After East Kirkby, on Tuesday May 28th, we continued South to Suffolk for a mini holiday, staying on a friend's farm, himself an MV collector. Most of the day was taken up by the drive and setting up the tent again at the new location. Norfolk and Suffolk was of course the home to the U.S. 8th Army Air Force during World War 2, and so a bit of exploring in the Jeep was on the cards. We were staying near the town of Eye, itself an 8th Air Force airfield. Not far away in flying time are two current USAF airfields - Mildenhall and Lakenheath. Aircraft from these airfields were frequently seen flying over head, including many F-15 Eagles, though none when I had my DSLR camera to hand!

On the 31st, our two Jeeps went out for an evening tour of some of the local airfields. The first stop was Eye airfield, Station 134. This was the home to the 490th Bomb Group. My last visit to the airfield was in 2012, but since then, a new memorial has built, being unveiled almost exactly three years before our current visit. Our first stop on our little convoy, was to this new memorial on the East side of the airfield, located very close to one of the wartime underground fuel stores.


	Departing Eye heading North, we travelled up the A140, then East on the A143 before turning North again through the main entrance of what was the 100th Bomb Group Airfield, Thorpe Abbotts. We pulled up to Site 1, the former 351st Bomb Squadron accommodation site. A few buildings, several hut bases and a number of overgrown blast shelters survive on the site. After stopping for some photos, we drove on through the Communal Site, past the Generator House and
onward around the perimeter track to the West of the flying area. Crossing the main runway, we then turned left away from the airfield in search of a Fish & Chip shop.

We grabbed food in Diss, and drove further West to an open public area for a Jeep top picnic as the Sun began to set.
We carried on North West until we arrived on the Southern edge of the accommodation area of Fersfield airfield. We arrived at a site containing at least six Nissen huts in various states of decay. The site is up for sale with planning permission to convert the two most intact huts into a house. Fersfield was used by the U.S. Navy for a top secret operation - "Operation Aphrodite". War weary bombers were stripped out and packed with explosives and were flown by radio control to attack U-Boat pens and other reinforced concrete targets.
	"The first mission took place on 4 August 1944 The target was a V-1 site in Pas-de-Calais. In the first phase of the mission, two motherships and two drones took off. Unfortunately, one of the drones went out of control shortly after the first crewman had bailed out. It crashed near the coastal village of Orford, destroying 2 acres (8,100 m2) of trees and digging an enormous crater. The body of the other crewman was never found.
The second drone was successfully dispatched toward the Pas-de-Calais. However, clouds obscured the television view from the nose just as the drone approached the target site, and the plane missed the target by 500 ft (150 m). The second phase of the mission fared little better. One robot BQ-7 had a control malfunction before it could dive onto its target and was shot down by German flak. The other one missed its target by 500 yd (460 m). Several subsequent missions were attempted, one of them being a United States Navy PB4Y-1 which exploded over the village of Blythburgh, Suffolk, killing LT Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., the brother of future President John F. Kennedy. The last Aphrodite mission was on 20 January 1945, against a power station at Oldenburg. Both drones missed their targets by several miles. After this last effort, the Aphrodite concept was abandoned as being unfeasible, and the USAAF scrapped the effort. The reality was that 1944 technology was simply not good enough to do the kind of job that was required." ( Wiki )

	After a brief drive around the airfield technical site in the fading light and a stop for coffee at a friend's house, we headed back home in the dark. On Saturday, June 1st, we had a group trip to the coast in this 1941 Chrysler Royal Staff Car.