More sad news last week at the passing of 448th veteran Leroy Engdahl on 8th Feb. He was 90 years old. I interviewed Leroy on camera at a group reunion in Orlando, Florida in May 2007. He was frail but in good spirits and was able to regale us with his stories. At one point [...]

I am stalked by the memory of a school teacher who declared that I had some wonderful ideas but rarely followed them through. So here are a few of them and in time you can be the judge. • Create your own history page I’ve had some interest from people willing to write a few [...]

Yesterday I ran out of space on the new drive i bought. Gutted. I was about to start digitising all the interviews I’d recorded with 448th veterans at one of their last reunions. This is something I should have done a long, long time ago and too late did I understand that these talking heads [...]

Happy holidays, that is if you are lucky enough to be on holiday yet. I feel like apologising for not posting enough content in 2009 (content is king, content is king) but I won’t make excuses and instead will pledge to leap into the New Year, and resolve to say more, post more and generally [...]

One of the great things about this project is the goodwill that emanates from pretty much everyone connected with the 448th and it’s history. Some are the sons and daughters of 448th veterans, and on a deeply personal level they of course have strong feelings about their Dad, their Uncles, their brothers. They’ve probably heard [...]

This years bonfire night and firework display was another good opportunity to head over to Seething to shoot some more material for the project. It shows another way in which the old airfield is still used by the local community and gives me the option of using fireworks footage as illustration for VE Day perhaps. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]