Blickling's more recent past includes the RAF Oulton bomber base from WWII. Blickling Hall housed personnel and served as a mess hall for the base. The airstrip was only a couple miles away. In the early years of the war, Oulton was home to light and medium bombers, Vega Venturas, A-26s, and such. In 1943, the base closed, concrete runways and other infrastructure were built, and by April, 1944, the B-17s and B-24s that were to pulverize Germany arrived. Blickling houses a small but impressive museum of those times.
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| Map of RAF Oulton |
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| Huge model, 8 foot wingspan |
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"Chaff"--tinsel dropped from Allied aircraft on D-Day to confuse German radar;
I'll never forget being in a conversation one day in the 80s between two WWII vets
in Dallas, Bill Stallcup, who flew a USAAF bomber and dropped chaff that day; and
Jerry Stover, who was a US Army signal officer on the beach, whose radio
messages apparently suffered as much as the German radar |
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