Suffolk's Orford Ness During WWI - Ninety Years Of Remembrance

By Tara Booth

06/11/2008

Orford Ness on the Suffolk coast played a vital role during the First World War and visitors today can still see some of the physical marks left on the landscape.

The remote and isolated part of the coast became a secret military testing site and during 1913 and 1916 part of the site was drained and levelled to form two airfields.

It became home to part of the Central Flying School’s Experimental Flying Section from Upavon in Wiltshire, whose job it was to develop techniques and equipment for the effective tactical use of aircraft as weapons of war.

Paddy Heazell, a National Trust volunteer, currently writing a book about Orford Keys, said: “ Amongst the pioneering work of the First World War were early experiments on the parachute, aerial photography and bomb and machine gun sights, as well as the testing of new aircraft and the development of camouflage.”