A Visit to Thorpe Abbotts Air Field: Home of the Bloody Hundredth

Jun 5

***View of the control tower at Thorpe Abbotts Air Field, East Anglia, Norfolk UK, May 2024***

I’ve spent the last month in Europe, tracing the steps of the heroes of World War Two. The miles of walking, the long bus rides, the delayed plane departures—all fully expected. But the emotional overwhelm punctuated by multiple jags of tears took me by surprise. It was a precious thing to meet people across Europe still brimming with gratitude to the US Armed Forces, sharing stories of how our troops helped restore freedom to their families 80 years ago. And emotions were surely stirred at the very first stop on our journey: Thorpe Abbotts Air Field in East Anglia, England.

This was the base of the 100th Bomber Group, known as the Bloody Hundredth because of the devastating losses they suffered in the early days of the Allied air war. The 349th, 350th, 351st, and 418th bomber squadrons based operations here. This is the air field my father lifted off from on the day he was shot down. Today, it’s the site of the wonderful 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum.

The moment we climbed out of our van, volunteer Mandy McGill greeted our little group, which included my husband, my siblings, and my sister-in-law. “Had we known you were coming,” she chirped, “we would have rolled out the red carpet.” Despite the lack of notice, she did exactly that. She and her fellow volunteers treated us like royalty, with a custom tour of the site, fetching their archive histories of the base and the men who served there, uncovering new details of our father’s service. While the museum is usually open only Wednesdays and weekends, they swing the doors wide any day a veteran’s family wants to visit. Since the airing of “Masters of the Air” on Apple-TV, she added, visits have ticked up as more and more people come to learn about this storied bomb group.

***The view from the Control Tower. Little of the tarmac remains, replaced by a farmer’s crops.***

Here are the new details we learned at the museum: it turns out Dad was in the command pilot seat on his 33rd and final mission July 28, 1944. This means he wasn’t piloting the plane, but directing the mission of his wing—some 40 B-17 bombers. His plane was equipped with the secret Pathfinder radar device (code named Mickey Mouse) which afforded a glimpse through cloud cover. Typically, the Pathfinder–B-17 flew lead position in the formation. The plane was hit with flak, setting an oxygen tank, then an engine, on fire. The men grabbed their parachutes to evacuate and as dad cranked open the hatch, he was pulled out of the plane—his parachute in hand but not strapped on. The waist gunners were both killed, while the rest of the crew ended up as POWs.

***Visitor Welcome Center at Thorpe Abbotts, inside a replica Nissen Hut***

We wandered the site under the same “impossibly blue English skies” described in the first chapter of WAR BONDS (as Colin takes the train north to East Anglia). After we spent time in the museum’s many galleries and exhibits, we set out with Mandy on the air field’s perimeter road, where she pointed out an old barracks and the spot the hardstand for my father’s plane would have been located. When the base was deactivated, the land was returned to farmers and today their fields are green and lush with crops. Small animals and trilling birds have reclaimed this land too, now that there are no deafening airplane engines and noisy Americans to chase them away.

***Operations Desk in the Control Tower, featuring state-of-the-art rotary phones***

We’re profoundly grateful to Mandy and her colleagues for their time and interest—for the countless volunteer hours they work to keep the museum going. At the end of our visit, they presented us with small burlap bags that contained a small rock—a portion of the tarmac for us to take home

If you’re planning a trip to England, make sure you stop here. In addition to the museum displays, there’s a gift shop and a food truck with THE BEST FRENCH FRIES—or chips, as they call them. Follow them on Facebook and on their website and should you decide to visit, email ahead of time to let them know you’re coming.