'The Red Feather Club Museum is Dedicated to the memory of the 95th Bomb Group (Heavy) USAAF 8th Air Force, who served with Honour and Valour at Horham Airfield (Station 119) - June 1943 - June 1945'

Originally a Royal Air Force base previous to June 1943, Horham Airfield served as the 95th Bomb Group's base of combat operations till June of 1945 in England. The field is located next to the village of Horham and 4 miles Southeast of Eye in Suffolk County. The large airfield and compound straddles the parishes of Denham, Horham, Redlingfield and Hoxne.

The Red Feather Club and Red Feather Museum are open to the public. I highly recommend anyone that is able to visit experince what a real Air Corps base was like back in the 1940s. The museum acquired one of my father Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson's A-2 leather bomber jackets and it is on display. I have donated various items and photographs to Horham and plan on continuing more donations in the future.

Lt. Erickson served with the 95th Bomb Group (Heavy) and piloted B-17s with the 334th Squadron. Serving at Horham from February through October 1944 he would complete 35 missions by August 26th.

As he told me:
"Close your eyes and think of our favorite film '12 O'Clock High' and then begin to imagine dozens and dozens of B-17s taking off and landing from that field. A sight hard to forget even now. 17s heading out on a mission or returning from a mission over mainland of Europe like a criss-cross star of a triangle."

One can only imagine the thousands of tales from those few years, so many stories he told me and so many untold. I can now think of a hundred questions I would ask if I could sit down with my father today. I might start with:

"What was it like in the early morning to be in your ship, propellers blazing away and awaiting take-off? Soon enough you take off in line with others and your ship eventually joins the formation and then heading to your target. There you are about to cross the channel into German occupied Europe. How did that feel flying with the other ships in the Squadron? Then you crossing the English Channel, what were you thinking as you knew you were approaching and soon enough would be flying over the mainland?"

He readily told me he was often too busy flying and going about his duties to be nervous, yet how many times did he wonder what was out there awaiting them.

How many hours did he spend flying, wondering and waiting -- for something to happen. He talked of 'flak' and he hated it. He mentioned a myriad of German fighter attacks when everything moved so fast it was hard to even believe it was all happening. But he admitted at those times he was good and scared, but confident that all would be alright. To me that was enough to digest at the time, yet as the years have gone by, I seek to know more. The answers can only come now from his letters, writings and my memories.

To me that was enough to digest at the time, yet as the years have gone by, I seek to know more. The answers can only come now from his letters, writings and my memories.

Thanks goes to Wyn Harrison of Deeping St James, Lincolnshire, England for these photographs of Horham. Lincolnshire is known as bomber county, due to the many air bases that were spread across this area.

Wyn is a fantastic supporter of the Royal Air Force and 8th Air Corps veterans and their airfields in England. She has been to many of the existing bases and visited Horham in 2017, accompanied by Royal Air Force Warrant Officer Harry Irons DFC, when she took these images.

As she writes:
"My mother’s cousin Flight Lt. William 'Bill' Colson (Distinguished Flying Medal) and Warrant Officer Harry Irons (Distinguished Flying Cross) flew together in 9 squadron from the Royal Air Force Airfield at Waddington, Lincolnshire – which is still operational today. Bill was killed on December 17th,1943 having transferred to 97 Squadron, Pathfinder Force, based at Bourn.

Harry, now 94 (my amazing friend) flew 60 missions which were acknowledged. Other missions he flew never counted for various reasons – no photograph of the target – an early return due to engine failure etc. No one really knows just how many ops Bill did – he was 28 when he lost his life, almost safely home. Bill had a tremendous amount of service behind him up to that point."

Squadron Leader Donald Forbes Mackenzie's crew were flying on what became known as Black Thursday in a a British four-engined heavy bomber, a Lancaster JB-119-F-Freddy. Dense Fog caused the aircraft to crash on the edge of Bourn airfield and where it immediately caught fire. Three of the crew were killed, Mackenzie the pilot, flight engineer, Lt. John Towler Pratt, and the bombardier Flight Lt. William 'Bill" Alfred Colson, both of whom were probably with Mackenzie in the front section of the plane.

It is thanks to Dr. Jennie Grey author of “Fire by Night” that the truth about Black Thursday December 16/17th, 1943 emerged. So many lives were lost at that time due, not to enemy action, but to the dense fog covering England when returning aircraft were unable to find their runways and in some cases – their bases. On that dark, wintry day crews were expecting their orders to bomb Berlin to be cancelled – but the operations went ahead.

This crew was also the subject of Henry Pedersen’s book, Skidthøgen, Beretningen om tre engelske flyvere, der meldte sig til R.A.F., written in Danish and published by Odense University Press in 1995.