Category — Research

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.

Victory in Europe Day (yesterday) was a good opportunity to post something to the blog but it didn’t happen. We went to a wedding celebration last night and so this morning I woke up feeling worse for wear, not the worst ever but I was vulnerable for most of the morning. With that in mind perhaps today is more appropriate since 65 years ago many people must have endured the mother of all hangovers. The country breathed a collective sigh of relief, people partied in the streets, I wonder what it felt like to be connected to each other like that? Huge crowds flooded the streets of London and gathered around the capitals famous squares and monuments. Seething Airfield celebrated. Here 448th veteran Ed Paretti describes how he heard the news:

…when we came back from the rest home the same guy that towed that aeroplane out of the mud was like a Philadelphia lawyer and it was rumoured the war was going to end. So he said I’m going down to the flight surgeon and I’m gonna fill his head with some stories that you guys are a nervous wreck, you need more time off. His name was Breedy from Spokane, Washington and sure enough he came back with 4 passes. He said “let’s get the hell out of here because i think the wars gonna end!” So we couldn’t wait to get our bag and run for Norwich to get the train. And we were on the train to London when we got word that the war was over. And when we got to London, man, you’ve seen those pictures of London on VE day climbing all over those double-decker buses and screaming and yelling? And my buddy and i went into a bar. We were sitting at a bar drinking and a couple of fellas down to the right of us drinking and i looked down and…ah it can’t be them…so they went out and i said to my friend “they’re are a couple of guys from my home town in Hastings” i was born in Hastings on Hudson and “they’re a couple of guys i know from Hastings” i said and he said “well go get them!” So i ran out quick, i ran down the street and got them, two friends of mine Billy Newell and Harold Omer and they were in the ground forces. We met and the four of us went in we had a big dinner a nice fancy restaurant i forget where it was but we all had a big dinner got half drunk again.

This is one of two photos I have of Seething airfield celebrating with improvised fireworks, courtesy of Patricia Everson. I’ll find out what it was that they used as fireworks and post in the comments section.