Aaron Brooks Wolters
Brigadier General
Gary, you two have done it again! Great idea and photos. This is a great tour!
Geedee and Rocketeer's 8th Army Air Force Tailwheel Tour 2012
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Bottisham was a joy - a real time capsule - I could just imagine pilots and groundcrew mingling in the domestic site. A jeep sat by a hut with a crusher cap on the bonnet and B3 on the back seat.
We found a fantastic light fitting that must be saved if the area is 'developed'. Popped the wheel onto a bit of hard standing on the old airfield site.
We found a fantastic light fitting that must be saved if the area is 'developed'. Popped the wheel onto a bit of hard standing on the old airfield site.
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We certainly attended a mumber of 'atmospheric' locations during the trip. Theres something that just gets you when you stand by an old Watch Tower or wonder out onto the remians of a peri-track / runway that gets the hairs standing to attention. I'm actually sat here typing this update with 'In the Mood' playing quietly on the pc speakers, remembering the places we visited and theres an annoying drop of moisture in the corner of my right eye that wont go away !. I wasn't around in the last big one but when you do a road trip and see at first hand where the boys went to work, you have to be diamond hard not to be affected in some way.
We're actually thinking of trying to organise a trip, if not next year, then deffo the year after, for any-one thats interested. In the meantime, if any of you guys from across the Pond or elsewhere are making plans for a visit here, get in touch and we can sort you out. Heck, we'll probably end up taking you around ourselves...any excuse for another road-trip !!
Dude...we're still only on the first days places, loads more to come
Right, hanky has been put in for a wash, so its time to move on from Bottisham, to Rougham.
Rougham is a few mileseast of Bury St Edmunds and was the home to the 94th Bomb Group and 322nd Bomb Group.
http://www.8thafhs.org/bomber/94bg.htm
http://94thbombgroup.com/
http://usaaf.com/8thaf/bomber/94bg.HTM
http://www.rougham.org/322nd-mission.php
There is lot of original buildings remaining and all are in use by the local farmer. Again, we stopped a couple of guys prepping a tractor and asked if it was OK to take pics of the buildings (this is before we had got to the Watch Tower Museum itself !). With the go ahead, we started snapping away (OK, I did !) and it was very noticable that there wasn't one building that wasn't in use and not falling into decay.
Once we had left the 'farm yard' we drove past the runway but this was on private land and onto the Watch Tower museum itself
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And onto the Museum itself.
The museum was closed when we arrived so didn't get the chance to have a look inside...means a return trip, so we took some shots of the outside.
Around the memorial wall are a lot of plaques for crews that didn't come back, and when I topped to look at them, it became more poignant when you see not only the names of the crews but also their mounts...almost seem more personal than just a list of names as the planes are recognised by their own names....
Just take a few minutes to scan through them, you will recognise a few...
The museum was closed when we arrived so didn't get the chance to have a look inside...means a return trip
, so we took some shots of the outside.Around the memorial wall are a lot of plaques for crews that didn't come back, and when I topped to look at them, it became more poignant when you see not only the names of the crews but also their mounts...almost seem more personal than just a list of names as the planes are recognised by their own names....
Just take a few minutes to scan through them, you will recognise a few...
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Airframes
Benevolens Magister
More great pics guys. You can put Mick and I on the list for any future tours - it's something we've already talked about, so we're very keen !
Rougham was brilliant (though the burgers we had stayed with us all day!!). It was known as Bury St Edmunds in the war; only been known as Rougham more recently. The memorial site is amazing. Most of the airfield is being encroached by housing. Over the years, I have been to various fly ins. The airfield is likely to be built on more and more. The Flying Fortress is a rather lovely pub. The B17 tailwheel made its debut.
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Benevolens Magister
Nice pics Tony. I've driven past Rougham many times, but never had the time to call in. Good to see the tower and so many buildings so well preserved.
Jeff Hunt
1st Lieutenant
If there was a contest for thread of the year, this one would get my vote and many others I am sure. Absolutely brilliant!!!!
Cheers,
Jeff
Cheers,
Jeff
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Great shots guys!
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Cheers Jeff
After Rougham we moved onto the one time home of the 385th Bomb Group at Great ashfield.
385th Bomb Group
The airfield is around 2 miles south of the village and is basically all now agricultural land with a few buildings.
There is no memorial or museum here.
We parked next to a gate marked private and took some pics over the fence....and as we couldn't see anyone to ask, we did very quickly nip through an unlocked gate to take a few pics of the wheel on the runway.
In short, there is not a lot here to see but it was another runway and with a bit of imagination, could see the 17's lumbering down the runway towards us....
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We quickly moved on to the next site at Mendlesham.
Medndlesham was the home of the 34th Bomb Group and the airfield is about 3 miles SE of the village.
34th Bomb Group
Now its all one huge industrial estate. We couldn't find the memorial so stopped at the gate house to the industrial estate and asked for directions. The guard was quite positive that we , a. couldn't enter the site and b. there was nothing left of the airfield. He did however tell us where the memorial was and that its was a difficult place to access. We thanked him, drove back to the main road, turned left and almost imediately left down a small grass cut-in and there was the memorial.
Or rather there it wasn't !.
The brickwork was in place but some theiving pikey bastids had stolen the actual plaque !. We couldn't believe it but stopped to take some pics anyway. The memorial gravel was looking decidely unloved and untended and there were a few miserable looking offerings next to the wall. Tony and I spent about 10 minutes removing some of the weeds from in front of the memorial wall, but I'm afraid that without gloves, we left the thistles in place (not very heroic compared to what the youngsters went through admitidly !) but we felt a bit better.
Parking space is limited to probably two cars and you are pulling off / back onto, a very very busy, very fast road so be carefull and wait for a gap in the traffic !. Feeling rather despondant we left with heavy heart as this had put a definite 'downer' on our trip. The missing plaque was made of bronze and put in place way back in 1949 !. So no airfield and plaque, it felt as though the World had forgotten all about the sacrifice of the 34th Bomb Group.
However... fast forward to next day and when driving past the memorial, we spotted what looked like a Nissen hut with a tallish brick chimney down a side road. Tony has an amazing ability to make his car act like the CGI fighters in the latest warfilms....in other words we executed a perfect 90 degree right turn(pulling 9 G !!!) and with no apparent loss of forward momentum, found ourselves travelling down yet another small road on our right this time to pull outside the building. This is now a small engineering workshop but was an original building and we found a bit of original peri track to the piccie of the '17 wheel on.
This cheered us up no end. When we'd finished, out trusty sat nav said to carry on the way we were pointing. so we did and not two corners later, came face to face with the main runway !.
Moral of the story is...dont trust gate guards as they have absolutely no bl**dy idea what they are talking about !!
I'll leave Tony to add the pics we took on the runway plus any others.
And on a happier note, back at work on Tuesday, I was looking for details about the missing plaque. It was stolen around a year ago and not recovered. There are actually a lot of people heavlily involved in the memorial and the really good news is that according to a local meeting held in the first week of this Month (Oct) a new memorial will be built to a similar size, placed this time in the churchyard (St Mary's) and a replacement of the missing plaque has been modelled by a supporter (not in bronze this time) and will take pride of place when the memorial is built.
Medndlesham was the home of the 34th Bomb Group and the airfield is about 3 miles SE of the village.
34th Bomb Group
Now its all one huge industrial estate. We couldn't find the memorial so stopped at the gate house to the industrial estate and asked for directions. The guard was quite positive that we , a. couldn't enter the site and b. there was nothing left of the airfield. He did however tell us where the memorial was and that its was a difficult place to access. We thanked him, drove back to the main road, turned left and almost imediately left down a small grass cut-in and there was the memorial.
Or rather there it wasn't !.
The brickwork was in place but some theiving pikey bastids had stolen the actual plaque !. We couldn't believe it but stopped to take some pics anyway. The memorial gravel was looking decidely unloved and untended and there were a few miserable looking offerings next to the wall. Tony and I spent about 10 minutes removing some of the weeds from in front of the memorial wall, but I'm afraid that without gloves, we left the thistles in place (not very heroic compared to what the youngsters went through admitidly !) but we felt a bit better.
Parking space is limited to probably two cars and you are pulling off / back onto, a very very busy, very fast road so be carefull and wait for a gap in the traffic !. Feeling rather despondant we left with heavy heart as this had put a definite 'downer' on our trip. The missing plaque was made of bronze and put in place way back in 1949 !. So no airfield and plaque, it felt as though the World had forgotten all about the sacrifice of the 34th Bomb Group.
However... fast forward to next day and when driving past the memorial, we spotted what looked like a Nissen hut with a tallish brick chimney down a side road. Tony has an amazing ability to make his car act like the CGI fighters in the latest warfilms....in other words we executed a perfect 90 degree right turn(pulling 9 G !!!) and with no apparent loss of forward momentum, found ourselves travelling down yet another small road on our right this time to pull outside the building. This is now a small engineering workshop but was an original building and we found a bit of original peri track to the piccie of the '17 wheel on.
This cheered us up no end. When we'd finished, out trusty sat nav said to carry on the way we were pointing. so we did and not two corners later, came face to face with the main runway !.
Moral of the story is...dont trust gate guards as they have absolutely no bl**dy idea what they are talking about !!
I'll leave Tony to add the pics we took on the runway plus any others.
And on a happier note, back at work on Tuesday, I was looking for details about the missing plaque. It was stolen around a year ago and not recovered. There are actually a lot of people heavlily involved in the memorial and the really good news is that according to a local meeting held in the first week of this Month (Oct) a new memorial will be built to a similar size, placed this time in the churchyard (St Mary's) and a replacement of the missing plaque has been modelled by a supporter (not in bronze this time) and will take pride of place when the memorial is built.
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I Loved Great Ashfield. Two lovely ladies walking dogs said the farmer was a nice chap and would not mind. They were pleased to know what we were doing. The photos show the B17 wheel on a taxiway and then lined up on the runway....another close yours eyes moment and hear them line up and take off. Evocative. Although the B17 wheel is heavy, it was worth adding context to the trip.
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great thread Fella's
Aaron Brooks Wolters
Brigadier General
More GREAT material on a EXCELLENT thread for a GRAND TOUR! Thank you Gary and Tony for putting this together. Looking forward to more guys, KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!
hub
Senior Airman
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Great stuff Gary and Tony, keep it coming. And I hope the thieving, pikey bar stewards who stole the memorial plaque, have their b@lls turn square and fester on the edges!!
Super stuff Gary and Tony, give us more!
syscom3
Pacific Historian
Thank you very much for this photo tour!!!
Excellent shot guys!
