Looking for photo's from Bodney !!!!

The field in front of the tower has indeed returned to agriculture.

What had been a rectangle is now bisected by two lines of trees in the form of a cross, neatly sectioning the area into quarters.

A number of people I know would love to restore the tower, but money isn’t that easy to come by (Even if the farmer would sell / lease) and like I said above, with a bomber field there are ten chances for each aircraft that one of the crew members has become a millionaire since returning to the States and is now keen on pushing a few dollars into the project. With a fighter field there’s just one chance per aircraft.

But in it’s present state of semi decay it still makes a moving site and a neck-hair-tingling experience. Stand there in the East Anglian wind and you’d swear you can just hear the whistle from the gun ports of the returning P51s.

Moggy

In looking at those truly amazing photographs from Mark Brotherton of old airfields of The Mighty Eighth, I came across those from the 401st Triangle S group at Deenethrope. Sorry to read that the owner had the control tower torn down, not sure why this was done, perhaps it was a dangerous condition that resulted in this action.
I visited there around 1996 and could still read “flying control” on the outside on the building. This group has some if not the best “Nose Art” on their A-2 Jackets and aircraft. At the time I visited , they were operating sail planes from the field. I love the photos you see of one jacket called “Diabolical Angel” I found most of the members of the crew and located one of the waist gunners who had this jacket. It had it painted for $5.00 dollars on the base in 1944. Sadly he gave the jacket to his younger brother who wore it into the Navy in Korea and has not seen it since. If you ever get the chance when on holiday in the States, you need to visit The Mighty Eighth Historical Society Museum in Savannah, Georgia. Here you’ll find many original A-2 flying jackets on display. This museum is well worth a visit, full of displays and all sorts of items from the Eighth. Nice to see a few at Duxford in the American Museum and there were some nice A-2’s on display at 100th BG museum. Sorry to read that the control tower was torn down at Deenathrope! Here is a link to the 8th msueum in Georgia.
http://www.mightyeighth.org/

Thanks!
BlueNoser352!

Moggy & BlueRobin:

A Salute from BlueNoser to you for providing these photo’s, just looking at the Control Tower is heartbreaking to see the current state she is in. How many times did Maj Preddy, Bob Powell, Col John C. Meyer, Bill Whisner, Donald Bryant walk into & out of the tower! Thanks so much for providing and taking your time to do this, those photos from Bodney with the veterans, was that taken in 2004? I believe some members of the group came over for a visit last year. Wish I could restore that tower, it would take a massive effort and much money….manybe when I retire from shooting tv news pictures it would make a nice second career. Would love to cut down all that brush in front of the tower. If you look close as you drive up to her…you can see the difference in the color of the brick from the night of june 5th 1944, when Lt Robert C. Frascotti flew into the tower and was killed as the group took off for Normandy and D-Day. I take it that this is all on private land and now in front of the tower is farm land?
Which of course is the best possible out come from what took place their now 60 years on ….as it should! Thanks men for sharing these great photo’s, lots of emotion in those photo’s !

A salute from

BlueNoser352!

Plus one with a bit more atmosphere 😉

About as up to date as you can get

Noon Saturday 12th March 2005

🙂

Time to pull the rabbit out of the hat. See this site:

http://8thcontrails.com/ipw-web/gallery/8th-Bases?page=7

Just over 3 pages worth of photos taken at Bodney.

Sorry guys I don’t know how to make the other photos the right size to upload!
Wingman

Hope this works!

Wingman, why not post them for us all to see?

BN352, I did a quick check of my books last night and it seems the longest take-off run at Bodney (Don’t forget this was a grass field, without runways) was around 1,000 yards in the NW-SE alignment, which pretty much tallies with the prevailing wind in these parts.

Moggy

I have at least one shot of Bodney tower and an aerial shot source unknown taken in 45. And a shot of the B.B.B.s monument. Contact me and I’ll send em to you. My Uncle crash landed his Lancaster there in Dec 42!
Wngman

Thanks Moggy for the offer if you have the time, saw your photo you took around 2002 on a website about airfields of the Eighth. At one time members of the 352nd thought about a fund to restore the tower, but cost so much. Which really says much about the group of folks who raised the money to save the tower at the 100th BG. Now they have a nice museum to enjoy. Sent you tapes out on friday !!!!

Thanks!
BlueNoser352!

No problem, I’ll take a wander up there this weekend coming if I get a chance. The control tower is on farm land, not MOD and I’ve had a chat with the farmer who didn’t seem too phased by my nosing around.

The control tower (Or watch office) is in a lot better condition than most of the unrestored ones in East Anglia. But it really needs some work doing soon if we are not to loose it.

I had an inteesting talk with the guys at Martlesham Heath a couple of years back. This had also been a US Fighter Field. They are really jealous of the bomber fields since there were ten men in each bomber crew, which effectively multiplies ten fold the amount of funding that the veterans are able to provide to help in restoration and upkeep.

Moggy