Site of Second World War light anti-aircraft battery, near Burnt House, Rowney Wood (EHER 21524)

Now destroyed. It is thought that these were light anti-aircraft gun positions to protect the airfield against low-flying strafing aircraft.

Previously recorded under EHER 18890. A probable searchlight battery. A group of three earthwork enclosures, with a nearby fourth rectangular example, appearing on RAF vertical air photographs from 1948. The site has been removed and appears as a soilmark on a similar series dating from 1949. <1> <2> <3> Aerial photographs of Debden Airfield taken in 1943, 1946 and 1948 show what appears to be three circular mounds, each with a shallow ditch around and a hole in the top, in a field behind Burnt House. They are only a few yards apart in a triangular formation. About 80/100 yards to the east, at the edge of the field, there is a fourth emplacement, this one irregularly shaped. <4> <5> <6> 2013. Field survey. It is thought that these were light anti-aircraft gun positions to protect the airfield against low-flying strafing aircraft. The circular, clearly earthen emplacements may have been for First World War Lewis guns and the fourth for a Bofors gun although this is largely conjecture. A number of these sites can be made out around the airfield on 1940s aerial photographs. The site is now an open field. <7>