Bomb Groups in Norfolk

The books in this series are A5, pocket sized photo histories of the life and times of the American service men who were part of the USAAF stationed in Norfolk during WWII.

The greater majority of the photos in all the books were taken by those men with their own cameras. Some photos were official, some were semi-official and many were very un-official. The books show how the airfields and the men, their planes and their way of life through their own eyes. Each one is a unique pictorial time capsule.

They are printed on high quality gloss art paper with a full colour gloss card cover with the rear cover depicting the colourful jacket patches of the various operational squadrons. Each book also contains several pages of the now famous ‘nose Art’ which was one of the trade marks of the USAAF bomber squadrons. This series will make a great addition to the library of both the serious student of the history of Norfolk, WWII, or the USAAF; as well as the more casual reader with a general interest in East Anglia and its more recent history.

The 458^th Bomb Group in Norfolk

The 458^th Bomb Group were based at Horsham St Faith, on the northern outskirts of the city of Norwich. It was part of the 2^nd Air Division of the 8^th Air Force and was designated Station 123.

The 458^th did not arrive in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) until January 1944 and as such only had time to amass 240 missions before the war’s end. As such their losses were fortunately light compared to other 2^nd AD bomb groups. In September 1944 they were taken off bombing for a spell to help reinforce fuel supplies to the newly liberated airfields in France, as the Allied push gathered momentum towards Germany.

Today Horsham St Faith is the site of Norwich International Airport, one of the fastest growing regional airports of the early 2000s.

GBP £6.00 each (includes postage to UK address)

Publication June 2007