The Travels of Tel's Tin Tent.

Very cool Terry

Thanks Geo.

Moving outside, on to the balcony, and up the steps to the roof of the tower.
Looking out over the airfield brought on a strange mix of emotions, experienced before on former wartime airfields, realising that so much had taken place here, with over 3,000 personnel, far from home, living, and sometimes dying, on the land being viewed.
The 100th Bomb Group, had their fair share of crashes, right on the airfield, with crews killed or maimed, with one B-17 actually crashing into the bomb dump. (the DVD I purchased here, shown earlier in this thread, has accounts, and colour footage, of some of these tragedies, as well as much more on the life around the base, and is well worth obtaining - see the Museum's web-site for details).

Pic 1. Looking west from the balcony.
Pic 2. The view to the east.
Pic 3. Looking north, with the steel steps to the roof. The small size of the windows was designed to make 'black out' easier.
Pics 4 to 6. The roof top radio shack. This was where communication with aircraft on approach or in the circuit was handled.
Pic 7. The Thorpe Abbotts identifier code on the rear of the roof. This would also have been displayed in the signal square, on the ground at the front (air side) of the tower.
Pic 8. Looking west from the roof, with dispersal pans 6 and 7 just at the edge of, and now partly overgrown by the trees.
Pic 9. Looking south across the airfield, with the remains of the perimeter track, abruptly ending, in the foreground. The two lines of scrub in the middle distance are the lines of what remains of two of the runways.
Pic 10. Looking east, and the area where dispersal pans 8 to 12 once were, with dispersal 13 once being at the front edge of the wood. A total of six B-17s once stood in this now quiet and peaceful area of the airfield.

The interior of the radio shack, and more views of the airfield site will be next.

Looks like a great little museum.

Spectacular Terry to say the very least. A LOT of work went into that tower not to mention all the displays.
Now about 4 or 5 restored B-17s on the field....

Top stuff Terry

With all

Thanks Andy and Mike, and yes, it's an exceptionally good museum, and it's very evident that a lot of work has gone into creating this memorial to the 100th BG, which is maintained in spotless condition throughout. During my visit, volunteers were busy trimming grass and cleaning, and a university post-graduate was conducting research interviews, on video, with some of the staff.

Moving on to the roof-top radio shack, and some shots of the interior.

Pics 1 to 3. General shots of the interior. The modern day fan was a welcome addition, as it was roasting inside, with the sun blasting through all those windows. The glass case in the center of the room is a large model diorama of the airfield.
Pics 4 and 5. The radio desk and period telephones.
Pic 6. Closer shot of the radio console, with the localizer controls, VHF channel selector (as used in RAF aircraft), mic and headphones etc.
Pics 7 and 8. The airfield diorama, giving some idea of the vast area covered by a WW2 bomber airfield and its dispersed sites.
Pic 9. View from the rear roof of the tower, 1944.
Pic 10. The same view in 2019.

Still more to come ............. back soon.

Again very cool. Love the diorama

Thanks again, Jim and Geo.
Sorting the next installment now - back soon.

A final view from the tower roof, looking north over the site towards the entrance gate, with the 'Tin Tent' parked where jeeps and trucks once stood, then back down the steps and in through the balcony door, with a selection of some of the fine prints and fascinating period photos, taken on the airfield during the war, before moving over to the former engine shed and the added 'Sad Sack Shack', to view the exhibits there.

Still some more to come from Thorpe Abbotts, before posting some more of the campsites and countryside, and then moving on to Leiston.

They? do any period re-enactments at the field?

I think there are some events where re-enactors are around, on the Museum site itself, but the airfield site is private farm land, and not open to the public.

Onwards and into the former engine shed.
I only saw half of the exhibits here, the section to the right of the entrance door, as the other half was being used by the research student for her video interviews, and I didn't want to disturb things by shuffling around taking photos.

Pic 1. A P&W R-1830 engine from B-24, serial 42-95045, 'Bird Dog' of the 466th BG based at Attlebridge, a few miles to the north. The 'donations box' at the right is a B-17 oxygen tank.
Pics 2 to 4. B-17 cowling panels, with the photos and captions describing where they came from.
Pics 5 and 6. B-17 prop, tail and main wheels, and a radio room hatch.
Pic 7. Flak damaged section of the fin from B-17F, serial 42-3023, 'Forever Yours', based here at Thorpe Abbotts.
Pics 8 and 9. B-17 original wheel chocks from the airfield.
Pic 10. B-17G crew entrance door.

Just a few more from Thorpe Abbotts, then on to some scenic shots, and the former P-51 airfield at Lesiton, in Suffolk.

Man I could spend a couple of days in there.

Me too - there are so many displays throughout the buildings which are easy to miss when taking photos, some of which I only noticed properly when editing the pics !

A selection of images from the 'Sad Sack Shack', with just a few of the many mode;ls on display, the majority being in 1/48th scale, and some of the other original items and cameo presentations.
The B-17 diorama is again 1/48th scale, and depicts an actual incident on the airfield.
The final two shots show the memorial to General Curtis E. Lemay, and conclude this tour of The 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum, Thorpe Abbotts.
Coming next, a few odds and ends, and then Leiston, in the east of Suffolk.

Thanks Wojtek, it's much appreciated.

Final selection for today, with some general shots around the campsite at Scole.
Back tomorrow, with more WW2 aviation history, at the airfield site of Leiston.

Nice camp grounds

Still at it, so I might as well set the scene for the Leiston section of the tour.
The journey to the campsite, on part of the former airfield, has already been described earlier in this thread, along with a few pics of the site and some of the scenery on the way, so outlined below is a brief history of the airfield, and information on its location, along with a map and aerial photos.

The airfield was constructed between September 1942 and September 1943, and is located approximately 1 mile north west of the small town of Leiston, actually closer to Theberton, and is only two miles from the Suffolk coast. Originally intended for RAF use, it was allocated to the USAAF in October 1943, and became Station 373, with the P-47's of the 358th Fighter Group, VIII Fighter Command, 8th USAAF operating from the base between November 1943 and the end of January, 1944, when they moved to Raydon in Essex, and eventually transferring to 9th USAAF..
The P-51 equipped 357th Fighter Group arrived on 31st January, 1944, tasked with bomber escort missions, and operated from here until early 1945, when they moved to the Continent. Famous aces from this Group include Bud Anderson and 'Chuck Yeager.
After WW2, the airfield reverted back to RAF control, serving as a Recruit Center from October 1945 until closure in 1955, when the land again returned to agricultural use.
Although not much of the airfield can be seen, today, from public roads, there is still around 1/3rd of the main runway visible, along with part of the perimeter track and, at the eastern edge, close by a narrow public road, there are still some wartime buildings, rather derelict and overgrown.
However, the outlines of the former airfield can be clearly seen from above, and the 'Cakes and Ale' touring park, my 'home' for three days, occupies the site which was once the dispersal area for the 363rd Fighter Squadron, and some of the roads and caravan pitches on the site can easily be recognised as the original taxi ways, hard-standings and perimeter track, although much reduced in width, and there is also a Memorial on Harrow Lane, the road which cuts across the airfield.
The map below shows the approximate location of the airfield in Suffolk, with the aerial photos showing the site as it looks today, and how it looked during WW2, with the yellow outline in one of the photos enclosing what is now the caravan / campsite. These wartime photos are not orientated with north at the top, so I have added a north arrow to one of them, to help recognise the features compared to today's appearance.

I'll start posting some of the photos I took of the site, and the recognisable parts of the airfield, tomorrow, once I've sorted them.
(B&W photos, USAF, in Public Domain)