Stanford Battle Area

Stanford Training Area
Stanford, Norfolk
Entrance to Eastmere
Stanford Training Area Location within Norfolk
Coordinates	52°31′15″N 0°45′17″E / 52.52078°N 0.75480°E / 52.52078; 0.75480Coordinates: 52°31′15″N 0°45′17″E / 52.52078°N 0.75480°E / 52.52078; 0.75480
Type	Training Area
Site information
Owner	Ministry of Defence
Controlled by	British Army
Site history
Built	1942
Built for	War Office
In use	1942-Present

Stanford Training Area (STANTA), originally known as Stanford Battle Area, is a British Army training area situated in the English county of Norfolk. The area is approximately 30,000 acres (120 km²) in size; it is some 7 miles (11 km) north of the town of Thetford and 25 miles (40 km) south-west of the city of Norwich. The site is run by the Operational Training and Advisory Group (OPTAG).

The area was originally established in 1942 when a battle training area was required and a 'Nazi village' established. Military exercises were already known in the area; tanks had deployed to Thetford in the First World War. The complete takeover involved the evacuation of the villages of Buckenham Tofts, Langford, Stanford, Sturston, Tottington and West Tofts.

The area was used during the run-up to the D-Day invasion and since then has hosted many exercises. A regular visitor is 16 Air Assault Brigade who hold their annual Gryphon exercises there. It is also used by cadets to complete Fieldcraft exercises.

In 2009 a 12.5-acre (51,000 m²) village designed to replicate its Afghan equivalent, was added to the Battle Area for the training of troops deployed in support of the War in Afghanistan. The site, built at a cost of £14 million, is state of the art and manned by Afghan nationals, ex-Gurkha soldiers and amputee actors, who simulate the Afghan National Army, locals and wounded soldiers. The village includes houses, a market and a mosque. It also features a system that pumps out smells like rotten meat and sewage.

The battle area includes four historic churches; the one at West Tofts was restored by Pugin and a new "church" forms part of the specially constructed village of Eastmere. Eastmere was originally built to give soldiers experience of fighting on the northern European plains.