European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 30, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Left age and weather have taken their toll on one of the Crews quarters. Below Lavenham s operations buildings Are by a hed by the late afternoon a or m it Ai above a plaque commemorates the years when the Airfield was filled with american airmen. Left the control Tower has an eerie forlorn Quality viewed through the shattered windows of an adjacent building. Group who kissed their loved ones goodbye carved an Airfield out of the Grassy Hills of a foreign land and then cd in bed into overloaded winged chariots Day after Day to support one More Quot War to end All by the end of world War ii Lavenham was one of More than 1 30 airfields that dotted the Countryside of Southeast England. Much of the Field is still intact and although two of its three runways Are gone the Orbital taxiway is still there along with the control Tower and Many of the support buildings. The third runway from which b-24s and b-1 7s departed to bomb targets deep within Germany is slightly overgrown and pockmarked with potholes How but it refuses to give lip the ghost. Now and then a passing air plane punctures the silence of the , the sound of its engines conjuring up visions of flak riddled bombers limping Back to the safety of la Enham s embrace. Long Early morning shadows play tricks on the mind suggesting the image of ground Crews gathered on the Balcony of the control Tower straining their eyes to scan the Hori in for any sign of the 487th coming Home. It s almost possible1 to hear the Glenn Miller on Hestra playing in the mood Over a. Tinny Loudspeaker somewhere in the distance. But alas it turns out to be Only the sounds of a wayward Bree a broken windows As it navigates Between the dilapidated buildings. T or a fleeting moment it is 1944. The spirit of the. 487th reaches up from the runway and grubs you by the Collar and pulls Sou right into the cockpit Oul Al b-17. But then in the tic k of an eyelash it is gone again the product of an opera five imagination enhanced by a a scene that has t really c hanged much in 47 years. It s just Ladenham s Way of giving you the "2780 a May to 1991 stripes Magazine 5
