Bombs Away in Little Waldingfield

A view of the airfield c. 1945

Thanks to Andy Sheppard as usual for the contribution below:

Little Waldingfield History Society was incredibly fortunate and delighted to welcome Malcolm “Ozzie” Osborn to our Parish Room, on what turned out to be another very cold night. This did not however dampen the spirits, as Ozzie regaled us with an astonishing display of 300 or so photos depicting the entire history of the 486^th Bombardment Group who were based at Sudbury (now known as Chilton) airfield from 1944 to 1945.

This was not just a picture show however, as Ozzie demonstrated an incredible knowledge and understanding of the pictures: what they meant, when they were taken and the circumstances prevailing at the time; his love of the subject and his feeling towards these brave men, what they did and what it meant to all of us clearly shone through over the whole evening.

The presentation covered all aspects of the 486^th’s history: initial training in the States and set up in the UK, the first operation and daily life in Sudbury, interaction with the locals (who clearly loved having Americans close to hand), the planes themselves, nose-art, later operations, their daily life on the airfield (and off it when possible), the horrendous number of crashes and other mishaps, the appalling injuries and worse, and finally their quite sudden departure, which left such a huge hole in the daily life of locals.

Amazingly, more than 90 minutes of absorbing presentation flashed by in an instant, with all present enthralled from start to finish; gratifyingly, members of the audience were able to identify a number of buildings, places, people and events, plainly demonstrating the lasting value of people like Ozzie and of local history societies such as LWHS, who collect and document such details before they are lost in the myths and mists of time.

We are most grateful to Ozzie for his generosity in freely giving of his time, expertise, humour and passion to a subject of such great interest to so many people, which was visibly demonstrated by the record turnout that came very very close to exceeding our capacity.

 For the record, Ozzie has been researching US Army Air Force (AAF) stations in the East of England since 1971, particularly Nuthampstead and the 398th, and he was one of the founder members of FOTE (Friends of the Eighth) in 1973.

He is a recognised expert on the subject, having amassed thousands of photos taken by US airmen, colleagues, friends and locals. He has also just published a “Photo History of the 486^th Bombardment Group (H)”, a copy of which the Society will purchase to assist in our own research of Little Waldingfield during this most significant part of our shared common heritage.

Our next event, at 7.30 pm on 10th April in the Little Waldingfield Parish Room, will be a talk by Jo Caruth entitled “Time Flyers” - An insiders view of the making of a TV archaeology programme.