Heritage-League-veterans-29-may-14
Heritage League veterans 29 May 2014

A group of 50 members of The Heritage League of the 2nd Air Division USAAF, including seven World War II veterans, were based at the Maids Head Hotel in Norwich, from May 25 to May 30, for their Return to Norwich 2014. The veterans were marking the 70th anniversary of their time in Norfolk and Suffolk.

The group went to Madingley American Cemetery near Cambridge to lay wreaths, the American Air Museum at The Imperial War Museum Duxford and the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library at The Forum in Norwich. In addition the veterans all returned to their airfields.

Bob Birmingham (88) from Greendale Wisconsin volunteered for the USAAF aged 18, when he was still at high school. “I volunteered because if I’d waited for the draft, I could have been sent anywhere. I thought they would let me finish my final school year, but I was sent for training.” He and his brother were posted to the 458th Bomb Group at Horsham St Faiths, now Norwich International Airport. To begin with they were put on the same crew but were eventually allocated separate planes.

“I was just 19 when I flew my first mission as a gunner. On the fifth mission we were part of raid on Hamburg and were hit, losing two engines. Our Captain decided to head for Sweden and land in the first field he saw. As we crossed the Swedish coast we lost all power and baled out. When the order was given to leave I wasn’t at my station, so didn’t have a parachute. Fortunately the Captain gave me a parachute. Eight of us jumped, but two of the crew stayed on board because they thought the plane was to low. Amazingly the plane landed, then broke up and my colleagues walked out unharmed. We were interned in Sweden until the end of the War.”

Bob and his crew’s story is told in Red Dog by Jan-Olof Nilsson; an English translation is available at the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library at The Forum, Norwich.

Robert Hall (89) from Toledo, Ohio, served with the 489th Bomb Group at Halesworth, where he worked as a Crew Chief in 1944. He was on his first visit to Norfolk since the War. “My job was to keep my plane flying, contributing to the Bomb Group operating at maximum efficiency. Sometimes I worked up to 72 hours without a break to maintain the plane. My crew was the only one out of 48 in the group to fly 32 missions.”

Burton Madison (91) from Kansas City was also on his first visit to Norfolk since 1944. He was with the 453rd Bomb Group at Old Buckenham, at the same time as the actor Jimmy Stewart, who was a Lt. Colonel in the USAAF.  He didn’t make it Norwich during the War, but remembers the pubs in Old Buckenham and Attleborough. “I flew 30 missions from March to September 1944 as a gunner, including two on D-Day. We aren’t heroes we were just lucky.”

Oliver ‘Mo’ Morris (92) from Corpus Christi Texas is another 453rd Bomb Group veteran. He was at Old Buckenham from April to August 1944, flying 35 missions with Sleepy Time Gal as an engineer and waist gunner. “I am on my third visit to Norfolk, this time with two daughters and a granddaughter. I came back in 1987 and 1990. We had a big event at the Norfolk Showground in 1987.”

Harvey-Naber-with-John-Gilbert
Harvey Naber with John Gilbert

Harvey Naber (95), originally from Nebraska, but now living in Sacramento, California was a member of the 392nd Bomb Group at Wendling. He flew 32 missions as a gunner from January to October 1944, including a crash landing at Sporle on 29 May, due to fuel exhaustion on the way back from a raid on Ploesti.

Harvey met his late wife Eunice on leave in London, returning to the UK to marry her after the War.  He rejoined the USAAF during the Korean War as a mechanic and served until 1968 and the Vietnam War, including a spell in the late 1950s at RAF Sculthorpe in North Norfolk.

He was accompanied on the trip by his son Mark, who was born in Norfolk, and met up with John Gilbert, who was eight year-old in 1944, living at Wendling. “My wife died a year ago,” said Harvey, “and this visit has been to honour her memory.”

The aim of The Heritage League (founded 1987) is to preserve the memory and legacy of the 2nd Air Division of World War II, www.heritageleague.org.