大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jenny Christian of the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library on behalf of Les Willis and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

My name is Les Willis and I鈥檓 now aged 75, so any remembrances are tarnished by the passing of 60 years since the B24鈥檚 of the 458th BG [Bomber Group] arrived at Horsham St. Faith Station 123.

At that time I lived at Old Catton, an adjacent village to the airfield 鈥� in fact I remember the airfield being constructed in 1938/39 with RAF aircraft arriving in 1940, various types until the American P47 Thunderbolts came for a few short months. The airfield then closed down whilst the concrete runways were constructed prior to the arrival of the B24鈥檚.

A question has been asked 鈥� what are your remembrances of that time and how was it with the influx of some 3000 Americans into a small rural community 鈥� I hope anybody reading this will bear with me, as I suspect, that like 1000鈥檚 of other people, memories of 60 years ago are sometimes rather vague.

I can recall the first time on the base joining the 鈥渃how鈥� line, picking up a metal tray and having all the food put into separate compartments, meat, veg, gravy and then peaches and tinned milk. The peaches (tinned albeit) were an extreme luxury, as this type was almost non-existent for over 4 years due to food rationing. I was able to obtain entry onto the airfield as I belonged to an organisation called 鈥淭he Air Training Corps鈥� which provided an RAF type uniform. At the time of the arrival of the 458th BG I was still at school so was only able to visit the base at weekends and during school holidays 鈥� it was fascinating to see the B24鈥檚 at close quarters, both inside the hangars and out on the dispersal points. My friend and myself used to cycle round the perimeter track and stop and talk to the various ground crews at work on the aircraft 鈥� at times we would climb inside and look at the numerous things that were going on.

I remember my first flight in a B24, we were airborne for just over an hour and my thoughts at that time was that it was pretty cold up there. One must remember that this was the first time I had ever flown in an aeroplane but it was a great experience. During the next 12 months or so I was lucky enough to have had up to a dozen more flights including one from the neighbouring airfield at Rackheath (467th BG) and a 2 陆 hour flight in a B17, but that鈥檚 another story.

The impact on a boy鈥檚 life at that time of the arrival of the various BG鈥檚 was probably not that great to myself, as I had lived through the comings and goings of RAF personnel literally on our doorstep. When the 458th did arrive, however, it was brought home a bit more as an additional communal site was built approx 200 yards from where I lived 鈥� this site housed various ground echelons and some time was spent with them in the Nissan huts after they had finished their duties.

I used to fetch them English Fish & Chips at times and show them the back way into the site so as to avoid the MP鈥檚 at the guard huts!

I have a couple of regrets about those days of 1944/45 鈥� wish I still had my home-made Log Book of flights, also lists of names of aircraft that were dotted about the airfield, expect that a lot of us have similar and with the passage of time and life these things are so easily forgotten.

I have so many good memories of Horsham St. Faith airfield, the people and the planes. When the B29 Superfortress visited England in March 1944 it spent several days at Horsham and I can recall being one of the favoured few who was able to climb inside the aircraft and look around it 鈥� even had a ride on the trolley down to the tail.

During my flights in the Liberators I was privileged to take a place in all the locations of the aircraft except the pilot鈥檚 seat 鈥� had a go in the ball turret, in the tail and on top and also the Bombardiers cubby hole in the nose 鈥� don鈥檛 think I could manage those places today but as a 16 year old lad I was slightly smaller and more agile.

No doubt I鈥檝e left out a lot of what happened to an English lad during the time of the 458th BG occupation of the airfield, but I trust that anybody reading this will understand that memories play a heck of a lot of tricks sometimes 鈥� things we would like to forget come back to haunt us and things we have good thoughts of tend to fade and die with each passing year.

As I noted at the start of this, now 75 years old, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, pity that the younger generation of this country appear to have little interest in the years 1939 to 1945 and that part of the history of the various countries that were involved in the war will soon be forgotten, without the writings of those people that were there.

P.S. Returning to the start of these notes, I clearly remember the first aircraft to land at Horsham St. Faith during the summer of 1939 (prior to airfield being completely built) 鈥� these being 2 Fairy Hendons painted dark green all over with the Blue and Red Roundels utilised by the RAF for their bombers at that time.

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