Control tower circa 1970s   Photograph of the Control Tower taken, we believe in the early 1970s  One of our volunteers has recently discovered this from his collection of photos taken over the years.   The photo shows the chance light building still standing at the time, with the rear wall of the fire engine ambulance shed Nissen hut in front of it.

B-17 ‘Fever Beaver’ standing on No 10 Hard Stand showing a long line of mission bomb symbols and very worn paint work.  The squadron and aircraft code are barely visible.  Under the wing, is a very large tree stump that had just been left on the grass and one of the airfield’s Tannoy speakers.  We don’t know why the tree stump had been left there! Photo 3 Photo 3 was taken between Hard Stands No 9 and No 10 and shows a B-17 on the runway, a truck on the perimeter / taxiway an

Volunteers Linda and Brian Barden have been looking through some of the photographs in our archives. The photograph below was taken by the pilot of an unknown B-17 which had just taken off from the south east to north west short runway. In this photograph, we can see the course of Hang the Expense during its attempted take off across the airfield and it’s subsequent crash in Lodge farm yard on 26 November 1943. The pilot, Lieutenant Frank Valesh, probably didn’t endear himse

By Linda and Brian Barden - 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum Volunteers When we started this project, we never thought it would generate so much interest and enthusiasm. From standing on a cold, wet and very windy Ludham airfield in the middle of winter, to the beautiful sunny day when Jim & Mary Blakely visited on 14 May 2019. Before the visit to Ludham, they were given a tour of Thorpe Abbotts airfield by Ron Batley together with Bill Buck, and volunteers. Jim gave his

By Linda and Brian Barden - 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum Volunteers As mentioned in Part One – we took up Ron Batley's suggestion about finding someone with local knowledge of the airfield. Linda searched the internet and found the Ludham Community Archive Group site. We sent an email and in return, we were provided with the names of local residents – Mike Fuller and William (Bill) Buck an expert on the airfield at Ludham. We arranged a meeting with Mike and Bill and we

By Linda and Brian Barden - 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum Volunteers We had a visit in May 2019 from Jim and Mary Blakely from the US. This was as a result of the research carried out by museum members into the crash site of "Just-a-Snappin" at Ludham Airfield in October 1943. Jim’s father, Everett Blakey, was the pilot of "Just-a-Snappin". Jim and Mary came on Saturday 11 May 2019 and were able to meet up with some of the museum researchers. They were also given a tou

We had a full house at the museum on 3rd September for our open day. Lots of visitors, military vehicles, re-enactors and people sharing their memories of living in and around Thorpe Abbotts airfield. Our event marked 40 years of our museum as well as 75 years since the USAAF arrived in East Anglia and significantly was held on the day on which in 1939 Britain announced it was at war with Germany. A big thank you to everyone who attended and supported our cause. Crowds cont

Getting up each day to undertake notoriously dangerous missions took great courage from the men of the Eighth Airforce.

The nose art of pilot Joseph P. Ricker's aircraft Billy Boy was inspired by the tiny baby bootie belonging to Ricker's son which hun

B17 Flying Fortress Silver Dollar began its service 20th January 1944 and following a short spell in the USA it was assigned to the UK on 2n