Category — Misc

Today was characterised by howling wind and rain. It’s easy to see why, for some 8th Air Force veterans, their lingering memory of East Anglia involves lots of mud, rain, fog or drizzle (or all of the above). Apparently the idea that Eskimos have a hundred different words for snow is an urban legend so subsequently I’m unable to draw a witty comparison here between their language and ours but needless to say it rains here quite a bit and in the winter it can be pretty horrible. The region is not known for it’s hills so the wind and rain just cuts right into you. If you were sleeping in a nissen hut with only a small coke burner for heat and you had to grope through the blackout to a 3AM mission briefing in driving rain and penetrating cold and then had to spend the next 7 plus hours in temperatures of 20 below trapped in a flying sardine can hoping you didn’t get killed any second…Puts things in perspective.

I’m still obsessively listening to Josh Winiberg’s music which I hope to use on the film soundtrack.

A new follower of note on Twitter is airfix models (would they help fund my projects?)

Tara Connolly has made another trip to the U.S National Archives and posted yet more 448th mission reports. Tara also pulled a whole load of photographs of various aircraft from the 8th and 15th Air Forces. Mostly crash photos here, both tragic and fascinating, thanks Tara.

More soon.

Of particular interest is the lexicon of USAAF crew and servicemen. Perhaps the phrase ‘two countries seperated by the same language’ originated in the war years due to the arrival of thousands of US military personel?

I got thinking about the 8th’s targets in Western Europe and the nick names they gave them. It’s unclear whether these names were specific to the 8th Air Force or used only within individual bomb groups or crews even.  I don’t have that many but have started a short list below. This also feeds into the nose art and the wonderful names that were given to some bombers and fighters of the period. There was a B-17 called Quiturbitchin a name that to me, encapsulates the characteristic imagination and humour of the American airman.

Maybe it was one way in which men dealt with the tremendous apprehension and fear that they must have felt towards some of the cities they had to attack. Giving them nick names somehow made them a little less terrifying to talk about, it helped them take ownership of their fear in a psychological sense? Or, the boredom of waiting for your next flight and the routine of military life lends itself to nick name creation. I also wonder if they gave names like these to British cities and towns.

Berlin – Big ‘B’

Brunswick – Little ‘B’

St. Nazaire – Flak City

The Ruhr Valley – Happy Valley

It’s stories like this that get me thinking about saving sites of historical importance for future generations. Of course funding is always an issue but it’s  surprising to me that Bletchley Park struggles to find the financial support it needs.

Maybe I’m wrong about this but it would seem to me that if Bletchley were in the States it would be financially secure for two reasons. Clearly there’s more money out there to spread around but Is it also the case that Americans value their history more than we do? Does a thousand years of history make the British complacement?

A grateful nod to the volunteers that continue to offer their time and money in support of East Anglia’s old airbases.

I recently had the chance to speak with a British veteran of the Normandy Campaign for a few minutes at the local library. He described landing on the beaches in a Sherman tank and, coming under heavy fire it was eventually destroyed. A small group of them were pinned down for a time with only pistols to fight with. They survived and eventually found a replacement tank which got them through to the end of the war.

There were a few tables set out with memorabilia and a box of random photographs that were free to take. I can’t resist a found photograph.