|
|
 Control
Tower during World War Two. |
|||||||||||||
| The
date was January 1942. Great Britain was totally preoccupied with WWII.
The ‘farmer/landowner’ was Percy Kindred who (together with
younger brother Herman) was the Suffolk farmer/landowner of Crabbs and
Park farms at Parham. Their lives were soon changed for ever. Construction
of a Class ‘A’ airfield called for half a million tons of
concrete, three diagonal runways, and a giant workforce. Rubble for hardcore
was imported from bomb sites in London and Birmingham. 4,500,000 bricks
were laid. Two enormous hangars appeared. (In No:2, Glenn Miller and the
Band of the AEF performed before an audience said to number 6,000 in 1944.) |
|||||||||||||
| Although
Suffolk had seen nothing like this before, there was more to come when
the airfield was handed over, complete, to the United States 8th Army
Air Force in early summer 1943, and redesignated ‘FRAMLINGHAM
STATION 153’. After suffering disastrous losses in daylight
air attacks on the Continent, the first Bombardment Group, the 95th, was
transferred to nearby Horham to regroup. Replacing the 95th in July –
the 390th were to operate B-17s ‘The Flying Fortress’ from
Parham for the remainder of the War in Europe. In over 300 missions, they
dropped 19,000 tons of bombs. They lost 181 aircraft and seven hundred
and fourteen airmen were killed. Parham Airfield Museum is a Memorial
to those men. |
|||||||||||||
After
the War in Europe, runways were broken up and land returned to the Kindred
brothers. Buildings were allowed to dilapidate and, when not pulled apart,
were used for farm storage. Many of those still standing are now ‘collectors’
items’. Among them was the Control Tower shot up and abandoned after
the Americans held a riotous farewell party there in August 1945. With
STATION 153 now neglected, windowless and derelict, a dedicated and determined
group of volunteer enthusiasts, working with Founding Chairman Ronald
Buxton, entered into a five year task of restoration in 1976. Support
for this entirely self-funded project was given by Percy Kindred until
the day he died in 1996. The Tower was finally dedicated as the 390th
Bombardment Group Memorial Air Museum of the USAAF on 13th May 1981 and,
since then, has remained in active contact with, and received steadfast
support, from, US veterans, their relatives, supporters and Friends. Indeed,
Mrs Joseph A. Moller, the widow of the Bomb Group’s outstanding
Commanding Officer, is a Patron of Parham Airfield Museum. |
 Control
Tower, 1970's before restoration began. |
||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||
 Museum
dedication 13th May 1981 |
|||||||||||||
| Early exhibits were provided by the efforts of those dedicated enthusiasts responsible for restoring the Control Tower efforts in the field to recover aircraft parts and memorabilia long since buried in the soils of East Anglia, usually after pinpointing the location of previously unexplored air disasters, whether American, British or German. The exhibition display has continued to expand and recently to benefit from more formal archiving and administration than was possible in the early days - when the main effort was essentially ‘in the field’. In 1992, Ron Buxton hinted privately that Percy Kindred himself had something to tell of his own WWII experience but had kept to himself for fifty years following a commitment entered into in 1944 under the Official Secrets’ Act. This revelation led, as associated research continued through the years, to the creation of The Museum of the British Resistance Organisation in 1997, the opening ceremony being carried out by Lieutenant Colonel J.W. Stuart Edmundson, TD, RE, one of the founders of the nondescript ‘Most Secret’ GHQ Auxiliary Units, as they were officially known. The ‘Auxunits’ were one of Britain’s nine secret services of WWII, alongside better known clandestine organisations such as the Security Service (MI5), the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), and Special Operations Executive. Like SOE, the Auxunits had been formed under the express authority of the new Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and his Inner War Cabinet, directly after defeat at Dunkirk. Both Auxunits and SOE were to be headed by Major General Colin McVean Gubbins, a legendary veteran of irregular warfare. These credentials called down extraordinary post war secrecy, amplified by the fact that the men of the Auxiliary Units there were about 3500 throughout the land at any one time had existed and operated, although generally without their knowledge. illegally and in direct contravention of the Rules of War. The nation’s survival was the indisputable imperative. Before 1997, the Auxiliary Units were left with virtually no public recognition. Two viable, long term Museums now exist registered as one Charity, with the MLA and the British Aircraft Preservation Council are now operating successfully at Parham, entirely due to a common link through Percy and Herman Kindred, Percy’s son Peter is now the President. |
|||||||||||||
The wartime history of Framlingham Station 153, Parham, Suffolk England.
©2008 Parham Airfield Museum
