NHER 51916 (Monument record) - Site of runway indicator or airfield code letters for Rackheath airfield

November 2008.
Possible World War Two runway indicator or airfield code letters of ‘RK’ are visible at TG 2668 1154 on aerial photographs (S1)-(S2), presumably relating to Rackheath airfield site (NHER 8170). Rackheath airfield runway is situated over 2km to the north-east, however, and these letters, visible as an upstanding metal structure, approximately 5m in height, would have been legible when flying north-south (in a direction away from Rackheath airfield), thus they seem too far away, and positioned in the wrong direction to be a runway indicator, and therefore may possibly relate to a bombing decoy site. Certainly, there are bomb craters visible approximately 250m to the west of this site (NHER 51915), so it may be possible that this structure was placed to deliberately draw bombing raids away from Rackheath airfield.

There is also a possible heavy machine gun emplacement (NHER 51917) sited approximately 220m to the south, on the Salhouse Road into Norwich, indicating that this area was strategic defensively during World War Two.

The structure was presumably relatively temporary, and did not survive much beyond World War Two (S3).
E. Bales (NMP), 13 November 2008.