Discovering Little America by Clive Tully

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As I stand at the top of the control tower, the air vibrates with the sound of aero engines. But it’s the sound of only one aircraft, when there should be many more. I scan the skies, desperate to pick him out. I can see him now, a B17 Flying Fortress, coming in low, and by the sound of it, he must be pretty well damaged. As he makes his approach, I can see he has just two engines running.

OK, so the only part of the story that’s true is the fact that I’m standing in the control tower of the 100th Bomb Group in Thorpe Abbotts, home of the “Bloody Hundredth”. But I’m here with Sam Hurry, who as a young boy, stood beside the runway to witness the landing of “Royal Flush”, the only B17 to make it back from the infamous October 1943 raid on Munster.

“I stood with my friend at the edge of those trees over there,” he gestures. “It came in on two engines. It got to within 30 or 40 feet of the ground, and one of those cut out. As soon as it touched the ground, the other engine cut out and the plane slewed off the runway before coming to rest on the grass.”

Sam Hurry was 10 years old when the Americans first came to Thorpe Abbots. He lived close by, and realised that construction work was going on - indeed some houses were demolished to accommodate the runways. It was only a few short months’ work before the base was occupied in June 1943.

“It was frightening when they first arrived,” admits Sam. “We’d seen plenty of RAF aeroplanes in the sky, but this was the first time we’d seen big aircraft on the ground. I was at the end of the runway with my friends when the first squadron came in to Thorpe Abbotts, and they made such a noise we ran away.”

For the inhabitants of this small village on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, as with so many villages across the east of England, the arrival of the US 8th Air Force was a life-changing experience. Villages of just 100 or so people suddenly found themselves on the doorsteps of huge air bases each accommodating up to 3,500 personnel.

But whilst Royal Air Force bases were fairly aloof to their civilian neighbours, the Americans were warm and friendly right from the start. Sam and his friends would run errands for the airmen. And not only might he sleep on the wing of a B17 on a warm summer’s night, he even recalled sitting in the cockpits, and being asked to flick the ignition switches to help start up the engines. The depth of his involvement is perhaps best illustrated by one school report which simply said “Sam has not attended school again”. In one year, he went just once!

“How did you feel when they left?” I ask Sam.

“Utterly devastated,” he admitted. “They went more or less overnight in 1945. Everything was still in place - the taps still worked, the food was still in the mess hall, the curtains were blowing out of the windows. It was a horrible feeling.”

That was a story which repeated itself many times throughout East Anglia. Now, 60 years later, the legacy of the biggest operational air force in history lives on. If you come to Norfolk, your best starting point is the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library in the fantastic new Forum, built in Norwich on the site of the old city library which burned down 10 years ago, sadly taking the original 2nd Air Division Memorial Library and Roll of Honor with it.

Fortunately the priceless first hand accounts survived. There’s a shrine area which houses a replica of the Roll of Honor, dedicated to the 6,900 young men of the 2nd Air Division who lost their lives. And there are books and videos, along with staff who can point you in the right direction if you wish to visit the site of a particular base. Hollywood star James Stewart - Colonel Jimmy Stewart when he flew combat missions from Hethel and Old Buckenham airfields - returned to them a number of times over the years. While the numbers of veterans coming back to see their old bases is diminishing, they’re swelled by family members keen to visit a part of their own history, and younger people whose interest may have been triggered by an important anniversary - in 2004 the 60th anniversary of D-Day, the allied invasion of Europe.

While it’s the 2nd Air Division and its B24 Liberators whose memory is kept alive by the memorial library, there were also the 1st and 3rd Air Divisions which made up the US 8th Air Force, spread across the east of England. There were as many as 120 bases, 200,000 US Air Force personnel, and 2,000 heavy bombers. No wonder they called it the “friendly invasion”!

Most of the airfields in East Anglia have long since reverted to farmland, while others have been converted to alternative uses. Even so, many of the sites feature memorial plaques or stones. The Liberator base at Hethel is now the factory and test track for world famous Lotus Cars. Horsham St Faith continues its aviation tradition as the modern Norwich airport, while Seething and Tibenham are host to small scale flying clubs. But interestingly, as I find when I take to the skies to fly over some of the old wartime bases, even where runways have been broken up and fields returned to agriculture, there’s no mistaking the indelible marks in the ground showing the triangle runway configurations common to all the American airfields.

But some of the bases keep the real memories alive, memories which include concerts by Glenn Miller and his orchestra. Thorpe Abbotts has its control tower and nissen huts preserved, with numerous museum exhibits including .50 calibre waist guns, and a B17 ball turret. Only when you look at it do you appreciate just how cramped a ball turret gunner was - so cramped he would have to leave his parachute in the main body of the aircraft.

Hardwick airfield is on private property, so you need to arrange your visit in advance. It has a small museum with a collection of memorabilia, including examples of a lot of the lively art which found its way onto aircraft noses. And in a Battle of Britain hangar, Maurice Hammond keeps his collection of historic aircraft, including a North American P51D Mustang, Harvard trainer and Auster - all in flying condition, and regularly displayed at airshows. The Mustang has been lovingly restored, and although the machine guns in the wings are replicas, the ammunition belts are real, albeit deactivated. The origins of the expression “the whole nine yards” are varied, depending on whom you speak to, but there’s no doubting it was certainly used by Mustang pilots on escort duty once they’d shot off all 1,000 rounds in each of the 27ft belts stowed in compartments in the wings.

“That’s 42 seconds of firing” Maurice tells me, “so when you’ve given it the whole nine yards, there’s nothing left. These planes would take off with just over quarter of a ton of ammunition and 450 gallons of fuel. The plane becomes faster and more responsive as it gets lighter, so it would be like driving off in a Skoda and coming back in a Ferrari.”

Flixton, near Bungay, was the home of the 446th Bomb Group, the Bungay Buckeroos. Here you can find the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum, with over 25 historic aircraft, along with several incorporated museums, including ones dedicated to RAF Bomber Command and 446th Bomb Group.

And at Seething, here is another control tower, restored to its former glory, and housing a museum. As with Thorpe Abbotts, it’s been helped along by donations from veterans’ associations in the US, and is staffed by local volunteers, many of whom lived in the area through the war years, providing a unique perspective on the “friendly invasion”.

Rediscovering an important part of Anglo-US history doesn’t have to be confined to former airfields. Also at the Forum in Norwich is “Origins”, an award-winning state-of-the-art visitor attraction with displays on Norfolk’s past from Romans and Anglo Saxons, through to recent history. The most impressive part of it is a unique 180 degree panoramic movie, filmed from helicopters, planes and boats, depicting the landscape of Norwich and Norfolk, including the rivers and lakes of the famous Norfolk Broads. Although not as stomach-churning as some IMAX movies, you really do feel at times as though you’re flying. Not quite the same as those brave young airmen 60 years ago, but a sensation none the less.