Local Heroes

Douglas McPherson visits a museum that remembers the brave American airmen from World War II.

- Douglas McPherson

THE view from the control tower at Thorpe Abbotts in Norfolk is of green fields and distant copses, with hares bounding playfully in the sunshine. Wind back 75 years, however, and the not-so-peaceful vista would have been home to 3,000 American airmen and up to 72 giant B-17 bombers, known as “Flying Fortresses”.

As a ten-year-old boy, Paul Meen watched excitedly as the Boeing Flying Fortresses took off to face their fate. He recalls seeing some of them coming home flak-damaged.

Today, Paul is a volunteer at the 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum, which keeps alive the memory of those brave American airmen who flew from Thorpe Abbotts and 48 similar airfields in East Anglia.