USAF 491 & 492 SQUADRON & USAF Bomber Groups
If you would like information regarding the USAF squadron's based here in North Pickenham during the war, please contact 01760 440702 or email nthpickenhamparishclerk@gmail.com
This is a photo of North Pickenham taken in January 1946 showing the airfield .
Memories of long ago in North Pickenham
I was quite young in the early 40’s. When coming downstairs one Christmas morning I found that Father Christmas had left me a bicycle. After learning to ride rather unsteadily Di Warner would take me for bike rides, usually to chat to the soldiers manning the Searchlight Battery at Warren Lodge which was up a lane off the Hilborough Road.
The lane is still there but Warren Lodge went, when the men and machines came to build the airfield and accommodation sites for the service men.
Some of the workers lodged with people in the village. We had a carpenter from Norwich lodging with us. Opposite the pit at South Pickenham was a hut that was sometimes used as a cinema for the workers. If the film was suitable for children we would be allowed to go, there was no road then; just a track with three gates on it – just before you got to South Pickenham village.
When the American’s arrived, we were very excited as ‘any gum chum’ had preceded them. One Christmas they gave us and children from surrounding villages a party in one of the hangers. We had never seen so much ice cream, sweets, cake and fruit before. We got to know some of the Americans very well, as my mother, like other ladies in the village would wash and iron their clothes for them, so there was usually one or 2 of them in the house in the evenings, especially if they had been playing cards and lost and had no money left to go to the pub, but Dad always had a few bottles of beer in the house for such emergencies.
We liked to watch the planes come back from their missions and would go and sit on the Railway Bridge (no longer there) and watch them come into land. Some only had 2 engines working. You could also see the large holes in the fuselage where they had been hit. Depending on the damage to the aircraft or crew they would shoot red, orange or green flares out. Red meant priority in landing for that aircraft.
At the top of Houghton Lane and beyond the No Entry sign about 100 yards on the left was an old chalk pit which the Americans turned into their rubbish dump. They dumped anything and everything, unopened chocolate boxes, clothes, tins of meat and fruit, packets of cigarettes usually flattened and live ammunition. We would take out the bullets and light the cordite and wait for the cap to go off.
On the right-hand side of the entrance was an old wooden gate post with a large split in it. There you could wedge a live round in it, hold a nail on the cap and hit the nail with a large stone. We never could find out where the bullets went. There was always a fire smouldering away and we would throw live ammo into the fire and stand well back. No one ever got hurt or injured, more by good luck than good judgement I expect. This is only part of what I could tell you about my memories of the Americans in North Pickenham.
The Americans have gone, and we are a little bit older, the summer holidays come and if the weather was warm we would dam the river two meadows upstream from the bridge to make it deeper for us to swim in, the river was quite narrow then so after about 2 days the pressure of water would flatten the dam. There was one time when we built a dam that held so well that the farmer that lived in Meadow Lane told us to take it down as it had virtually stopped the flow of water downstream and he didn’t think that there would be enough water for his cattle.
We could also go into the harvest fields and chase the rabbits as they ran out of the corn that was being cut. We always manged to get some and the farmer would usually give us one to take home (dead, of course).
The dark nights of Autumn and winter came and at times with our sticks and torches we would go ‘ratting’. We would go quietly up to the corn stack, switch all our torches on at once to try and dazzle the rats, we would kill one or 2 but most got away.
Our garden was next to the sandpit, where The Grange is now. In winter if there had been plenty of snow we would sledge down the sand pits slopes as it was about 18 feet deep, it was great fun.
In 1990 some Americans came back for a reunion and we were able to meet up again with some we got to know when they were stationed here. Both my wife and I were fortunate in being asked to their reunion dinner in Norwich.
The Community Centre, we called it ‘The Hut’ was a large wooden building, I think originally it was a 1st World War 1 barrack room. It stood where No 1 The Grange is now, and it was used for all social events. The heating was by a large coke burning Tortoise stove, not very efficient for such a cold draughty building. In the cold dark nights of winter if The Hut was to be used, Joe the caretaker (who was also the Parish Clerk, Verger, cricket captain and grave digger and who one of the seats on Johnson’s Playing Field is in memory of) would light the fire about 3 hours before its use. He would always start off with coal and then fill it up with coke. About ¾ of an hour before the public arrived Joe would check to see if all was well, it had been known for him to arrive to find the building full of smoke. He would then open all the windows and doors and hope the smoke had gone before the public arrived, this was because someone had put a wet sack over the metal chimney that was on the outside of the building. What naughty boys we were!
USAF BOMBER GROUPS
THE FOLLOWING WHERE NOT SQUADRON'S THEY WHERE BOMB GROUP'S.
THE 1ST BOMB GROUP TO COME TO COME TO NORTH PICKENHAM WHERE THE 492ND BOMB GROUP. THEY STARTED TO GET HERE IN APRIL 1944. THE SQUADRON'S FROM THE 492ND WHERE THE FOLLOWING 856TH BOMB SQN. 857TH BOMB SQN. 858TH BOMB SQN & THE 859TH BOMB SQN.
THE 2ND BOMB GROUP TO COME TO NORTH PICKENHAM WHERE THE 491ST BOMB GROUP. THEY CAME HERE IN THE AUGUST OF 1944 FROM METFIELD IN SUFFOLK. AFTER THE 492ND BOMB GROUP WHERE DISBANDED AS A HEAVY BOMBER GROUP DUE TO VERY HIGH LOSSES IN MEN AND AIRCRAFT.
THE 491ST BOMB GROUP ALSO FLEW WITH 4 SQUADRONS. THEY WHERE HERE AT NORTH PICKENHAM UNTILL THE END OF THE WAR IN 1945.
AS A MATTER OF INTEREST THE 492ND BG WENT ONTO NIGHT FLYING WITH THE 801ST WHICH BECAME THE 492ND/801ST. FLYING FROM HARRINGTON IN NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
Information provided by Mr Allan Sirrell
