8th airforce airfields memorials

[Lawson]

Hi all

Well as as some of you may know i drive trucks for a living being away from home and my jimmy all week :cry: Well i have always had a great intrest in the 8th airforce and so therefore over the years i have tried to use my job to my advantage and visit as many of these airfeilds that i have read about and researched as i can physically get my truck too...most are in little villages with 7.5 ton weight limits which have not change at all over the years..but as with graffton underwood when i visited it for the first time a few years ago once the villagers know i am there to see the airfield and have done my research on there history they always seem to turn a blind eye to my 44 ton of iron i have just sat in the middle of there village...lol...thank goodness.

 

I have met some great people along the way...like the american couple i met at Polebrook airfield whos father flew out of that airfield and was visiting it for the first time.....And the proprieter of Graffton Underwood village post office who is the local historian on the airfield...and also holds the key to the village church where there is a beautiful stained glass window dedicated to the The 384th Bombardment Group (Heavy)....and is the same church where they prayed for there safe return from there missions of the day...the evening of the first raid on the ball bearing factory at Schweinfurt the church was packed with air men so many where there in that little church there was not enough pews for all the airmen to sit on....with over half having to stand..and after the raid half the chucrh pews where empty...The 8th Air Force....AS a whole... lost approximately 20% of its aircrew that afternoon...known as "black Thursday"...

 

These airmen where along way from home taking huge losses daily for our freedom and we should never forget them.

 

So here are some pictures i have taken of the memorials and airfields that i have visited...This thread will grow as i try to find the time to up the pictures taken of the different airfields..I will start with....

 

"Molesworth"....Its tail code was Triangle-C.... just off the A14 Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire The 303d Bombardment Group..."Hells angels"...The airfield was rebuilt in 1940 it served as a RAF bomber command airfield until 1942 when it was transferred over to the USAAF...In July 1945 it was handed back to the RAF.... and a jet fighter conversion unit moved in. In October 1946 the base was closed and put into care. In 1951 the USAF moved back into Molesworth with the 582nd air resupply group. In 1959 the base was put into `standby` status and officially inactivated in 1973 for flying ops. While the runways were disused most of the other facilities were still kept and used by the USAF. In the early 1980`s Molesworth became a base for the USAF`s mobile Ground Launched Cruise Missiles which led to the removal of the runways and many other wartime buildings. With treaties signed with the USSR in 1987 all the missiles were removed by 1988 and as of 1990 Molesworth is now home to the US`s intelligence analysis centre. Although all the missiles have gone all of the storage bunkers and a launch tower are still in place.

 

As this airfield is still in use with the USAAF i could not take pictures from in side but here are the memorials pictures..

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/P1010053.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/P1010067.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/P1010077.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/P1010073.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/P1010064.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/P1010065.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/P1010066.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/P1010068.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/P1010072.jpg[/img]

 

And some origanal pictures from Molesworth

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/pp-300thmission.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/v56.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/v29.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/v31.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/v30.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/v23.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/v35.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/v07.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/sp-1681galley.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/sp-1681holadia.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/sp-1681ord-auto.jpg[/img]

 

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Lawson67/b17hell.jpg[/img]

 

More Airfeilds pictures to follow..

[Mrs Hardyferret]

Interesting stuff Lawson and great picture. :clap:

 

 

 

by the way ..............how many days a week did you say you worked :whistle:

[Jack]

Awesome work Laws - keep it coming and you are going to have to come to Bolero 2009.....

 

Keep posting!

[Tony B]

Brilliant, can't see the RAF doing things like this.

[Bodge Deep]

Wow excellent stuff ... thanks for sharing.

I've never seen the Dodge/engine hoist pictures before ... brilliant

[Tony B]

Wow excellent stuff ... thanks for sharing.

I've never seen the Dodge/engine hoist pictures before ... brilliant

 

Looks local unitish Be intresting to make something up like it.

[abn deuce]

The period photo's put so many things into context , I had not seen photo's of vehicles with names painted on the glass before something like putting the pilots and co- pilots names under the cockpit windows?

I m sure the people handy with a welder over there and a bit of scrap metal and someone with a Dodge can craft one of the hoists together in time for the shows next year , you have the documentation to go with it !

[Joris]

Fantastic thread Lawson!! :tup: