Page 64 - QDG 2023

Good to see dress standards of the subalterns have not changed much since 1944
General Francis Richard Dannatt, Baron Dannatt, GCB, CBE, MC, DL - outranked by his wife
Brigadier General ‘Knuckles’ Campo and some Lancer (double parked)
In a nod to the standard of dress and transport of the time.
Maj Purbrick holds forth from atop the tower
Raid 81
As we all enjoy Masters of the Air filmed just down the road from Swanton Morley it seems fitting that we recall an excel- lent party we held last summer on 11 July 2023 commemorating those same brave airmen. It may seem extraordinary for a Regiment with such a proud heritage at Waterloo to celebrating the 1776 French sponsored insurgency in our former American colonies. But by dint of living at Swanton Morley we have a very unusual, quite unique, and I think, privileged link to our Transatlantic Allies.
For it was in February 1942 that Eisen- hower made it explicit to his armed forces (following the devastating surprise attack at Pearl Harbour that brought the
USA into WWII) that by Independence Day on the 4th of July 1942 that the US would enter the war. With
that in mind, military chiefs
On 4 July 1942 British and American airmen took off from here as part of the first combined bombing raid of WW2 – and the first shots fired by the USA on Nazi occupied Europe. Both Winston Churchill and General Eisenhower were at RAF Swanton Morley for this mission watching atop the protected Art Decco Air Traffic Control tower having stayed the night at Dereham Castle, or Bylaugh Hall. The raid targeted 4 enemy airfields in Holland. A worthy story of mention is Capt Kegelman and his crew attacking
The American team on their return to Swanton Morley Airfield.
scrambled to make a plan.
Seven months to mobilise
all three services and enter a
war on the other side of both
the Pacific and Atlantic was
a significant ask. So, in May
1941, pilots from 15th Bomb
Squad (light) USAAF arrived
at Swanton Morley Airfield
to commence training on
the US manufactured A20 bomber, the ‘Havoc,’ then in service with the AF 226 Sqn and named the ‘Boston.’
military chiefs scrambled to make a plan