On Sunday 15th, a few survivors of the Saturday convoy took a guided tour of
Eye Airfield. The airfield is shown below in the first three pictures taken in
1997. The tour began at the crash site of a B-17 in a field on the edge of the
airfield. It came down on an English work party clearing ditches at the edge
of the field, killing everyone.
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From the crash site, we went
through the Cornwallis Hotel grounds, and South on the A140 along the
edge of the airfield, crossing the perimeter which contained several
loop dispersals on the other side of the A140. We then turned onto the
main runway and stopped at the Southern end where the perimeter track
meets the runway. We had a wartime photo of this location which is
little changed. While there, a Boeing Stearman Kaydet flew over head. We
then drove along the runway as far as the second runway intersection.
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We turned around and headed back down the
runway, turning left along the perimeter track next to the field where
the bomb dump was located, seen in the second picture below. Continuing
along the perimeter, we arrived at the end of one of the secondary
runways, of which only a few hundred feet remains at its full width.
From there, we could see Maurice Hammond's house which could also be
seen in a wartime photo. Maurice owns the Warbird fleet based at
Hardwick.
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Turning off the airfield down some farm
tracks, we then drove North, up the East side of the airfield, turning
in at the Technical Site where one of the wartime T2 hangars was
located. Since the doors were open, we could see inside and it looks
little changed from WW2. Some additional strip lights have been added,
and it has been re-clad, at least in places, but otherwise eerily
unchanged. We wondered how many B-17's and B-24's had passed through
those doors after major maintenance.
From there, we went through Eye village, to
compare the village square with another wartime picture, and again, it
has little changed. After that, the tour left the flying side of the
airfield and moved into the accomodation areas. Due to the maze of small
roads, I can't be sure exactly where the pictures were taken.
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In the third picture below, there's a tree
which has had its top sliced off, just next to the house closest to the
camera. We wondered if this was the tree hit by a P-51 buzzing the field
which crashed near by. After a short off road section next to a lake
where another accomodation site was located, we ended up where the last
two pictures were taken; the site of the base hospital and mortuary.
These sites can be seen using Google Earth
which has aerial views of the airfield dating back to 1945.
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