RAF Watton, Norfolk

My father-in-law served in the U.S. Air Force during WWII and was stationed at RAF Watton in England for 2 years, 1943-45. The Watton Air Base was a 'heavy bomber repair base,' was used for reconnaissance, and was one of the few that was never attacked by the Germans. My husband said, 'Dad always told us that he was stationed at a small base that repaired damaged bombers.  The truth of the matter was, Watton was a huge air base with 4800 personnel. His world was a tiny little corner of it. Dad was responsible for ordering all the repair parts for the airplanes.'

My father-in-law wearing a 1911 Colt Automatic Pistol, standard military issue for that time. The other accessory is presumably a gas mask.

Hard at work.

Actually, this room reminds me a lot of Churchill's Cabinet War Rooms in London

My father-in-law and a buddy at the Woolpack Inn in Norwich

The following are a few photos that my husband and I took when visiting Watton, for we were interested in seeing the area his dad had talked about.

An example of Village of Watton housing. I think this was on the main street.

Photos of the former Watton Air Base:

A hangar

Nearby barracks, typical of the time

A hangar, from the side

Part of the reconnaissance wing was responsible for dropping agents from the Watton base behind enemy lines, including the drop of an agent into the suburbs of Berlin. The entire flight was at night, at treetop level. Imagine that! They also did weather reconnaissance, both over the Atlantic and the Continent with the Atlantic portion involving at least one plane in the air 24 hours a day. The weather flights over the Atlantic involved altitudes of 50' above sea level to 30,000 ' above sea level and lasted an average of 12 hours.

A little beauty admist the decay

So what is happening with RAF Watton now? Most of the land has been sold for housing developments, with a small portion retained by a gliding club. Most of the buildings you see in the photos above have been torn down. Their last military use was in 1992. As of 2007, the landing strip is still in existence and is occasionally used by the RAF for helicopter training.

Standing in that one spot, there are five villages within 6.5 miles.

Where I live, within 6.5 miles is only one village. You have to go 10 miles to get to another one. The five nearest villages are 2 miles, 10 miles, 10 miles, 10 miles, and 11 miles. And not one of them looks like a Jacquie Lawson greeting card!

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Author, Second Chance - A Tale of Two Puppies

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