ROC Day at the Museum

Sunday the 23rd September 2018 saw the annual Royal Observer Corps Association Day at the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum.

The day started in a most miserable fashion as far as the weather was concerned. Overcast skies and rain ensuring a very wet start. The prospects of the BBMF Lancaster flypast looking a little slim at this stage.

During the day however, the weather improved and the public started to arrive in more modest numbers.

Members of the local ROC Association arrived, and although not many in number nowadays, it was good to see the members of this invaluable wartime and cold war era group.

The Royal Observer Corps was formed and organised in 1925 for the visual detection, identification, tracking and reporting of aircraft over Great Britain. It operated in the United Kingdom between 1925 and 1995 when the Corps’ civilian volunteers were stood down.

The ROC Association was formed in 1986 to provide the former members of the Royal Observer Corps the opportunity to continue meeting with serving colleagues and to maintain the comradeship, spirit and ethos of the Corps into the future.

The RAF Marham Aviation Heritage Centre attended with their stall which tells the story of RAF Marham and aviation in East Anglia, from its beginnings as a Royal Flying Corps Home Defence Airfield in 1916 through to the Second World War, the Cold War, today’s modern operations and the Tornado GR4, and now with the F35 Lightning of No. 617 Squadron ‘The Dambusters’.

Also on the day, a group of boarders from Saint Felix School paid the museum a visit. They were able to visit all the different parts of the museum, plus some had a go at flying one of our computer-based Flight Simulators. They were also able to examine some of our weapons at close quarters, discovering just how heavy some of the Machine Guns during World War II were. Their time in the museum seemed to impress the youngsters involved.

A number of historic military vehicles also came along and parked up, as did members of a local MG Owners Club. The later booking an event date for next year.

The interior of the hangar did at least see more activity during the afternoon period, as music by the Honey Belles, with their tribute to the 40s and 50s, gave a lift and encouraged a few dancers to take to the floor.

Later in the afternoon, the weather showed a more kindly face and as scheduled, the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster provided three passes as it made its way back to base at RAF Coningsby. This completed the three BBMF flypasts that we have had the pleasure of seeing at NASAM this year, two by the Lancaster and one by the Dakota. The process is now underway to try to book more flypasts in 2019. Watch this blog or our main website for more information on this in 2019.