The Eighth in the East

Eighth Air-Force Project Preparing For Take-Off

Twenty-six thousand airmen killed, twenty-eight thousand taken prisoner and over six thousand aircraft destroyed; seventy-years on the story of the Eighth U.S. Army Air Force dominates the recent history of Eastern England and is now the theme of a major community project which has just been awarded a development grant of £14,500 from The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

The project has the working title: “The Eighth in the East”, and its aim is to ensure that the story of the so-called ‘Friendly Invasion’ during World War 2 is kept alive for people to understand in the future and local communities to benefit from today.
Inspired by a team of archaeologists, archivists and museum curators the project is aimed at helping local people of all ages who live close to one of the sixty-seven wartime airfields, to take ownership of this rich legacy by recording oral histories, mapping each airbase and putting together events which will engage everyone with a three-year period which changed the course of history.

The project is a cross-regional partnership involving museums from across the East of England, the Norfolk Record Office, UEA, the Second Air Division Memorial Library and a new social enterprise company from Suffolk, New Heritage Solutions started by the Artistic Director of Eastern Angles Theatre Company, Ivan Cutting, and BBC programme-maker Nick Patrick.

“It’s almost shameful” said Nick Patrick “that, were it not for a handful of dedicated volunteers and museum professionals, this history has almost been allowed to die. We feel that it’s as important to the East of England as Boudica, Bunyan or Benjamin Britten.”

The project team already has wide support from aviation museums, town and parish councils and organisations such as the Council for British Archaeology (East). Now the task is to secure further partners and funding with the intention that later this year it can roll out a three year programme of research, interpretation and events across the East of England.

“The Eighth in the East has huge potential to engage people with their past and deliver key benefits today”, said Nick Patrick. “This history can be central to supporting the leisure and tourist industry; it can help develop research and media skills; get people out into our wonderful countryside; support the school curriculum; and, maybe most importantly, encourage a stronger sense of place”.

Robyn Llewellyn, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund East of England, said, “We are delighted to be able to support the further development of the Eighth to the East project. The presence of the 8th United States Air Army Force during the Second World War has left a huge legacy on communities and landscape across the East of England. Part of the strength of this project lies in the partnership of organisations that will be working together to unearth this history, whether it be through exploring the landscape or collecting the stories of those who experienced the ‘friendly invasion’, ensuring this fascinating story can be passed on to future generations.”

Dr John Alban, the County Archivist of Norfolk, said, “The Norfolk Record Office and the Norfolk Sound Archive are delighted to be associated with this project, especially since it has a very strong element of oral history attached to it. Local people’s spoken recollections can provide extremely powerful testament to historical events which took place within living memory, but unless they are properly recorded for posterity, they will be lost forever.”

If your organisation can help in any way do get in touch. A meeting of all interested parties will be held at the 95th Bomb Group Museum at Horham near Eye in Suffolk on Sunday 26th February.

For further information please contact: Nick Patrick 01986 873516/07966 508305 or Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Eighth in the East – the Friendly Invasion 70 years on

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded us a grant of £14,500 for a six-month development phase. We are incredibly grateful to them and to the hard work of the project’s steering committee over the last few months. This award allows us to fully liaise with supporters and potential partners and to properly develop our plans for a three-year project which will: record the cultural and material history of the USAAF 8th Air-Force in the East of England; interpret it for local people and visitors; and raise the profile of this significant history.

Your Shout!

Whether you are: an aviation enthusiast, a local historian; business-person or just want to help us to develop this unique educational/visitor resource... we would love to see you and hear your ideas at our first get together on Sunday 26th February at the Red Feather Club, 95th Bomb Group Museum at Horham near Eye in Suffolk. David Hastings MBE will be showing rare footage of “Diamond Lil” and you’ll have the chance to look around this extraordinary museum. Kick-off is at 11.00 and refreshments will be available. We should be done by 4.00pm. Please email or telephone Nick Patrick for more information - 01986 873516/ 07966 508305 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Come and have your say about this major project which aims to help local communities throughout the East of England reveal and record information about the USAAF 8th Air Force so that future generations can remember its wartime role and engage with this important history.

Meet the steering committee, discuss ideas and get involved!

David Hastings MBE will be giving a short illustrated talk about the iconic “Diamond Lil” and Mark Howell from RAF Mildenhall will be talking about the base infrastructure which supported the brave wartime flyers.

We’ll be supplying soup, sandwiches, teas, coffee and cake (of course) and you can enjoy one of the best WW2 museums anywhere free of charge!

Directions;

The Red Feather Club is just off the B1117 between Eye and Stradbroke in Suffolk.

The nearest mainline rail station is at Diss where trains operated by Greater Anglia ( www.greateranglia.co.uk ) from Norwich, Ipswich and London stop. Diss station is a 20 minute car journey away and we may be able to pick people up if we have enough notice.

Nick Patrick can be contacted on 07966 508305 on the day.

Timetable

11.00 Tea, coffee and biscuits.

11.15 Hello Horham! Welcome & Introductions from Nick Patrick of New Heritage Solutions.

11.30 The Archaeology of the 8th
James Albone (Norfolk County Council) and Rob Liddiard (UEA) talk about the importance of the archaeology, what is left and how a major part of our project is to train local groups to record this.

11.50 “Your Shout”. We split into smaller groups led by James and Rob to hear your ideas.

12.20 Summary discussion & ideas.

12.30 From Fields to Flyers. Mark Howell, 100th ARW Historian at RAF Mildenhall talks about the USAAF Airbase during the 2nd WW – their construction, their lay-out and the back-up operation that the aircrews relied on.

12.50 LUNCH. We will lay on soup, sandwiches and sausage rolls. Lashings of tea and coffee (thanks to the team at the Red Feather Club). No charge – though a voluntary contribution would really help!

13.20 Supporting our Museums. Libby Morgan (Memorial Library) and Jamie Everitt (Norfolk Museums) on the importance of our small museums and what our project can do to help sustain them in the future.

13.45 “Your Shout”. We split into smaller groups led by Libby and Jamie to discuss your ideas and concerns.

14.15 Summary discussion and ideas.

14.30 Celebrating the Eighth. Ivan Cutting of Eastern Angles Theatre Company and New Heritage Solutions leads a discussion about how local groups might want to mark our project and what assistance they think they will need.

15.00 Tea and cake. Sit back and let David Hastings MBE tell the epic story of the battle to return “Diamond Lil” to the skies.

15.30 Living with Uncle Sam. Nick Patrick, the producer of various history programmes for BBC Radio, on the power of oral history and why, with your help, we want to record the forgotten stories of the 8th in the East – what was it like living next to an airbase in wartime?

Followed by a discussion of your ideas and what you will need to carry out recordings in your community.

A huge thank you to James Mutton and the team at the Red Feather Club for helping us to put on this event and everyone at Sarnivores in Ipswich for the tasty treats.

The Eighth in the East has been awarded a development grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund which has helped us to organise this event.

I intend to be at this meeting, having spoken to Nick a few weeks ago, representing the 305th Bomb Group Memorial Association. Will be interesting to hear what they say and how this project will be used to further the telling of the 8th AF history to the general public.
Ian White - 305th BGMA Vice President.

Interesting talk today and a lot positive things should come out of the project. However i cannot see anything happening to quickly.

Some of the key issues
Surveying remaining airfield, maximum of 10 to start with.
Preserving the history for future generations
Getting volunteers involved in surveying, helping out at the museums.

I was also there today. A lot was said and much was positive. The key I believe is the idea of education and bringing in the younger generations. Age range 16-35 was spoken about. The last I heard, the original idea of 10 airfields might be reduced, because of comments on the work involved. I was not convinced on the idea of training volunteers, either for surveying work or within museums, there wasnt much direction on that. One topic I saw as very positive. Oral history recording was a good idea, and that must be done soon as we are loosing that generation at an ever faster rate now. Supporting museums, another great idea. Especially those smaller organisations. One point I picked up on during the museums talk towards the end of the afternoon. 2 hours driving home gave me time to think on what I had just heard earlier. A diagram was put up showing the ''eastern region'' as will be covered by this Heritage Lottery Funded project. At that point the speaker said, over towards the west, Northamptonshire is a problem (!). I heard him say the Heritage people dont consider those airfields in that area to be covered by this project, or not fully anyway. I'm frankly dumbfounded! A project to record and celebrate the 8th AF story in England, the east, and the fields and groups who trailblazed the 8th AF operations, the first to fly missions, the Four Horsemen, are not to be treated equally because someone thinks they dont fall into the eastern region. I might have to tell Anglian Water that, and say I'm not paying their bill! Just left me feeling very uneasy hearing several versions of explanations on this incredible error in keeping the 8th AF story as one. I heard the Northants fields would be recognised but to a lesser degree to those within the ''Heritage Eastern Region'' map. I didnt much care for the inferred down grade on the westerly airfields. Red tape gone mad? How could a three year project, potentially taking in over £500,000.00, not cover all the airfields flown by the 8th AF. Especially those which started it all off in 1942. Other than that, I think if those running the project get some idea of what they actually are aiming for, it could well work.
Ian White - 305th BGMA Vice President & UK Unit Contact

I take it this research is well known to the organisers of this project?

www.angliaairwar.org

Tony

Sounds interesting. I wish I could have attended.

Many names of involved parties have been mentioned, but it’s not clear from any of the information above whose idea the project was, who is actually managing the project (the steering committee), who made the application to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), what the aims and objectives were (as stated in the application, rather than the subsequent press release) and, therefore, what might be expected in the ‘development’ process, for which £14,500 has been provided. When did this six-month period commence? £14,500 could be someone’s full-time salary for six months to get this project off the ground (i.e. someone with project management plus lottery bid experience), or a team of four people working part time. Half a million pounds would be deemed a successful rate of return by the standards of any charity or charitable trust or foundation! So how are they going to spend the £14,500 development grant in order to make this project happen, other than sandwiches and sausage rolls at Horham museum? (No sarcasm intended.) But I think that if they didn't disclose this, it's not a great sign.

Apparently the project is aimed at “helping local people of all ages who live close to one of the sixty-seven wartime airfields, to take ownership of this rich legacy by”:

1. Recording oral histories. So what was discussed regarding the proposed “your ideas and what you will need to carry out recordings in your community”? Oral history interviews are important, but opportunities can be wasted. I’ve listened through interview recordings and wondered why the interviewer didn’t ask the important questions! Apparently, the aim of the project is “to ensure that the story of the so-called ‘Friendly Invasion’ during World War 2 is kept alive for people to understand in the future and local communities to benefit from today”. One thing to consider here is that some history professors have argued that everything that there is to know about WWI and WW2 has already been written – total saturation. Or at least, the amount that is published is tremendous compared to the relatively few new insights gained – and no other historical event or period comes close to this level of saturation. This certainly undermines the tone of the press release, which suggests that everyone has all but forgotten! So another series of clichéd anecdotes along the lines of “they were overpayed, oversexed and over here” isn’t going to add much. Nick Patrick is quoted as saying the project “can help develop research and media skills [and] support the school curriculum”. Is the project aiming to train young people, for example, preparing them to get the best of out interviewing the older generation? Interviewing is a skill which many people assume is easy. So how about research methods workshops related to the subject matter, and engaging the potential interviewers in some thought-provoking discussions about what would make the interviews especially meaningful and unique? (i.e. how prevalent was the “…and over here” idiom in 1945, or is it something that has just gained momentum over the years?” – might add some kind of original detail. We want to learn new things from spending half a million pounds!). Is there funding for mp3 voice recorders? How will the recordings be compiled? How will they be made available?

2. Mapping each airbase. In a message above, ‘tbeach’ noted that it was proposed that initially ten airfields would be “surveyed”, and the project might get “volunteers involved in surveying”. Surveying for what purpose and by whom – who would be the project surveyors and who would be the volunteers? Everyone on this project is a volunteer, right? REF is absolutely right about duplication of work, considering that the ARG and AiX people have done this work already. However, it is meant to be a “community project”, and if it is meant to help develop research and media skills, get people out into the countryside and support the school curriculum etc. Duplication is okay as long as research, media, photography and survey skills are taught (added value, to use another buzzword), and that it is a community-teaching-learning-exploring process (and not under the pretense that the surveys are necessarily original). If they were to be non-participatory, unoriginal airfield surveys by an exclusive minority with their expenses paid then it would be an indulgent waste of time and money.

3. “Putting together events which will engage everyone with a three-year period which changed the course of history”. What was said about this and who is "everyone"?

I agree, REF, that maybe not much will happen until they have secured more funding – but also, they’ll have problems securing more funding if they can’t define what the project is and what it will entail (I’m sure they are aware of that and I’m stating the obvious!). You also said that the meeting seemed to be about getting ideas from the public. Did they say how and where we could follow progress? Will they be accepting feedback from this this discussion forum? Future meetings? Simple websites are cheap these days - surely they're making one?

‘Can do commando’ raised an important question about what constitutes East Anglia. If the project is being managed by hard-working volunteers in the Norwich area, there may be a bias towards Norfolk and Suffolk, for example. At first your comments reminded me of an old debate about why the 2nd Air Division committee in Norwich always refused to accept that the 3rd Strategic Air Depot was part of the 2nd AD (but would happily take resources such as photos from veterans). But my interpretation of the comments above is simply that Northamptonshire is not within the region covered by the ‘Big Lottery Fund East of England’. Therefore, perhaps Northamptonshire enthusiasts should follow the initiative and make a separate application to the appropriate ‘Big Lottery Fund’ regional department, or, in any way possible raise funds to get full representation in the project. Community funders in one region aren't interested in funding a community project in a different region. There is a logic to how funds such as these are made available, which obviously is very unlikely to correspond with the logic of where Eighth Air Force bases were located. The logic of water privatisation is something else altogether, and defies geography (Anglia Water supplies part of Greater London, and Buckinghamshire – by that definition, Heathrow airport is perhaps in the middle of Wessex! )

Thanks, everyone, for the feedback about the meeting.

All the best!

Interesting!!

Osgood;98319 wrote:

I take it this research is well known to the organisers of this project?

www.angliaairwar.org

Tony