The Norfolk Red Barns

Richard wrote:

This post from Facebook by a chap called David Bryant has been sent to me. These are David's words and not mine but it adds a little bit to the story of the Red Barns.

In 1941 Pilot Officer David Watson was based at RAF Watton, Norfolk, flying Blenheim light bombers. On a training flight over the east of the county, the young New Zealander spotted something strange in the rural landscape: on his return to base he invited his Flight Commander, Peter Meston, to accompany him to investigate further.

Watson had noticed that in several remote areas of Norfolk piles of agricultural lime had been laid out in straight lines, each ending in an arrow-head. It seemed obvious that these apparent pointers had not been made by accident, but rather appeared to have been oriented to indicate large grassy meadows that could serve as landing strips. Next to these in every case were brand-new conspicuously-painted red barns with unusually wide access doors.

Subsequent investigations at a number of Norfolk sites revealed that all farms possessing one of these strange barns were owned by the same property company, the directors of which were Dutchmen with known financial links to Germany. It was also claimed by other pilots that in several cases, chicken hutches at the farms were laid out in the shape of a swastika!

The whole matter was kept secret for sixty years until Meston told his story on television: I carried out my own investigation and discovered that many of these barns still exist, near the villages of Sporle, Beighton, Cantley, Halvergate, Paston, Guestwick and South Repps.

Seventy years later the results of an intensive MI5 investigation have still not been released, but it has been widely accepted that the barns were built to accommodate Nazi glider troops and their aircraft in the run-up to an invasion.

I call BS on this

This story is taken directly from " Myths & Legends of the Second World War
by James Hayward

Described as

The Second World War gave rise to a rich crop of legends, many of which persist in the public consciousness today. Some are well known, such as the escape of an undead Hitler to South America, Allied aircraft buzzed by 'Foo Fighters' and UFOs, German parachutists dressed as nuns, and a failed German invasion of Suffolk in 1940. Others are more subtle, such as the vaunted Dunkirk spirit, which portrayed the disaster of 1940 as a victory, and the conspiracy theories surrounding Rudolf Hess. Did he fly to Scotland to negotiate a peace treaty with memebers of the Royal Family? Was the aged prisoner who died in Spandau Prison a double? From tales of betrayal at Dieppe and Arnham to Hitler's obsession with the occult and Nazi U-boat bases in Ireland, James Hayward offers a refreshing and intriguing perspective on the myths, legends and folk memories of the Second World War.

They were visited by officials in 1942 which would seem strange if they were under any sort of suspicion?





From the British Newspaper Archive

www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

The company was still going in the area in 1980 and still owned the barns.

From the British Newspaper Archive



www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

Evelyn wrote:

I have found several more articles which unfortunately I am unable to read because I don't really want to register with the site, but perhaps the link is of use to others.

www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search...20property%20company

I find I use it all the time, often many times a day.