RAF Little Snoring Watch Tower

The aerodrome at Little Snoring, intended as a satellite to Foulsham airfield, was built by Taylor Woodrow Ltd in 1942/43 to the standard design of a Class A heavy bomber airfield, with three concrete runways and 36 aircraft dispersal points. The main runway was 2,000 metres long. The minor road linking the villages of Thursford and Little Snoring was closed when construction began, as it crossed the flying field. It was however reinstated in the 1960s, following the eastern perimeter track. 

Completed in the summer of 1943 and initially assigned to No. 3 Group Bomber Command, the first squadrons to arrive were the 115th and the 1678 Heavy Conversion Flight, Number 100 Group, based at Bylaugh Hall in the Breckland district of Norfolk, was responsible for a series of secret operations involving the development and testing of more than 32 different devices. The specially equipped aircraft of this group flew within the bomber stream, using electronic jamming devices to disrupt enemy radio communications and radar. These devices were referred to under exotic code-names such "Airborne Cigar", "Jostle", "Mandrel", "Airborne Grocer", "Carpet" and "Piperack". Other aircraft were fitted with so-called Homers which intercepted the German night fighters' radar and radio emissions and allowed the RAF fighters to home in onto the enemy aircraft, and shoot them down or at least disrupt their missions aimed against the allied bomber streams.


No. 115 Squadron was later replaced by 169 Squadron, flying Mosquito aircraft, and by 515 Squadron, at first flying Beaufighters and later also equipped with Mosquitoes. No. 515 Squadron was the first RAF squadron to employ electronic countermeasures by jamming enemy radar installations. Their aircraft were fitted with a device called "Moonshine", the code-name for ARI TR1427 (Airborne Radio Installation Transmitter Receiver), a spoofing/jamming device developed at the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) with the aim of defeating the German "Freya" radar system.

The squadrons flew day and night intruder missions as well as escort duties, ie they escorted RAF bomber streams over enemy territory and protected them from German night fighters. During March and April 1944 they were briefly joined by a detachment of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), flying P-51 Mustangs and P-38 Lightnings in long-range escort trials. In mid-April 1944, the aerodrome at Little Snoring was attacked by retaliating German intruders which had tailed the returning British bombers on their home run and managed to remain undetected, putting the airfield temporarily out of commission.

In May 1944, 23 Squadron arrived from the Mediterranean, and together with the 515th they continued to fly day and night intruder raids, intercepting German fighters deep in Europe. The last missions were flown in early May, just before both squadrons were disbanded. 


Twelve Lancaster bombers and 43 Mosquito fighter aircraft flying from Little Snoring were lost during missions. There is to date no memorial stone, but the village sign, besides a farmer ploughing his field, and the village church, depicts a Mosquito fighter aircraft and a propeller, thus commemorating its wartime history.