THE SECOND AIR DIVISION MEMORIAL LIBRARY Remembering the Past, Inspiring the Future 1 THE SECOND AIR DIVISION MEMORIAL LIBRARY Remembering the Past, Inspiring the Future Fourth edition (2016) revised and updated by Dr. Sam Edwards. Originally edited (1963) by Roger Freeman. 2 Contents Foreword by General Kepner (1963) 2 2nd Air Division Order of Battle 3 1 “Over Here”: The Americans in Norfolk, 1942-45 The Friendly Invasion 4 The War in the Air 12 A Typical Bomber Mission 15 2 We Will Remember Them Remembering the Fallen: The Original Memorial 23 The Pilgrims Return: The Association, the Heritage League, and the New Library 28 3 Today and Tomorrow Research, Resources and Archives 35 Inspiring the Future: Community Enrichment and Public Engagement 36 The Trust: The Future 38 Contacts and Further Information 39 Select Bibliography 40 B-24 Liberators in flight (453rd and 389th Bomb Groups) Acknowledgements 42 4 1 Foreword 2nd Bomb Division Order of Battle 6 June 1944 by Lieutenant-General W. E. Kepner, D.S.C., C.B. Commander Second Air Division, 1944-1945 Bomber Units Here is a Memorial which reminds all of us that greater love hath no man than these 6,033* who gave their lives so that we might live in freedom. They are 2nd Combat Bomb Wing: truly among the greatest Americans of all, because they paid the supreme price 389th Bomb Group (Hethel) 445th Bomb Group (Tibenham) in order that we might live in freedom’s happy future. WEYBOURNE 453rd Bomb Group (Old Buckenham) CROMER Let us not forget we have now inherited the right and duty to carry on, so that many precious lives will not have been sacrificed in vain. Our contributions to 14th Combat Bomb Wing: KINGS LYNN DEREHAM Horsham St Faith this Memorial are very small indeed, but it may at least be testified of us that 44th Bomb Group (Shipdham) 458 BG 392nd Bomb Group (Wendling) Wendling Rackheath we did not forget the comrades of our youth. They too, like us, were in love with 392 BG Attlebridge 467 BG 492nd Bomb Group (North Pickenham) 466 BG NORWICH life and enamored with this world. Most were barely out of their teens, not yet North Pickenham Gt YARMOUTH 491 BG/492 BG Shipdham possessing their fair share of this world; when called upon to forgo a pleasant 20th Combat Bomb Wing: 44 BG HQ Ketteringham Hall WATTON Hethel Seething future they passed from a vibrant life to the dark unknown. 93rd Bomb Group (Hardwick) Old Buckenham 389 BG 448 BG 453 BG LOWESTOFT 446th Bomb Group (Bungay) Tibenham Hardwick Those of us remaining and participating in honors accruing to our command because 445 BG 93 BG Bungay 448th Bomb Group (Seething) THETFORD 446 BG of the victories in which the dead as well as the living shared, should remember that DISS Metfield 491 BG Halesworth humility must ever be a part of him to whom reputation comes through the death of 95th Combat Bomb Wing: 489 BG comrades in battle. Forever engraved upon his memory must be the images of the white 489th Bomb Group (Halesworth) CAMBRIDGE 491st Bomb Group (Metfield) Bottisham crosses marking their resting places. 361 FG Let us reflect that, but for the grace of God, we too might have passed on, at the same Wattisham 96th Combat Bomb Wing: Steeple Morden 479 FG time, and been numbered in the Book of Remembrance. While we cannot clearly account 458th Bomb Group (Horsham St. Faith) 355 FG SAFFRON WALDEN IPSWICH for past events, we can resolve to keep the names of our comrades in that Book in 466th Bomb Group (Attlebridge) Debden perpetual memory, in order that they will not be forgotten, and that the principles and 467th Bomb Group (Rackheath) 4 FG Boxted 56 FG benefits for which this great payment was made, will not be lost to future generations. COLCHESTER Let us review these heroic deeds and be thankful we were privileged to be numbered Fighter Units assigned to among them. These men accepted fully, without reservation, the great responsibilities 2nd Air Division, October 1944 and objectives assigned us by our nation, in order that all men might remain free, to search for life, liberty and happiness. Only thus do we justify our claim that we exist to 65th Fighter Wing (Saffron Walden) preserve what we love. 4th Fighter Group (Debden) W.E.Kepner, 1963 56th Fighter Group (Boxted) 355th Fighter Group (Steeple Morden) *This figure was revised in later years with an addition of over 900 names 361st Fighter Group (Little Walden) to the Roll of Honor. 479th Fighter Group (Wattisham) 2 3 of 1942 the vast majority of American personnel arriving in England 1 “Over Here”: The Americans in Norfolk, 1942-45 were not, as originally envisaged, infantry personnel, but air and ground crew of the 8th Air Force. Together with their comrades and The Friendly Invasion counterparts in RAF Bomber Command, these were the men tasked “I guess if you just switch off and glide in you’ll find you’re more likely to have gotten on with prosecuting the Allied war effort against Nazi Germany. Uniquely, an airfield than any other place!” So said one American pilot of eastern England, the area when compared to the American military presence in other parts of that by 1944 had become home to the men and machines of the United States 8th Army Britain, the personnel of the “Mighty Eighth” remained in the region Air Force. This wartime American “occupation” of the quiet and largely rural counties for quite some time. Some ground crew stayed in East Anglia for of East Anglia was an unprecedented event in regional and national history. No friendly anything up to three years. foreign power had ever assembled its military might on the island of Albion in quite this Officials in both Westminster and Washington made considerable way before. Even now, the numbers are arresting: by the eve of D-Day, 6 June 1944, there efforts to ensure that this “friendly invasion” passed as smoothly as were 1,650,000 American service men and women in Britain, of which 426,000 were Army possible. The British government negotiated a special agreement Air Force personnel. The American military population of wartime Norfolk, for instance, concerning legal jurisdiction over American troops in Britain. The Red was 57,000. Cross established recreational facilities for the invading GIs in major The first American servicemen began arriving in Britain in May 1942, just a few months cities. East Anglian communities organised welcome parties, and the Atlantic after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had finally drawn the United States into United States government published an informational Guide to Great Conference the conflict. At this stage, however, overall American strategy still remained a point Britain that was distributed to all arriving troops. The thoughtful between Winston of discussion and debate: would the United States military first commit itself to the advice offered to the invading Yanks (as they soon became known, Churchill and defeat of Imperial Japan, as some US naval planners demanded? Or would they commit to the dismay of many in their ranks who hailed from the South) Franklin D Roosevelt, 10th to a “Germany First” policy, as Prime Minister Winston Churchill so desperately hoped? included recommendations that they refrain from criticising the August 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided on the latter course of action. King and Queen, and that they should avoid those words, terms and The result of Roosevelt’s decision was Operation phrases likely to shock their British hosts: “sod”, “bloody” and Bolero: the American troop build-up in Britain, “bum” were considered especially problematic to local ears! in preparation for a planned assault on occupied As invasions go, therefore, this was indeed both friendly Europe, provisionally earmarked for the summer of and peaceful. One officer of the 2nd Air Division wrote 1942. But concerns amongst the Anglo-American movingly of his days in Norfolk: “The sixteen months of life Combined Chiefs of Staff (particularly amongst at a bomber base in Norfolk had many aspects. Much of life the British, who had first-hand knowledge of the was communal, yet each man, by some sort of trial and error capabilities of the Wehrmacht) led to this assault method, found for himself a manner of life that was distinct. being postponed, and American ground forces being Lt Grimes 448th BG out for a ride around the area near his re-directed towards invasions of North Africa (1942) base at Seething stops to have a chat with youngsters and then Italy and Sicily (1943). Hence, by the end close to Mundham “Garden House” pub. 4 5 Each had a pattern of work and recreation. English friends, places he went on leave and The wedding of Jean Young and Joe Majors, furlough, pubs he drank in during the long spring evenings, dances, girls, movies, and all September 1944. the ways of living that made it a fuller existence. There was much we did for ourselves. Much of America was imported for our comfort, though we could not have an American drug store or see women dressed as American women are. We had a PX, of sorts, a place where you went for your weekly rations; five packs of cigarettes (once down to four), four candy bars, some gum or peppermints, an occasional bonus of fruit juice, cookies, soap, razor blades and other oddments that meant much in personal living. It was little and meagre compared to American Army posts. We had a gym, where basketball was played and the Special Service sports equipment was tried out.” For others, especially in the warm summer months, bicycling became a favoured form of exercise and transport.