Control Tower

Details

DICKLEBURGH AND RUSHALL

974/0/10029 THORPE ABBOTTS AIRFIELD 09-AUG-06 Control Tower

II

Contol Tower. Standard 1941 design for bomber satellite and Operation Training Unit (OTU) satellite airfields. Designed by J Hawbest

MATERIAL: Cement rendered brick with a roof of hollow reinforced pre-cast concrete slabs. Steel frame windows.

PLAN: A rectangular building built to Air Ministry Directorate of works and Buildings drawings nos. 13726/41 and 15683/41.

EXTERIOR: Of two storeys extended upwards with the addition to the roof of a Seco (prefabricated building system consisting of hollow plywood beams and columns)control room to Air Ministry Directorate of Works and Buildings drawing 5966/3. At first floor level is a balcony with steel railings and flight of steel stairs providing access to roof, which is also surrounded by steel railings. Original steel window frames survive, including the four eight-pane windows to front elevation. External steel door frames survive but the doors are replacements.

INTERIOR: The interior plan is largely intact. The ground floor would have contained the meteorological offices, toilets, rest room, switch room and watch office and the first floor the store, signals office, controllers' rest room and control room.

HISTORY: Thorpe Abbots airfield was built during 1942 and 1943 as a Second World War satelite airfield to the airfield at Horham. Originally intended for operational use by the RAF, it was handed over to the USAF and between June 1943 and September 1945 it was the home of the famous "Bloody Hundredth" Bomb Group of the 8th Air Force. The Bomb Group's missions included the first daylight raid on Berlin and leading the bombing of Rujkun, Norway, which delayed the manufacture of heavy water for the German atomic bomb. At the end of the war it was returned to the RAF on a care and maintenance basis until it was closed and sold in 1956. The control tower now houses the 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Control towers became the most distinctive and instantly recognisable building associated with military airfields, particularly in the Second World War when they served as foci for base personnel as they awaited the return of aircraft from operations. Their iconic value, both as operational nerve centres and as memorials to the enormous losses sustained by Allied forces in the course of the Strategic Bomber Offensive, has long been recognised. The control tower at Thorpe Abbots is a particularly well preserved example of a Second World War control tower, which retains much of its original fabric and a largely unaltered interior layout. It is also of operational interest as the home of the USAF's famous "Bloody Hundredth" Bomb Group of the Second World War, whose missions included the first daylight raid against Berlin and leading the bombing of Rujkun, Norway, which delayed the manufacture of heavy water for the German atomic bomb.

SOURCES:

R Mckensie, Ghost Fields of Norfolk, The Larks Press, 2004. P Francis, British Military Airfield Architecture From Airships to the Jet Age, Patrick Stephens Ltd (Haynes Group), 1996.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

494175

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Francis, P, British Military Airfield Architecture From Airships To The Jet Age, (1996)
McKenzie, R, The Ghost Fields of Norfolk, (2004)

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