Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

An arrangement of long ditches is visible off the eastern end of what was RAF Manston on historic air photographs. These features appear to have been recently dug in 1944. These three parallel ditches, cross ditches and other linears may be part of the airfield’s Fog Investigation Dispersal Operation (FIDO) system in which fuel burners illuminated and cleared fog along the landing strip and its approach. These features were visible as soilmarks on 1950s photographs but it is not known if the fuel pipes were still in situ at that time. Part of the area through which these features ran is now buried by overburden.

Monument Types

• DITCH? (Modern - 1939 AD? to 1945 AD?)
• FOG DISPERSAL PLANT? (Modern - 1939 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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An arrangement of long ditches is visible off the eastern end of what was RAF Manston on historic air
photographs. These features appear to have been recently dug in 1944. These three parallel ditches,
cross ditches and other linears may be part of the airfield’s Fog Investigation Dispersal Operation (FIDO) system in which fuel burners illuminated and cleared fog along the landing strip and its approach. These features were visible as soilmarks on 1950s photographs but it is not known if the fuel pipes were still in situ at that time. Part of the area through which these features ran is now buried by overburden. (1)

<1> Alison Deegan, 2013, Air photo and lidar mapping and interpretation for land at Ozengell Grange, Ramsgate, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE31449.

Sources and further reading