Americans ‘will explore the dullest landmarks,’ Terry Eagleton writes in Across the Pond: An Englishmen’s View of America, ‘and labour their way up and down the most unforgiving flights of stairs [,such is] their energy [and] extraordinary … willingness to listen and learn.’ While I would tend to agree with the prolific literary critic’s comments, it is not considered politically-correct to generalise nowadays. As such, I write the below review of an exhibition, which is far from dull and thankfully stairway-free, for those Americans interested in learning about the relatively ordinary roles that their rather extraordinary forefathers performed in Britain during the Second World War.
Let us start with the scale of the United States’ military presence in the United Kingdom. It was, in short, immense: approximately three million American servicemen and women flowed through Britain post-1941; 350,000 of those formed the Eighth and Ninth Air Forces and were stationed in East Anglia – ‘the prime site’, David Reynolds reminds readers of Rich Relations: The American Occupation of Britain, 1942-1945, ‘for the bomber offensive against Germany.’ Given that a reported one in seven residents of Suffolk was American, American in Britain readers would be forgiven for thinking that George Orwell’s infamous remark about ‘feeling … occupied’ was in reference to a(n East Anglian) county and not the capital.
The U.S. Army Air Force planted its flag in the soil of as many as 160 airfields around the UK during the war so Orwell’s comment, while hostile, cannot be considered mere hyperbole. And, now, thanks to the late Roger Freeman (1928-2005) – the son of an Essex farmer who lived close to the Boxted airfield – and his 15,000 photographs, the so-called friendly invasion is illuminated anew through the illustrations which portray magnificently the 450-000-strong American presence spread across sites official press photographers referred to as “somewhere in Britain.” To mark the 70th anniversary of the U.S. AAF’s arrival at Royal Air Force Duxford, the Cambridgeshire branch of the Imperial War Museum has selected a number of striking photographs from the recently-acquired Roger Freeman Collection to go on display in its most recently-constructed hangar.
The exhibition, entitled Somewhere in England: Portraits of the Americans in Britain 1942 to 1945, is only temporary (closing on 31 December 2013 after opening on 14 April – seventy years on, near-enough to the day, from the 78th Fighter Group’s first sortie) but will leave a lasting memory. Most of us think immediately of a pilot when reflecting upon a role within the air force and yet the public relations officer or, say, a parachute packer was as equally important, arguably more so, since greater numbers were engaged in the latter roles on the ground below ensuring that the former, in the skies above, was able to do great work. This is something that exhibition organisers are acutely aware, unsurprisingly, which explains why they are keen to introduce visitors to the varied roles performed by both men and women within the U.S. AAF. I have included the names of those featured in the black and white images in order to preserve their memory and honour, albeit in a very small way, their respective war-time service in the most black and white conflict history will ever likely witness.
Among the 30-plus, some previously-unseen, images are a journalist (Virginia Irwin, 1908-1980), public relations officer (Lieutenant Stanley G. Markussen, 1917-1997), barber (Private Oscar Leo Burns, 1917-1971), weather officer (Captain Alexander Sadowski, 1920-2002), adjutant (Captain Edwin G. Caudill, 1921-2012), armourer (Sergeant Leroy A. Nitschke, 1899-1993), chaplain (Captain Edmund J. Skoner, 1912-1988), parachute packer (Technical Sergeant Francis Scott Kee, 1914-1980), intelligence officer (Captain Gordon J. Burns, 1904-1963), runway control officer (Lieutenant Stephen C. Ananian, 1922-), medical corpsman (Sergeant Charles R. Lahey, 1923-1944), members of the ground crew (Technical Sergeant Lester A. Reifeiss, 1918-1979 and Sergeant Jasper Taylor, 1920-1976) – each and every one going about their daily business.
Splendid but small, I would not necessarily recommend that American in Britain readers re-visit IWM Duxford for the exhibition alone – not unless they reside in the Cambridgeshire area, anyways. For those who are yet to visit, however, I would seriously recommend visiting – and soon: it is a real treat to go from a little gem of an exhibit in the Mezzanine gallery, located in AirSpace, to the grand American Air Museum at the opposite end of the airfield. As impressive as the housing of the greatest collection of U.S. warbirds on display outside America is, though, it is the (Counting the Cost) memorial that lines the route to the entrance – which honours the 26,000 American airmen who gave their lives during the Second World War – which impressed me greatly.
For those moved, saddened – humbled even, I would suggest driving the ten-odd-miles to Madingley American Cemetery. I say this for the simple reason that while exhibition-goers are told the body of medical corpsman Sergeant Charles R. Lahey was later repatriated it is only here, standing in the grandest cemetery dedicated to U.S. service personnel in the UK, that civilians – American in Britain subscribers and British admirers of America alike – can truly appreciate the ultimate dedication of those from the New World who came “over here” to redress the balance of the Old.
Somewhere in England: Portraits of the Americans in Britain 1942 to 1945 runs until 31 December 2013 and entry is included in general admission (£12.25-£17.50). Imperial War Museum Duxford is open daily 10am-6pm (4pm from 27 October) but closed 24, 25 and 26 December.
Reviewed by Lee Rudin leepruddin@yahoo.co.uk