Officially known as RAF Downham Market, locals commonly referred to it as Bexwell aerodrome because of its close proximity to Bexwell village. A memorial plaque inside the church commemorates all those who lost their lives whilst stationed here: 160 aircraft and nearly 900 airmen were lost on operations.
The plaque, located in the chancel, reads:
TO COMMEMORATE THE USE OF
THIS CHURCH BY MEMBERS OF THE
FOLLOWING SQUADRONS OF THE
ROYAL AIR FORCE STATIONED AT
THE AERODROME HERE DURING
THE 1939 -1945 WAR
No218(GOLD COAST) SQUADRON JULY
1942 MAR.1944 STIRLING AIRCRAFT
No623 SQUADRON AUGUST 1943
DEC.1943 STIRLING AIRCRAFT
No214 SQUADRON DECEMBER 1943
JAN.1944 STIRLING AIRCRAFT
No635 SQUADRON MARCH 1944
MAY 1945 LANCASTER AIRCRAFT
No608 SQUADRON AUGUST 1944
MAY 1945 MOSQUITO AIRCRAFT
And In Memory of those who
gave their lives Rest Eternal
grant unto them O Lord and let
Light Perpetual shine upon them "The aerodrome at Downham Market was built to class A specification (the main contractors were Messrs W & C French) and opened in the summer of 1942 as a satellite station for RAF Marham, replacing the unpaved landing strip to the south-east of Barton Bendish > LinkExternal link which had become unsuitable for use by heavy bomber aircraft. Today, RAF Barton Bendish, which was operational from 2 September 1939 until October 1942, is a large crop field adjacent to Eastmoor Road and north-west of Eastmoor Farm. RAF Marham - one of the four pre-war RAF bases in the county of Norfolk and still a very active airfield today - is situated a good ten kilometres to the north-east of Bexwell, as the crow flies, and not quite three kilometres north of the Barton Bendish landing ground.
RAF Downham Market had three concrete runways, the main (east-west) runway being 1,900 metres long and 50 metres wide. A five-kilometre long perimeter track linked the runways and the 35 circular concrete hardstandings, where the aircraft were dispersed, with each other, and with the aerodrome's six T2 hangars. From April 1943 until March 1944, three of the latter were used for the storage of Horsa assault gliders.
In October 1943, the station was equipped with the FIDO (Fog Intensive Dispersal Operation) fog dispersal system which was eventually installed at 15 UK airfields. Downham Market was the second aerodrome to be equipped with this device. The aerodrome's FIDO site was located
on the south side of Downham Road (A1122), a short distance west of Crimplesham. It comprised three or four round, upright fuel tanks, a pump house which accommodated six Sulzer pumps, and a valve control hut. Underground fuel lines ran from the site to the burners beside the main runway. The control valves were housed in covered pits, each pit controlling 80 yards of burner line. Very aptly, the old FIDO site is now occupied by a petrol station. One of RAF Downham's covered pits housing a control valve of the FIDO pipeline can still be seen near the south-eastern end of the main runway. It is to date not known if it also still contains the equipment.
A 12-inch concrete pipe (presumably containing smaller steel pipes), severed when the northern perimeter track was reduced in width and a ditch was dug alongside it after the war, is still in place. This is believed by some to have been the main petrol feed to the north side of the runway and a similar pipe once was (or perhaps still is) in place on the south side. The installation was initially fitted with Mk III (aka Haigill) burners which in cross-section comprise three steel pipes arranged in an equilateral triangle at 7-inch centres, with the two 1.5-inch burner pipes at the bottom and a 2-inch vaporizer pipe at the top. If these were laid in a concrete pipe under the perimeter track the arrangement would require a pipe with a minimum diameter of 11 inches. A short distance further along the former taxiway, which currently serves as a footpath marked on OS maps as New Road, two now quite corroded metal pipes cross the drainage ditch running along one side of it. One of the pipes has a diameter of 5 1/2in, the other is slightly larger, with a diameter of 6 1/2in. The measurement of the latter conforms with an annotated site plan according to which the diameter of the FIDO feed pipe was 6 1/2 inch. Considering that the system was upgraded several times during its relatively short use and that no detailed records seem to exist, it is after all this time difficult to discern with any accuracy what purpose these pipes served, although it is probably safe to assume that they formed part of the FIDO installation.
The initial layout had an approach box of 500 yards and was 160 yards wide, with 700 yards of burners on each side of runway 27, crossing the eastern perimeter track but not extending as far as the first intersecting runway, further to the west. The eventual layout required the construction of more than 80 Mk IV burners, each 40 yards long, and in excess of 16,000 yards of piping. It took ten tankers each doing five runs (about 3,000 gallons a time) to fill up the FIDO tanks. According to a Bomber Command document, the total fuel consumption was 2,145,000 gallons. An old fuel tank, presumably originating either from the FIDO site or one of the airfield's aircraft fuel storage sites appears to still be in farm use. It can be found on the edge of a crop field a short distance further to the south.
On 20 September 1943, contractors Messrs William Press & Son of Willoughby Lane, Tottenham, reported that the installation was ready for filling with petrol and preliminary trials and was expected to be operational by the end of the month. (Founded by William Allpress in 1913, the William Press Group developed into a leading British engineering business. It merged with Leonard Fairclough & Son in 1982 and became Amec Foster Wheeler plc, a British multinational consultancy, engineering and project management company currently headquartered in London.) The first trial landings took place on 11 October 1943, with more to follow on 21 November.
Fog was a constant hazard to aircraft and a method was hence developed to disperse it. This required a network of pipes and petrol burners which were aligned with the runway. By burning petrol at the rate of 100,000 gallons (456,000 litres) per hour sufficient heat could be produced to lift the fog, thus enabling pilots to take off and, more importantly, to land safely, and more than 160 aircraft reportedly landed at Downham assisted by the installation. However, the turbulence caused by the heat from the burning petrol on both sides of the runway and the anxiety about what could happen if the flames were to ignite any petrol leaking from an aircraft no doubt must have made landing with FIDO a nerve-racking experience. The heavy smoke, scorching heat and the terrible smell are remembered by all who were there, and also that everything and everybody within 100 yards was covered in soot. Group Captain HG Davis of 195 Squadron, then based at Wratting Common, close to the Cambridgeshire border with Suffolk, recalls his experience on the occasion of a training flight: "As we neared the airfield, there appeared to be one enormous fire. We were cleared to land, and the lasting impression I have always held was that we were about to descend into a vast flame-lined grave! The reflected moon on top of the fog - probably about 500ft deep - made the fog look like the ground and the runway with its flaming outline appeared to be subterranean! Apart from the turbulence on the approach, and a prayer from all of the crew that I would not swing off the runway, the rest of the landing was uneventful". (Geoffrey Williams, Flying Through Fire, 1995)"
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