A memorial for more than 700 of Norfolk's forgotten heroes is being held up by red tape.

Hundreds of young airmen, who flew from RAF Downham Market, were shot down and killed during the Second World War.

Today little remains of the base, which stood at Bexwell. And just two of the 705 air crew who lost their lives aboard the Stirlings, Mosquitoes and Lancasters which flew from it, are remembered on a modest wooden plaque outside the village church.

Author Chris Coverdale, who has written a book about the Pathfinder squadrons which flew from the base, has been campaigning to replace it with a fitting memorial for those who never came back.

A modest tribute to two RAF Downham airmen who won the Victoria Cross already stands on the site. But council officials say Mr Coverdale can't replace it with a larger memorial, because he has been unable to find any legal record of who owns the 20yd strip of land.

'You're talking about 705 young men,' he said. They didn't even blink an eyelid, they just went to war, they knew the chances were slim. But after 70 years, there's no memorial, there's nothing.'

Searches carried out by the Land Registry have unearthed no record of who owns the plot.

'All the West Norfolk council planning people have said it's a brilliant idea, but we've got to go about it the right way,' said Mr Coverdale, who lives in Peterborough.

'It's my passion, it's what I believe in, I'll keep trying, but the initial hurdle is to find out who owns the land.'

The existing wooden memorial was put up in the early 1980s, by RAFA - the Royal Air Force Association - with support from the church and nearby RAF Marham.

Mr Coverdale hopes to replace it with a 15m granite and steel memorial, listing the names of all of those who died.

He also hopes to pay tribute to the ground crews who worked on the station, which was open from 1942 until 1946.

Some 10,000 people are believed to have been stationed on or to have worked on the base during the second half of the war. Many would have settled in the area and raised families around Downham afterwards.

Mr Coverdale Plans to set up a trust and place legal notices in local newspapers, formally seeking the owner of the land.

He said if no-one came forward, the trust would try to claim the site and begin raising funds for the memorial, which is expected to cost £100,000.