Norfolk at War: Wings of Friendship

By Frank Meeres

During the Second World War, Norfolk was truly on the 'front line'. Being so close to the Continent, air raids were frequent - Norwich in particular suffered badly - and invasion was a very real and persistent threat for the people of the county. The men and women of Norfolk took up positions in all branches of the forces to fight for their country. The civilians also did their bit - Norfolk's agricultural output increased dramatically during the war, in response to the urgent need for home-grown provisions. The American presence in the county was strong, and has left a rich archive of personal papers and photographs, which are now held at the Norfolk Record Office, along with many diaries and letters of Norfolk people. This book draws on this material and on the reminiscences of those in the county during the war. The book is beautifully illustrated with contemporary photographs, and these enhance the enthralling story being told of what life was like during the Second World War.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amberley Publishing
• Release date: Oct 15, 2012
• ISBN: 9781445629698

Frank Meeres

Frank Meeres is a well-known local author. He has worked for many years at the Norfolk Record Office and is a prominent local historian. Norfolk was a hotbed of suffragette activity, and this motivated Frank to explore the history of the movement on a national level. He lives in Norwich.

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Acknowledgments

All but two of the images come from the United States Army Air Force 2nd Air Division Memorial Library Archive. I am extremely grateful to the Governors of the 2nd Air Division (USAAF) Memorial Trust for permission to use this material held at the Norfolk Record Office, which has also generously given permission for its use.

The two images not part of the American Memorial Library collection, are page 116 top, used by kind permission of Seething Control Tower; and page 109 bottom, drawn by Ludwig Lund, which is used by kind permission of his daughter Mrs Marjorie Lund-Fontaine.

The archive of the American Memorial Library has recently been catalogued with the aid of a generous grant from the Jordan Uttall/Evelyn Cohen Trust Fund: the cataloguing archivist was Ellie Jones and the project archivist Hannah Verge. This book could not have been written without their work, and also owes much to the support of Libby Morgan of the American Memorial Library.

Images: p. 10 MC 376/592/22; p. 13 MC 376/658; p. 18 MC 376/299/1; pp 21/22 MC 371/485; p. 26 MC 376/352; p. 27 MC 376/52; p. 29 MC 371/2; p. 32 MC 376/138; p. 33 MC 376/352; p. 35 MC 376/138; p. 38 MC 376/592/22/41; p. 41 MC 371/22; p. 42MC 376/768/3; p. 43 MC 371/89; p. 45 MC 376/138; p. 46 MC 376/549; p. 49 MC 371/747; p. 56 MC 371/785/17; p. 60 MC 376/52; p. 64 MC 376/138; p. 66 MC 376/592, 371/485; p. 69 MC 376/466, 376/299/2; p. 70 MC 376/139/3; p. 71 MC 371/658; p. 74 MC 371/478; p. 80 MC 376/139; p. 81 MC 376/121; p. 83 MC 376/139/4, MC 376/631/1; p. 86 MC 376/485, MC 376/300/2; p. 87 MC 371/603; p. 88 MC 371/7; p. 89 MC 376/38; p. 91 MC 371/815, 376/814/2; p.92 MC 371/786/10; p. 95 MC 371/775/8; p. 96 MC 371/46; p. 97 MC 371/631; p. 98 MC 371/807; p. 100/101 MC 376/336; p. 102 MC 371/912; p. 103 MC 371/485/2; p. 105 MC 371/912/4, 376/121; p. 109 MC 371/485/1, courtesy Mrs M. Lund-Fontaine; p. 110 MC 376/139, 371/777/33; p. 113 MC 371/807/2; p. 116 NRO FX 335/1, MC 376/353/6; p. 117 MC 371/912; p. 121 MC 379/779/14; p. 122 MC 379/779/18; p. 128 MC 376/300/1; p.130/131 MC 371/912/1; p. 132 MC 376/350/8; p. 133 MC 376/179; p. 138 MC 376/299; p. 140/141 MC 371/658, 376/138, 371/485; p. 143 MC 376/350/7; p. 145 MC 376/300; p. 146 MC 371/49; p. 147 MC 376/639; p. 152/153 MC 376/184.

Introduction

The Second World War began in September 1939 when Nazi Germany, under the rule of Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war in Poland’s support. By the summer of 1940, most of western and central Europe was under the control of Germany and her ally, Italy. In the summer and autumn of 1940, Hitler unleashed his Luftwaffe on England, with a thousand German planes a day crossing the channel. They were met by the pilots of the Royal Air Force, which included pilots from conquered nations in Europe such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and France. The Germans were driven back but invasion of Britain still seemed a very real possibility.

Only a few countries in Europe were neutral – Switzerland, Spain, Sweden and (for a time, in an uneasy alliance with Germany) the Soviet Union. Britain fought on alone, but with the countries of her Empire in support from a distance. Across the Atlantic Ocean, the United States also remained neutral, but in sympathy with Britain rather than Germany. In a Fireside Chat in December 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt called the States ‘the great arsenal of democracy’; a resource for Britain’s military needs, as well as its own.

There were dramatic changes in 1941. In June, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. Meanwhile naval battles in the Atlantic led to American losses, most famously the Reuben James, sunk by German torpedoes in October, with the loss of 115 men. On 7 December 1941, the Japanese attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Honolulu. Roosevelt at once declared war upon Japan. Four days later, on 11 December 1941, Germany and Italy declared war upon the United States. The war had changed from being a European conflict to a worldwide struggle.

Hitler is supposed to have said after Pearl Harbour, ‘I don’t see much future for the Americans. It’s a decayed country.’ This was a major error. The States had great resources of people and material on which to draw, but of course it would take time to build up a force capable of liberating the continent of Europe. One alternative was to liberate North Africa first, driving out the Italian and German armies, and enter Europe from the south, but even this would involve many months of preparation: American industry had first to be converted into a war footing and men – and women – needed training.

A quicker way of bringing home the new war situation to German-occupied Europe was from the air. The Royal Air Force was bombing German cities already. They did this at night to minimise losses. America could help by delivering large bomb loads onto specific military targets during daylight hours, the large, relatively slow-moving bombers, protected from attack by German aircraft by faster fighter planes acting as escorts. Bombing aircraft factories, munitions works and oil refineries would have a direct impact on Germany’s ability to wage war, and destroying bridges and railways would make it much harder for essential supplies to be transported to the front lines.

The United States 8th Air Force was established in January 1942. It was composed of three air divisions, each with fighter units and maintenance organizations to support the bomber operations. The 1st Air Division (in the Huntingdon area) and the 3rd Air Division (in Suffolk and Southwest Norfolk) were equipped with Boeing B-17 Fortress bombers. The 2nd Air Division (based in Norfolk and northeast Suffolk) evolved out of the reorganisation of VIII Bomber Command into the 8th Air Force. Starting as the 2nd Bomb Wing, it became the 2nd Bomb Division and after a fighter wing (the 65th Fighter Wing) was assigned, in September 1944, it was redesignated the 2nd Air Division in January 1945.

The plane they used was the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber, made by the Ford Motor Company in Michigan. In 1944 they were turning out one plane every hour, each one costing a fraction under $300,000. Four-engined heavy bombers, they were faster and lighter than the B-17, but not as well-armed. They normally had ten half-inch machine guns. The B-24 was a big plane, with a wingspan of 110 feet. Its top speed was about 300 mph, and its normal range was just over 2,000 miles. The B-24 was nicknamed the ‘Ugly Duckling’ by its crews, who commonly personalised their aircraft, giving them names and painting the noses with individual artwork. The crew varied from eight to ten men and would typically include the pilot, co-pilot, navigator, radio operator, engineer, bombardier and gunners.

The 44 Bomb Group (hereafter BG) arrived at Shipdham in early October 1942 – rain had turned the airfield to mud and one B-24 stuck fast after coming off the runway! The first missions were against U-Boat pens in Western France. 389 BG arrived at Hethel in June 1943, but after only two weeks flew to North Africa to join other 2nd Division groups in attacks on Sicily and then on Ploesti. 392 BG arrived at Wendling in August 1943, and began flying decoy missions over the North Sea. The first three missions, with fighter escort, passed without incident, but the fourth was unescorted and was attacked by more than thirty enemy fighters. Four planes and forty-three men were lost. Five more groups arrived between November 1943 and January 1944. They included 445 BG, which arrived at Tibenham in November to two days of glorious sunshine before winter rain set in, and 453 BG, which came to Old Buckenham in December to rain, cold winds and snow; they found the base already a quagmire. Five more groups arrived in March and April 1944. A few groups used already-established RAF bases, such as 458 BG at Horsham, but most airbases were brand new constructions.

At full strength, the 2nd Air Division had fourteen bomb groups. Each airbase was occupied by a single bomb group consisting of four flying bomb squadrons, a squadron having an average complement of twelve to sixteen B-24 aircraft and 200 combat airmen. For every one man in the air there were approximately another seven to ten on the ground engaged in support activities ranging from cooks, clerks, mechanics, armourers, medics, military policemen and administrators. Total personnel on a bomber station varied between two and three thousand.

Map of 2nd Air Division bases in Norfolk and Suffolk

2nd Air Division Bases

Fighter groups 56th Fighter Wing

Generals W. E. Kepner and J. P. Hodges: Hodges commanded the Division between September 1942 and August 1944, Kepner between August 1944 and May 1945.

This book tells the story of the experiences of these incomers, using words from their own letters and journals, and also the views that the people of East Anglia had of these ‘friendly invaders’.

Chapter One

The Journey Across The Pond

For those who brought their planes into Britain, the choice was between the northern route and the southern. The northern was of course much colder, involving hops to Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland: Several men noticed the unfriendly atmosphere among the German-sympathising Icelanders. Curtis Anderson Jr (492 BG) recalled:

Our crew was first formed early in March 1944 in Salt Lake City. We went to a bomber training base at Biggs Field, El Paso, Texas. After completing our bomber training as a crew we went to Topeka, Kansas, a staging area. There we picked up a new B-24, checked it out for a few days and then flew it to Prestwick, Scotland, by way of Bangor, Maine; Goose Bay, Labrador; and Bluie West One, Greenland.

Men taking the southern route included Robert Boyle (489 BG):

28 April 1944: I’ve covered quite a bit of ground since I left Kansas. I’ve flown over all kinds of country. Plains, swamps, jungles and mountains plus a lot of water, until now I am on the other side of the world in a sense. I am south of the equator, in Brazil. If all goes well I’ll be in [word cut out] this time tomorrow night.

Ernest Gavitt (492 BG):

The crew was formed in late 1943 at Davis-Monthan Air Base in Tucson, Arizona. We took further training at Alamorgordo Air Base in New Mexico. We flew from Florida to Puerto Rico and on to Belem, Brazil, our next stop was Fortaleza and then across the ocean to Marakech [sic] for a day or so before a night take off, around midnight or later. We flew the 10th Meridian along the coast of Portugal by the Bay of Biscay and into St Georges Channel landing at Prestwick, then onto North Pickenham.

Delmar Johnson (392 BG) described the navigation techniques involved:

In our transatlantic fight we were briefed on a powerful radio beacon in Northern Ireland, but were warned to use it with caution as the Germans sometimes sent out a false signal which would lead you south of England to occupied Europe if you followed it. This would be fairly easy to do, as far out at sea the radio compass reading would be only very slightly different from the true signal. I think we were over 1,500 miles from it when, to my amazement, I was able to pick it up. I did take a check on it periodically as we flew on, and the bearing was always about as it should have been for my calculated position. However, on that trip, I relied on celestial navigation primarily, using dead reckoning based on meteorology forecast winds (in calculating drift and groundspeed) between celestial ‘fixes’. I recall taking a celestial fix shortly before we were due to fly in clouds (per meteorology forecast) for awhile and another shortly before daybreak … After the sun was a ways above the horizon, I took a couple of observations of it, probably about an hour apart. Since it was nearly directly ahead, the resulting LOP [line of position] was at right angles to our course and served as an excellent ‘speed line’, i.e. showed how much distance we had covered in the interval between observations, and thus permitted an accurate calculation of our ground speed. Our landfall proved to be within about a minute and a couple or so miles of my last estimate.

Most of the men came in troopships. Some soldiers were cautious of censorship rules such as Alfred Ronald Neumunz (453 BG), who wrote to his girlfriend Babs Doniger, ‘You keep asking me how I crossed the ocean – I can’t say but it should be pretty obvious – one reason you didn’t hear from me for so long. I wasn’t sick.’ However, most were much more open, like Paul Steichen (93 BG):

So far the trip has been perfect. We are in a convoy so there is little to worry about. It is cool and the sea is calm and not a soul seasick. We came aboard expecting the worst but found very good conditions. Searles, Pete, Glauner and I are sharing a stateroom with six others. I’ve been catching up on sleep most of the day. They have a very good officers’ mess, tablecloths, choice of menu and waiters thrown in. Had half a grapefruit, All Bran, bacon, eggs, coffee for breakfast with roast beef full course dinner tonight.

Not all the men were good sailors. John van Acker (491 BG):

About the third day out almost everyone lost his breakfast (including me). I didn’t feel so well after going below to see my crew. The rail was visited quite a few times and those on the lower decks had to watch out because swarms of men were testing out the rail – of course there were those who didn’t make it. Anyway most people got over being seasick … We wonder if it will be possible to walk straight again when we get on firm ground. It will also be quite dull to sit down to a dinner table again and not have your chair slip and tip out from under you; also to see all the plates of food, cups and bowls stand still will be a novelty after this trip!

John Rex, Military Policeman: ‘My bunk on this crossing was on the open starboard lifeboat deck, we slept on that deck. The redeeming feature of this location