| Just
a chance posting of a picture on the Historic Military Vehicle Forum,
gave birth to the idea of finding like-minded people who had an interest
in the US 100th Bombardment Group, who would be interested in collecting
and displaying 100th BG related equipment and information. The
display was named 'The Century Bombers', the name of the Bomb Group's
wartime band. The
picture was the Dodge WC51 Weapons Carrier shown below, at the time
owned by Rupert Fox. |
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| Apart from the
fact that the vehicle is very striking, a close look at the numbers on
the rear revealed it to be finished in 100th Bomb Group, 351st Bomb
Squadron markings, the same Group and Squadron as my jeep. All of this
happened just a few days before the Wheels & Wings '07 show where we
met and got chatting.
Rupert brought the truck to the '08 show. He'd fancied a Flying Control caravan to tow behind it, but didn't have the space to store it. I suggested adding a wooden Flying Control body and observation dome to the Dodge instead. It didn't take much convincing! This work was started in July, a couple of pictures of which can be seen below. I had a reasonable selection of kit and equipment, both ground and flying related and with both vehicles, we had quite an impressive display.
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We
attended a number of different events together, both on the West and
East side of the country. These meetings happened across the 2008~2010
seasons at places such as the Yorkshire Air Museum, North East Aircraft
Museum, Ingleton, Rawcliffe Hall and Sedgefield.
All was well until late Summer 2010 when Rupert decided to sell the Dodge. I didn't want the display to break up, so bought the Dodge myself. |
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| I collected the Dodge in September and brought it back to Washington ( the recovery can be found on my Dodge website HERE ). The Dodge made it to a few shows late in 2010 before the season was over. The fold down sides were sealed up and windows added and the interior fitted out with aircraft radio equipment, weather instruments, flares and signal lamps. |
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| In January 2012, a third vehicle was added to the display, a 1943 Ford GPW. It wasn't immediately useable and took 18 months to strip and restore. Like the other two vehicles, it was painted into 100th Bombardment Group markings. This Jeep was copied from several original pictures of the "Station Photo" Jeep. I late found some original colour film of the Jeep. It returned to the road in April 2014. |
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The 100th Bomb Group
started its operations at Thorpe Abbotts in June 1943, flying 306
missions, including some food drops over occupied Holland. They were the only group to fly from this base. The 100th
became notorious as a result of several missions where they suffered
spectacular losses of 12 and 15 aircraft on a single mission. There were
even rumors that the Luftwaffe was singling out the 100th group, but
this was untrue and actually impractical in the heat of combat. While
these large losses made the group stand out from the others, it was just
a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The overall losses
of the group weren't all that different from other groups in combat for
a similar period of time. |
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| The 100th Bomb Group has its own museum located in the control tower and associated buildings. It began in 1977, when the tower was a derelict shell. After many hours work by volunteers, the site has been transformed into one of the best museums about the US 8th Air Force. |  |
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| Most of the airfield concrete was removed in the 1980's, but two stretches of perimeter track survive, one being the 351st Squadron Dispersals seen below left. The missing runways and perimeter track have been picked out in this aerial picture from 1997. | ||
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