AN author and historian will tell the incredible story of engine bombers who were a vital part of the war at a museum lecture.
To continue a successful series of lectures, Mike Peters returns to the Army Flying Museum in Middle Wallop on Monday, March 27.
This latest lecture begins in February 1942, when a reconnaissance party of United States Army Air Forces officers arrived in England.
Firmly wedded to the doctrine of daylight precision bombing, they believed they could help turn the tide of the war in Europe.
In the months that followed, they formed the Eighth Air Force - an organisation that grew at an astonishing rate and to accommodate it, almost 70 airfields were hastily built across the eastern counties of England.
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At the heart of the Eighth Air Force were its bombardment groups, each equipped with scores of heavily armed, four-engine bombers.
These Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and Consolidated B-24 Liberators were soon punching through the enemy's defences to bomb targets vital to its war effort. They were crewed by thousands of young American airmen, most of whom were volunteers.
This lecture tells the story of just one of those groups who crossed the Atlantic in May 1943. Arriving at RAF Ridgewell on the Essex-Suffolk border, its airmen quickly found themselves thrown into the hazardous and attritional air battle raging in the skies over Europe.
Bomb Group follows the 381st's path from its formation in the Texan desert, to its 297th and final bombing mission deep into the heart of Hitler's Third Reich.
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This special event will also be live-streamed on the museum’s website, as well as available to a limited audience at the museum itself.
A live Q&A session will take place following the talk with both live and online audience members able to participate and ask any questions they may have.
For more information and to buy tickets visit armyflying.com.
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