Cambridge to Norwich - Home of Eighth Air Force

On Thursday, we drove east from Cambridge into the region of England known as East Anglia. It is a rural area with very flat farmland and is geographically positioned near the European continent, just north and west of Germany. This suited it ideally for the deployment of Eighth Air Force in WWII - a huge island airbase from which the Americans could launch their daylight, high-altitude strategic bombing campaign. During 1942, the beautiful English countryside and manor estates were transformed into hundreds of air bases. Eighth Air Force had over 100 heavy-bomber bases alone. It is said that one difficulty that the pilots and navigators had upon returning from their missions was figuring out which base was theirs.

As I have mentioned, I have done a significant amount of research of my father's war experience over the last 4-5 years, and to say I was looking forward to this part of the trip is a mild understatement.

The largest city in East Anglia is the ancient city of Norwich. All of the American air bases were scattered throughout East Anglia, many situated in and around Norwich. Norwich has become synonomous in history with Eighth Air Force. Dad's base was at the very small village of Old Buckenham, just outside the slightly larger village of Attleborough. These are located about 15 miles southwest of Norwich. His unit was the 453rd Bombardment Group - Heavy - a base housing the famed B-24 heavy bomber, The Liberator. B-24s were the sucessor to the better known B-17 heavy bomber, The Flying Fortress.

Old Buckenham was a rural village of 200-300 people before the development of the base. English farmers surrendered their fields for construction of the bases. Within a matter of months, a base would develope with a base population of 3000 people, including all of the support personnel. The English villagers were astonished.

They were living in poverty and under rationing. The American servicemen had more money than they could imagine. To that point, their only image of Americans were the movie stars that they had seen from time to time, so they thought that all of these servicemen were celebrities. Never mind the fact that England was on the brink of defeat, and the Americans were their last best hope.

The English girls and women set their sights - indeed many of them returned to America as warbrides. I met a 63 year old lady at a pub in Old Buckenham who was the illegitimate child of an unknown American serviceman. She kidded with me that I might be her half-brother. All I could say is that I couldn't say that I wasn't.

Dad sailed to England aboard Queen Mary in mid-October 1944. QM anchored in the Firth of Clyde, outside of Glasgow, Scotland and the troops onboard were loaded aboard troop trains bound for their particular destination. Dad would have traveled by train across the breadth of Great Britain to arrive at Norwich. From their it was a short trainride to Attleborough and an even shorter truck ride to the base at Old Buckenham.

From Old Buck, he began flying missions with his crew in November 1944 aboard a variety of B-24s. By mid-April, 1945, he had completed 31 combat missions, all of which were over Nazi Germany. Germany surrendered in early May, and Dad was still in England on VE Day, May 8, 1945. I can only speculate about how he celebrated, but he was indeed part of a historic event.

In mid-June he and a group of servicemen returned to the U.S. aboard the B-24 Liberator "Normandy Queen." The B-24 heavy bomber was the most-produced plane in aviation history, but was immediately obsolete with the end of the war. The airwar over Europe in World War II was the only airwar of its kind in history and there will never be another.

Just as soon as the war ended, the troops left and the bases began to be dismantled with astonishing speed. Before long, the villages returned to their agricultural uses and the villagers were left with memories and stories of their beloved Americans.

I was not sure what I'd find at Old Buck. I've read many different accounts of Old Buck today. But, if I found nothing, that was going to be OK with me. I just wanted to walk the ground where the base had been.

But, we had an amazing 3-4 days visiting sites in Norwich, Attleborough and Old Buckenham - some sites of which have not changed all that much. And, while it's dwindling over the years, there are still many memorials to see and old timers who are profoundly thankful for the role of the American flyers and happy to talk about it.

My next post will be a series of pictures with captions that I took over these few days. It was one of the highlights of my life.