Next to The Dome Trainer is a memorial stone to all those who served at Langham Airfield and an information board about the area. The board reads:
'RAF Langham
The Dome Trainer
This reinforced concrete hemisphere is known as the Dome Trainer. Built in 1943, it was one of about 40 built around the country, of which, it is thought, only 6 survive.
It was designed and built as a Ground-to-Air gunnery trainer. Projection equipment inside the Dome displayed film of dive bombers and other aircraft making attacks from various positions within a 180 degree arc. The image was moved around the Dome using a complicated system of cams and mirrors. Films were projected in colour, with full sound, creating a realistic experience for the trainees sitting in the middle at a replicated anti-aircraft gun. On firing at the attacking aircraft the instructor could gauge whether the gunner was on target by viewing the yellow light flashes projected onto the wall of the dome as he pulled the trigger; the gunner himself could not see this because he was observing through a yellow filter.
For its time, it was a very sophisticated training simulator. Trainee gunners, once competent in this would then go to Weybourne or Stiffkey for live firing at target drones towed behind aircraft.
It is believed the Dome was also used as an Air-to-Air gunnery trainer. The films would have been slightly different and the trainee would have been sitting in a mock up of a turret such as that seen on a Wellington bomber. It is possible it was also used for navigational training.
In 1961 the Ministry of Defence sold off the Airfield and its sundry buildings, a large part of which, including the Dome was acquired by Bernard Matthews plc. The Dome is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, probably Norfolk's youngest such monument! It has recently been donated to the North Norfolk Historic Buildings Trust (NNBT). It is the Trust's intention, together with the Friends of Langham Dome (FoLD) to repair and restore this building incorporating its wartime use as a trainer for Anti-Aircraft Gunners. It is hoped that if enough funds can be raised and the Dome renovated, that it will be managed by the Friends and made available to the public and schools, telling not only the story of the Dome but also the important contribution made by Langham, and other East Anglian airfields, to the defence of the country in World War 2.
Langham Airfield
During the Second World War the following squadrons were stationed at Langham:
No. 1 - Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit
No. 280 - Air Sea Rescue
No. 455 - Langham Beaufighter Wing
No. 489 - Langham Beaufighter Wing
No. 521 - Meteorological Reconnaissance
Other Squadrons, including 254, 407, 519, 524, 612, 819 and 827, also used the base for short periods. Wellington Bombers of 524 Squadron and Barracudas of 827 Squadron operated against E-boats off the Dutch coast, 455 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force and 489 Squadron Royal New Zealand Air Force moved to Langham in April 1944. The two units formed the Langham Beaufighter Wing of Group 16, Coastal Command. Intelligence sources believe that the Langham Wing sunk 36 ships, damaged a further 61 and sunk four U-boats in operations ranging from Denmark to France.
On 19 May 1944, a B.17 bomber came down in the North Sea 250 miles off Great Yarmouth and a large air-sea rescue operation was launched. Lockheed Hudsons from RAF Langham went to the scene with airborne lifeboats, escorted by 8th Air Force Mustangs from Debden, Essex. After searching for almost 24 hours they located the dinghy, and one of the Hudsons parachuted its lifeboat down as near as possible. The ditched crew boarded the lifeboat, started the engines and set course for home though the night. About midnight they encountered a Danish fishing vessel and when dawn broke the crew of a patrolling Warwick saw the men being taken aboard the Danish vessel which then began to make towards its German occupied home port. The Warwick dropped down and fired several long bursts of machine gun fire across the vessel's bow, persuading the Danish fishermen to turn about again. It was eventually sighted by a motor launch which took on the much travelled B.17 crew and landed them at Great Yarmouth.
On the night of 20, 21 March 1945 at 21.05, over 200 bombs were dropped in this district, all except four landing in fields south of the Langham/Binham road where they killed 28 cattle. One of the other four bombs penetrated the roof of 524 squadron's office, three more exploding nearby. On the same night Gunton, Gresham, Roughton, Wending, Southrepps and Langham experienced the last machine-gunning attach on East Anglia by German aircraft.
To show your support we would weclome you to become a member of the Friends of Langham Dome. To find out more visit visit link or call in at the Bluebell Public house in the village.'
On the board are illustrations of a Bristol Beaufighter, Lockheed Hudson and Vickers Wellington aircraft and a plan of the airfield.
Since posting the above information, gained from the adjacent information board, we (via Groundspeak) have been contacted by a knowledgeable historian as follows:
'As a historian of the Dome Trainer and having worked on their post war development I can say that the following statement is incorrect:-
"It is believed the Dome was also used as an Air-to-Air gunnery trainer. The films would have been slightly different and the trainee would have been sitting in a mock up of a turret such as that seen on a Wellington bomber. It is possible it was also used for navigational training."
There were two different designs of equipment for air-to-air turret training one called a 'Turret Gun Sighting Trainer' and the other of similar design called a 'Standard Free Gunnery Trainer' see diagram.
Any astro navigation training in a dome trainer would have been unofficial.'