBN 1-84015-061-0]

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.

See also the page on Norfolk Military Records