Geedee and Rocketeer's 8th Army Air Force Tailwheel Tour 2012

Gordon bennett I am fat!!!

It's not hard to imagine seeing them coming back in looking at the shots up the runway from the tower. Great shots Gary.

I hope Gary will forgive me, but I will introduce our next stop. (I am after all, sat in a hotel room with nothing to do but await a Hurricane - and I don't mean the type I love!!).
Anyhoo, we jumped back in the 'mail lorry' and wound our way down leafy country narrow lanes - for some reason, autumn seems to come early. It is only 10 miles to our next destination, but they are 10 miles of narrow lanes and it is easy to forget 2012 and imagine yourself back into 1943-1945, with Jeeps chock full of grateful crews, having survived another trip to Germany. Dashing to the nearest water hole - the Red Lion, Kings Head, White Hart......We follow them past the little cottages painted Suffolk Pink, some thatched. All bore witness to those mighty events some around 70 years ago. Hardwick takes some finding but is well worth the wait. We make our way up a single track concrete road that is likely part of the old access to the airfield. The museum is situated in several old Nissen huts, with grass beautifully kept. Outside are some lovely exhibits I wish I could own, not least a Merlin from a P51D that came down in the rich soil of Norfolk. The museum is an absolute treasure trove of all things Mustang, P47 and B24s that were stationed at Hardwick.

Although the B17s were not based at Hardwick, we had to get out the B17 tailwheel for a shot. Hardwick is extremely delightful, a tree line shows where the main runway was there is still an active airfield. Our next destination, still on the Hardwick site (domestic side) is a beautiful collection of aircraft owned and operated by Maurice Hammond.

You could say we lucked in big time! Out under the beautiful Azure blue skies were his collection of lovely warbirds. With airliners making contrails above, this was an evocative and wonderful time for us. The grass strip is cozy. Maurice owns a T6, Auster, Stearman and 2 beautiful Mustangs. Hardwick Warbirds were very welcoming. We got treated to a great display as both Mustangs took off. I will let the pictures speak for themselves! Maurice's hangar also has a lovely display of WW2 related items.

Well, I have said enough.....Gary is good at the links and historical stuff and has some video you might like!!!
The first batch of photos show the museum......

The second batch show the lovely aircraft from Hardwick Warbirds

Fantastic you guys, keep it coming...

Yep, keep it coming- fantastic stuff. Got to get together with you guys for the next trip!

I hope Gary will forgive me, but I will introduce our next stop

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Fill yer boots dude !

Fantastic you guys, keep it coming...

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We're still only about half way through day two !.....

Yep, keep it coming- fantastic stuff. Got to get together with you guys for the next trip!

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Stay tooned, you never know

Here's my batch from the museum (And Tony...s*d off, you've allready got nearly four Merlins ! )

This Museum is for the 93rd Bomb Group and is about 3 miles south of Hempnall (12 miles SW of Norwich).

93rd BG Homepage
93rd Bomb Group Museum
Hardwick airfield - 93rd Bomb Group -

Its a small Museum but has some real gems inside, all neatly laid out. When we'd finished with the '51's just down the road, the curator opened up everything for us and we spent a good hour or so chatting about things and the plans for the Museum...they have some exciting new stuff being planned . Well worth a visit !!

Nice shots guys!

Guys, these really are great. Thorpes is a fantastic place... very evocative. Hardwick doesn't look too shabby either! This is excellent, keep up the good work!

Thanks guys, much apreciated

Here's only a few of the ones I took at Hardwick. Unfortunately, whenever I get close to Mustangs, I do tend to take an abnormal amount of pic's....no, its OK....I have it under control !!!

I did take two quick vids on my mobile (how bizarre is that, that I now regularly take videos using my mobile instead of a video camera. If you'd told me I'd be doing that 10 years ago, I'd have laughed long and loud )

I've been to shows with loads of fighters starting thier take off roll about a couple of hundred feet in front of me...and the noise is loud but obviously it gets quiter as they accelerate away. At Hardwick, I had a new experience. You probably have no idea just how awesomely bl**dy powerfull a Merlin sounds when you are standing around a hundred feet away from one on full chat, just as the fighter its pulling along aviates....OMFG, what an astoundingly deafening, almost overpowering, incredible experience. you dont just hear it....you feel it !. My poor little phone couldn't do the vid justice, but hopefully you'll get the idea...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYPWnqGTi10

And about 40 minutes later, they came back and Maurice did a low level pass. Now seeing and hearing a '51 take off at close quarters was pretty impressive....watching the same '51 barrelling down a grass strip at very low level and high speed the same distance away... one word springs to mind and rhymes with truck

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZaBI0Exykc

Great pictures and video 8)
That Mustang obsession must be a world wide thing!
I think I have a touch of that myself

More great material you two. This is great. I'm gonna hate this when it's over. And Gary, the shot I took at Wise,Va. on 2009 I was about 75 feet off the runway when Quick Silver came SCREAMING by at FULL POWER with the supercharger HUFFING for all it was worth. I had the Rocky Mountains on my arms. I can relate.

Cheers guys

That Mustang obsession must be a world wide thing!

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Yup...absolutely

And Gary, the shot I took at Wise,Va. on 2009 I was about 75 feet off the runway when Quick Silver came SCREAMING by at FULL POWER with the supercharger HUFFING for all it was worth. I had the Rocky Mountains on my arms. I can relate.

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Its not an everyday occurance to witness the raw power of a Merlin at close quarters, and those who do get the chance, relate in awe....and grin like an idiot for the rest of their days...welcome to the club dude !!

Leaving Hardwick was a very hard thing to do, its a very special place and one I will return to without doubt !

Back on the road and as we were running late...too long drooling over the imaculate '51's... and it was off to Tibenham. Tibenham was the home of the 445th Bomb Group and is still an active airfiel (mainly gliding by the looks of it today). We stopped and had a quick cuppa in the Gliding school cafe and discovered that the windsock pole and base in use is the original dating back to WW2 !

Tibenham is about 13 miles S/SW of Norwich.

And some gems...the actor James Stewart (he was a Squadron Commander when the 445th arrived at Tibenham) was based here and a sad one is that in Sept 44, the Bomb Group lost 30 aircraft in day, very hard to take in the loss of life

445BGMA
RAF Tibenham - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
8th Air Force 445th BG

We didn't see that much of original buildings on the airfield, but the memorial (and plans to create a Heritage Centre !) make this one a place to keep an eye on for later.

Good shots Gary!

Bl**dy marvellous! Oh, and Gary - you owe me a pair of trousers. After watching those vids, this pair are sort of wet .....

More excellent material, thank you again for the tour.

Airframes said:

Bl**dy marvellous! Oh, and Gary - you owe me a pair of trousers. After watching those vids, this pair are sort of wet .....

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If its any consolation...mine still are

Well, I am back from the ravages of Philly/Sandy.....glad to see we have now gone on to Tibenham.
Tibenham was a real quick stop...sadly....but as Gary said, not much left now. The ONLY original structure was the pole for the wind sock. We had a quick hot chocolate in the flying club.

After Tibenham we moved on to Snetterton Heath race track. Race track?...thought this was to do with planes not cars ?.

Snetterton Heath was the home of the 386th Bomb Group and the 96th Bomb Group and is about 10 miles NE of Thetford

8th Air Force 386th BG
The 96th Bomb Group(H) Association
8th Air Force 96th BG

The access road to the race track is about a quarter mile in length and consists of fresh tarmac laid over the original concrete runway. The smell of racing engines...castrol R etc...and the noise from umpteen cars getting thrashed to within an inch of their life, didn't detract from the Memorial itself. Unfortunately, you can't see anything of the old airfield as in an attempt to reduce noise pollution, there is a large bank around the outside and you can't get access to look over the top.

The Memorial itself is bl**dy huge and is a very impressive piece of construction. It stands around 50 plus foot high and with the evening sun glinting of its polished sides portayed a very powerfull image indeed. Unlike most of the Memorials you see which consist of 'brick' walls with Marble stones, this one is as opposite as its possible to get but portrays a '17 climbing away beautifully.

I'll add a few pics of the main area but we also took a lot of 'arty' type shots, so may add some more after Tony. We didn't see any of the original building infrastructure so may be doing a return trip later to spend a bit more time looking.