Saturday 5th September marked this years Charity Air Day at the control tower museum and the site of the old airfield.
Drizzle and mud might have been more authentic but happily the weather smiled on us offering sun and no rain with good conditions for the flyers. The highlight was the Battle of Britain memorial [...]

Great news from the States this past week as research by John Beckwith leads to DNA identification of a lost 448th pilot’s remains.
He will now be reburied in his hometown of Akron, Ohio.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/08/world_war_ii_pilots_remains_fi.html
Here’s an interesting flickr set about a PB4Y crash during the Second World War in China.
Great shot from the top turrett of the [...]

Would you like to honour a USAAF veteran? Did a member of your family serve during the Second World War? Perhaps you are a veteran and you would like a friend to be remembered?
As part of a Happy Warriors DVD release we are asking for short biographies which, will appear on our DVD.
Create a one-page [...]

The forecast for Sunday was heavy rain which, was potentially disasterous as I had arranged to meet a USAAF reenactor and to film him driving his jeep up and down the lanes by the control tower.
Happily the infamously changeable British weather served up a fairly pleasant day and I spent the morning trying to film [...]

Wings Clipped
A short film about Rudy Gabrys, a bombardier in the 448th who was shot down over enemy territory.
Click to watch(Either JavaScript is not active or you are using an old version of Adobe Flash Player. Please install the newest Flash Player.)
8th Air Force Archive Film
Here’s some nice original footage including glimpses of bases in [...]

Is there a family member or a friend who served in the USAAF that you would like to pay tribute to? Maybe your father or grandfather served during World War II?  Perhaps you served yourself and would like a friend to be remembered.
As part of a future Happy Warriors DVD release we are asking for [...]

By using a telephone call recording service I have been able to interview 448th and USAAF veterans from the comfort of my living room. Ideally I would have liked to travel the States filming on-camera interviews in their living rooms but since we’re on a small (micro) budget telephone interviews it is.
As a positive I [...]

In May 2007 I was lucky enough to attend the 448th Bomb Group’s annual reunion in Orlando, Florida. Ed Chu, a Staff Sergeant in the 714th Bomb Squadron was in attendance and I’d heard what a nice guy he was and also that he told a good story so I was keen to try and [...]

Spurred on by this podcast and this article Happy Warriors will be asking for input from fans (!?) on a range of production elements beginning with poster design.
Each call for input will take the form of a blogpost and votes can be cast by commenting.
Recent favourites on youtube:
The U-Boat Pens at Lorient and St. Nazaire [...]

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 [...]