The 'Introduce yourself' Thread

The area in question is still an active training establishment and often hosts a number of aircraft movements and multinational military training exercises. As a serving senior Military Copper, and to save you getting into trouble, I would recommend that you try writing for permission to access the site. The address is 'Headquarters Defence Training Estate East at West Tofts Camp, Thetford, Norfolk IP26 5EP'.

Rgds

Jonny

Welcome to AiX jonny,

I have mixed feelings about giving airfield sites to the Army. On one hand it keeps the infrastucture maintained and the area out of the hands of civil developers but, on the other the actual landing area can suffer through modifications into training grounds. If you are posted back to a former airfield site, I trust that whatever influence you have will moderate any urge by your superiors to demolish!

Welcome jonny, keep your head down and we look forward to hearing that you're home

I'm ex St Mawgan and Brize....

EGDGZTCW

Thanks mate. I was at St Mawgan on pre-deployment training at the end of last year. The place has barely changed from when I was last there in 1989, but apart from a few odds and sods, the place is a ghost town. Sad to see when I remember it occupied by 42 Sqn and the OCU. Seems like there MAY be plans for its future use, but we will wait and see.

Pete,

Thanks for the welcome. I too, lament the fact that the army are not, sometimes, better tennants. I remember moving into Swanton Morley in '97 and watching with some dismay the hangars and some 'H' blocks go and the extant air raid shelters being filled in. Having said that, on balance, if my soldiers need better vehicle shelters to work on and store their armoured vehicles, the old T2 is a prime target for replacement. At least, and it is said with some regret, the rest of the infrastructure usually survives intact and is normally well cared for.

Kind rgds

Jonny

Greetings to all on the Exchange - !
Only joined a couple of weeks ago, but what a wealth of information - ! I began my interest in airfields as a young lad cycling around the sites in Norfolk during the sixties. No-one appeared to know or care much about airfields then. To our advantage, not many of the farmers who had the land appeared to care much about us lads ferreting around the runways and buildings either. Hench the title of this intro; if ONLY I'd had the wisdom ( and money - ! ) to have had a camera and notebook then - !
Fast forward to the present. My main interests have settled to defence works, watch offices and most specialist buildings; turret trainers, parachute stores, bombing teachers etc.. I don't pretend to be an expert; just enthusiastic with an enquiring mind and several folders of photographs from airfields around the country.

Welcome to the forum and i hope you enjoy your time with us.

Regards,

HawkEye001

SimonGee;77413 wrote:

if ONLY I'd had the wisdom ( and money - ! ) to have had a camera and notebook then - !

And that is the story of my life too! -Welcome to the forum Simon:)

Hindsight is a wonderful thing - !

Couldn't agree more... Welcome to the forum Simon

Hello Simon, welcome to AiX.

Have you seen norwichpauls (Paul Francis) airfield defences book?

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