Inscription could have been last act at airfield by doomed World War II pilot, say archaeologists

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Writing on wall for pens which once provided Spitfire and Hurricane base

A photo of an air raid shelter with a wall made up of lines of sacked cement at duskAn inscription on an air raid shelter in Norfolk could have been made by a pilot during the Battle of Britain© Norfolk County Council
Reading ‘N’ and ‘194’, a mysterious inscription on an air raid shelter was found late on Christmas Eve by archaeologists working at RAF Coltishall, an important Second World War airfield where single-engine fighters were penned during the Battle of Britain.

David Gurney, the County Archaeologist, hopes that further investigating will reveal the missing letter and number and lead to more inscriptions from the wartime period at the airfield, which closed in 2006.

A photo of an air raid shelter on an airfieldThe former RAF base has recently been renamed the Scottow Enterprise Park© Norfolk County Council
“Under different lighting conditions we may well be able to read the full inscription, as has been done with a very successful project to record medieval graffiti in Norfolk churches,” he says.

“We can’t prove it, but there’s a good chance that this inscription dates to 1940 and the time when RAF Coltishall was involved in the Battle of Britain.

“It might have been done by one of the groundcrew working on a Spitfire or a Hurricane, or even one of the pilots.

“Although we’ll probably never know who it was who left his mark here, coming across something like this always reminds us of all those who served at Coltishall and lost their lives during the war.

“This might have been the last thing that a pilot did before he took off in his fighter, never to return."

E-shaped and made of hessian bags filled with solidifying concrete, the pens stood behind small brick sheds used to shelter the tractors which moved people and supplies around the base.

Ten fighter pens were dispersed around the perimeter track of the airfield, of which one survives intact. Council officials want to renovate the shed and use it for guided tours if they can secure funding for repairs.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

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Remains of German WWII Junkers Ju 88 bomber recovered from Thames Estuary

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Conflict, Time, Photography: Tate Modern's powerful portrayal of the lasting effects of war


Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk//history-and-heritage/military-history/world-war-two/art511725-inscription-could-have-been-last-act-at-airfield-by-doomed-world-war-two-pilot-say-archaeologists


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