USAF to leave Mildenhall, Alconbury and Molesworth bases

This will impact our local economy but I am not sorry to see the US leave these bases. They were always sinister places that gave me the creeps driving past.

There was some talk of moving Marshalls plane repairs from Cambridge to Mildenhall. I guess that becomes more feasible now? Of course the negative impact of these places closing as USAF bases is a loss of thousands of local jobs It also means lettings of homes to US airbase personnel will end too.

Pathfinders

In WW2 my dad was a flight engineer in 582 squadron, flying Lancasters.  In his lifetime he rarely wanted to talk about those days.

Last night I went to a talk on the Pathfinders. My dad was incredibly brave and one of my greatest regrets was not telling him so.  He was lucky to survive the war. I can only imagine the sheer terror of getting into those cold, cramped planes in the dead of night knowing that he risked being killed over enemy territory on every raid.

Dam busters raid anniversary

http://www.aviationartgallery.co.uk/Images/Large-Images/Dambusters-opening-shots.jpg

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the raid on the dams in the Ruhr valley by RAF Lancaster bombers of 617 squadron. Whether the raids had the effect intended or not remains contentious but the dam reconstruction work set back the Nazi war effort for several months.

My father was a flight engineer in Lancasters in the 482 Pathfinder squadron in WW2. He flew many night raids over Germany and crash landed on the return to England on one occasion narrowly cheating death. We rarely talked about his time in the RAF: he didn't want to relive the sheer terror he must have felt nightly setting out in the dark knowing his chances of seeing out the night alive were slim. I am sure the fact he dropped flares for the bombers following to kill innocent men, women and children deeply troubled him in later years. He was a very brave man and I wish I had acknowledged this in his lifetime.