During the second world war, the Ditchingham Maltings complex at Bungay was used by the local Home Guard before being modified into a United States Army Airforce storage depot where more than 1,000 men of the 446th Bomb Group – which was based at a local airfield – were stationed.
Some of the servicemen inscribed their names and/or home towns into 49 building bricks of the maltings site, which came under threat when the site was earmarked for a housing development a few years ago.
As well as preserving the bricks, I wanted to trace people who had left their mark so I began by sending out a lot of hopeful airmails, many of which were returned to me because of the lack of a proper zip code.
I managed to gain access to a veterans’ newsletter of 1999 for the now-defunct Bomb Group and gathered some names and addresses, eventually sending out some 300 letters.
Local parish records produced 10 wedding certificates of unit personnel, which provided some more personal details of the servicemen.
Meanwhile, a Norwich doctor, whose sister undertakes research in the US, sent her a copy of a local newspaper article about the bricks and how the museum wanted to discover more and she undertook further investigations.
Our research was able to identify some of the names. They included a GI who had scratched his home town, “Perry, Iowa” on one of the bricks: he was matched to one of the wedding certificates.
We have made contact with some of the families in the US who have supplied photos and further information. As some of the inscriptions are simply nicknames, we continue to appeal for further information.
The bricks were saved during the demolition of the Ditchingham Maltings in late 2012 and are now on show in the museum at Flixton.
Huby Fairhead is the museum keeper and honorary curator at Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum, Flixton, Suffolk
Some of the servicemen inscribed their names and/or home towns into 49 building bricks of the maltings site, which came under threat when the site was earmarked for a housing development a few years ago.
As well as preserving the bricks, I wanted to trace people who had left their mark so I began by sending out a lot of hopeful airmails, many of which were returned to me because of the lack of a proper zip code.
I managed to gain access to a veterans’ newsletter of 1999 for the now-defunct Bomb Group and gathered some names and addresses, eventually sending out some 300 letters.
Local parish records produced 10 wedding certificates of unit personnel, which provided some more personal details of the servicemen.
Meanwhile, a Norwich doctor, whose sister undertakes research in the US, sent her a copy of a local newspaper article about the bricks and how the museum wanted to discover more and she undertook further investigations.
Our research was able to identify some of the names. They included a GI who had scratched his home town, “Perry, Iowa” on one of the bricks: he was matched to one of the wedding certificates.
We have made contact with some of the families in the US who have supplied photos and further information. As some of the inscriptions are simply nicknames, we continue to appeal for further information.
The bricks were saved during the demolition of the Ditchingham Maltings in late 2012 and are now on show in the museum at Flixton.
Huby Fairhead is the museum keeper and honorary curator at Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum, Flixton, Suffolk
