by Bob Burrows
I wanted to share my memories after reading Janine Harrington’s booklet about RAF West Raynham which I found very interesting. I knew the area well, working during wartime on Manor Farm, the boundary of which joined the peri track where three bombs meant for a Hangar on the airfield fell on Kipton Field. Land Girls were billeted at Kipton house. I saw two prangs – one a Meteor 14. Two took off with the second flying too close to the first and ended up coming through the hedge.
Another day, I was baling straw when a Javelin was doing acrobatics prior to the Battle of Britain Show. At the time, I said to my mate ‘You can’t loop a Javelin!’ The pilot obviously thought he could, with the result that the Javelin fell like a leaf. We saw the ejector seat come out as the plane levelled. ‘Ah …’ I said, ‘the pilot’s got her.’ But no. The kite crashed at Rudham, with only a little damage.
My Dad was a horseman for Sister Brown at Merries Farm, Tilney, All Saints, near Kings Lynn. He was in the Home Guard having volunteered for Service but been refused as he was in a reserved occupation. His brother, my Uncle George, was in the 4th Norfolks and served in Belgium and France where he queued in the sea at Dunkirk to be rescued before being put on a train to be sorted. He cried when he told Dad about Dunkirk. Most of his mates were killed as Germans came up behind them. Without only rifles and no heavy guns to defend themselves, they were lost before they began. He later went to Singapore and died there.
One evening, Dad and I heard machine guns and engines roaring as a Halifax came over us on fire, breaking up in the air and crashing, dividing into pieces with the fuselage section landing in Merries Farm. The main section with engines and cockpit landed behind Mr Wagg’s house ablaze. I ran along the A47 with others, but we could only watch. There were no survivors. I saw the pilot collapse into the flames. A crew member lay in Wagg’s garden, another was in the turret.
Was this aircraft one of RAF 100 Group’s? This episode occurred at the beginning of 1944.
In 1940, I was seven years old and worked on the farm pumping water for six heavy horses, morning and night. One morning, I got up to find two airmen drinking tea. Their Faery Battle had landed on the farm, and then took off again later. Then again, in 1940, I was playing in our garden when an aircraft came low over the railway line. I always waved to aircraft as they followed the line to Sutton Bridge (Spitfire training drome). The gunner waved back to me. But then I spotted the cross … OOPS! This was an ME 110 which I believe flew on to be shot down at Clenchwarton.
Dad was machine-gunned from a Ju-88 that had bombed Lynn clocks and missed. When they made the ‘Battle of Britain’ film, they used Spanish HE IIIs. Another time, Dad was hoeing sugar-beet with a tractor when he heard engines overhead. Looking up he saw aircraft with German markings. He jumped off the tractor and lay underneath. He saw a Doodle-Bug launched from a HE-III pass over, thinking it was one of ours damaged.
I worked with an old WWI veteran. He was mowing wheat to make a path for the horses to pull a binder. It was after Dieppe. He stopped to sharpen his scythe with a hub stone. ‘There you are, boy,’ he said, ‘they know nought. They should have been at Wipers. Those German ‘chine gunners mowed our Norfolk boys down like I’m mowing this here wheat. I lost some mates there – nothing, boy, nothing.’
My hero was Russell Fuller. He was in the RAF and visited our school on Leave. His Dad was Station Master at Clenchwarton. I went with Mum to the Station. This would have been in 1943. Mrs Fuller was crying. Russell had died over Berlin in a Halifax on his first trip. Meanwhile, a Mosquito crashed at Tilney and us boys salvaged Perspex after the crash crew had gone. My favourite rescue was a 50-calibre machine gun from a B-17 dropped on the farm. Dad took it to the Home Guard, while I kept some of the bullets.
* * * *
I was in the RAF at Watton and biking home the day six Hunters crashed, one near Weasenham. My wife, Audrey, was Bat Woman to Basil Locke (No.007). She met Micky Martin and Douglas Bader when they visited West Raynham. One of the Kestrels pranged near Rudham with little damage. Audrey’s Mum was hoisted into a tree to recover body parts from a Blenheim crash at High House at Weasenham.
It was an Avenger which crashed on Yarmouth beach, spoiling our ‘No Prangs’ Record. I stood by in an AEC Matador awaiting a Washington crash as his wheels wouldn’t lower … but then he came in on finals and his wheels lowered!!
I was posted to Foulsham – AC1 MTM. 99MU stored vehicles for the RAF. Oh, and we tried a Ouija board with a ring of letters and numbers. It said our Flying Control was haunted, so a Snowdrop said he would sleep in the Tower. He was back by eleven that same evening. He said he’d heard voices, with doors banging, but seen nothing. However, he wouldn’t go back into the Tower again. Snowdrop Station Police 99MU supplied vehicles for the 53 floods Cromer pre-heater vans (burning paraffin and blowing hot air to the engines).
I was S.A.C. on the storage line when we had an AOC Inspection. Our Sergeant said: ‘Stand by, I’ll be in the Workshops and take him there’ (AVM Jackman). But no, when he arrived, he wanted instead to view ‘Issues & Storage Lines’ … which meant Me! I saluted and showed him round. ‘Thank you, Airman’. To our CO Squadron Leader Andrews, he said ‘S.A.C. in charge of this line, make him Corporal’. But no - MTM must be a Fitter or Driver Mechanic. So off I went to Blackpool, Weeton, for ‘Fitters Course’. I was posted back to Foulsham as Acting Corporal. Arrived at Guestwick to ask about transport. ‘No, they don’t send any now. You’ll have to walk’. So, with my kit bag – a big pack! – off I went. The police hut was empty, nettles in the garden. Back to Guestwick – transport to Swanton Morley – rail warrant to Lichfield. 99 was moved a week after I left as we were on a Russian Target map …
So many memories!
I’ve been looking through old photos and found a 1960 one of Fred & Kathy English. Fred flew in Stirlings and Halifaxes from North Creake (Egmere).
On the right, is SAC Gordon Young of 99 MU by the ‘haunted’ Foulsham Tower.
RAF WEST RAYNHAM
They’re digging up the runways where once the Blenheims flew,
Most went on a one-way trip in ’40 – one and two.
The mighty Flying Fortress first went to war from here,
One hangar still has the scars of a Junker’s bomb to bear.
Bostons and Mosquitoes carried on the war
Leading up to D-Day in nineteen forty-four.
When the war was over, jets came screaming in to land,
Meteors, Vampires, Javelins and a Queens Flight – Heron grand.
The Kestrel it was tested here by an International crew
One Squadron went ‘twice vertical’ in the Harrier brand new.
Last of all the Blood Hounds pointed noses to the sky,
Waiting for a Russian Mig that never did come by.
I watched as the last Blenheim flew by for all to see
And thought of those brave airmen who died to keep us free.
If they came back, they’d recognise the Hangars and the Square,
But not the Solar Panels scattered everywhere!
Bob Burrows
This article is from the Autumn / Winter 2019 issue of Confound and Destroy
