A few questions:
Have any of you been to the old RAF Tempsford base west of Cambridge and to the 100th Bomber Group Memorial Museum and the remnants of the American base at Thorpe Abbots (recently depicted in the Apple mini-series Masters of the Air)?
I take it that from Cambridge the only real options to get to those sites are taxi and car rental. I have been putting off driving in the UK, but I might have to finally do it.
q1 - although that's around my part of the world and I know of several or many airfields, for Tempsford, that's a new one to me. Nearly adjacent to the A1 highway and about midway between Sandy (in Bedfordshire) and St Neots (in Huntingdonshire in Cambridgeshire) so Cambridge is some distance away. Both are served by the railway with frequent service from London.
q2 - I don't know if Enterprise has a location in either St Neots or Sandy but if not it is likely that Huntingdon on the same line would.
You could check.
Taxis will be available at all of those, and of course at Cambridge too.
Thorpe Abbots is another kettle of fishies. 90 minutes east of Tempsford using the quite busy A14. It is nearest the market town of Diss in Norfolk which has a station served by Greater Anglia from Liverpool Street in London, and you should be able to get a taxi there.
Nigel, the Tempsford field housed two special RAF squadrons that were used by the SOE during the war. I am not sure how much is left except for memorials at the field and in a nearby church.
Not your bases, but back in 2013, because of the personal connection, we visited the former RAF Spanhoe near Uppingham where my father’s unit was headquartered for a year. He flew C-47s. Since then, it appears that much of the land that had been part of the base has been sold for development and for farms. My point being, if you want to visit do it sooner rather than later. Getting to Spanhoe would have been difficult without a rental car.
RAF Tempsford- I have just been checking our records- there is the memorial barn on the former airfield (technically known as Gibraltar Farm Barn).- https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/raf-tempsford-memorial-barn
I can't establish whether it is routinely open or on special occasions (technically it is on private land). But it is a Listed Structure by Historic England. It does not seem as if there is anything else left of the airfield although allegedly the runways can be seen from the sky.
There is a plaque in there to Violette and Etienne Szabo- https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/284262/
There are a number of other local memorials- https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/search?keyword=tempsford&search=1
Please bear with me- I need to update some of these records and back check whether there is anything more to be added. This is way out of my area (of Cumbria, Northumberland, London Cemeteries, the Trafalgar Way from Cornwall to London, Orkney and Shetland) so it will take a bit of detective work.
See also this video about Tempsford Airfield Church- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiGCROGB-1c
Since you seem to have an interest in WWII and aviation there are additional sites you may want to consider. This recent thread covered two.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/american-air-museum
It seems that one can readily access St. Peter's Church, which has memorials inside, and the nearby Tempsford memorial honoring and naming the women SOE agents, who were flown to Europe by the special squadrons based at Tempsford.
But the Gilbraltar Farm barn, which was where the SOE agents received their equipment and contains memorials, is located on private property and can be accessed only at certain times (I saw somewhere that one may be able to obtain information about visiting Gilbraltar Farm at the Stuart Memorial Village Hall).
Given the Masters of the Air series, I would expect a Cambridge tour company to put together a Masters of the Air tour featuring the Imperial War Museum at Duxford and the 100th Bomber Group Museum at or near Thorpe Abbots.
Has anyone actually been to both museums? Duxford is certainly much larger and covers a lot more than the operations of the 8th Air Force.
The Tempsford Museum at the Stuart Memorial Hall is open on the first Sunday afternoon of each month- https://www.tempsfordmuseum.co.uk/
I would contact them about how to access Gibraltar Barn. Their website does say that, on application to the Trustees, they may be able to open at other times if requested- emphasis on the may be.
The Tempsford Church website specifically states that it is only open at service times- https://riversmeetchurches.uk/ so contact the Vicar (Revd Graham Buckle) [email protected]. to see if you can arrange for the Church to be opened for you. I see that this month (May) they had a tea and cake session on the 2nd Thursday afternoon- that may be a good time to go to the Church if it is a regular event.
The service times, in a rural 4 Church benefice probably vary each month.
Interestingly at Gibraltar Farm they is also an oak tree which is a memorial to the Polish resistance movement, another oak tree which is a memorial to two people lost in Operation Jericho in 1944 (when Amiens Prison was bombed in support of the Maquis, the French and Belgian Resistance, being held there by the Gestapo) and an external plaque commemorating another man lost in another air accident with 161 Squadron on 1 June 1944- an Arthur George Maskall DFM- that flight was supporting the Dutch Resistance Movement- https://www.roll-of-honour.com/Cambridgeshire/CherryHintonMaskallAG.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Charles_Pickard
So there is also external material to see at the Barn as well. It sounds like someone local (from the Museum Trust) may be useful, if you can organise it, to give you a "guided tour". The sort where they do it for the love of it, and you give them a healthy donation.
EDIT- I've put a lot of material about Tempsford on the above WMO links- it has taken a lot of pulling together from many disparate sources, as there does not seem to be one place that tells the whole story. Someone could do with properly establishing how all the memorials at the Barn (and there may be others) are situationally located around the barn. Hopefully someone better placed than me can complete that story.
It seems that it is POSSIBLE to get to Tempsford by public transport from surrounding railway stations on a community bus called the Ivel Sprinter- https://www.ivelsprinter.org.uk/ Whether that could mesh with your plans is another question.
At Thorpe Abbotts the main memorial to 100th Bombardment Group is an ensign and glass doors inside All Saints Church in the village. That should also therefore be a stop for you.
The Church is supposed to be open March through to end of September Sat/Sun and Bank Holidays but check with the Church (Revd Nigel Tuffnell) on [email protected]
or using their contact form- https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/5390/get-in-touch/
Isn31c and Nigel, thank you for your hard work and thoughts. There is much history at the Tempsford sites. The memorial to the women agents of SOE must be moving. It is unfortunate that access seems so challenging.
Given the Masters of the Air series, I would expect a Cambridge tour company to put together a Masters of the Air tour featuring the Imperial War Museum at Duxford and the 100th Bomber Group Museum at or near Thorpe Abbots.
Is that an American TV series? I'm not familiar with it. If tour companies were to consider doing as you suggested they would have to be familiar with it too. Maybe 2 different tours as the locations are so far apart - and there are no motorways in East Anglia.
Nigel, about three months ago, Apple TV ran a mini-series called Masters of the Air largely about the American Eighth Air Force in World War II. The name Masters of the Air comes from the book written by Donald Miller. It was in large part made by the people who had previously produced the Band of Brothers and the Pacific mini-series that were shown on HBO. MoA was overall quite good, though not as consistently outstanding as BoB and the Pacific--some MoA episodes were fantastic, but two in particular were really uneven. Interestingly, British and Irish actors played many of the roles. I thought Anthony Boyle was miscast as Harry Crosby, but that Bel Powley stole the few scenes she was in.
I wanted to provide the link the trailer, but it is very long. If you google Masters of the Air, it pops up.
The National World War II Museum in New Orleans for some time has been offering Masters of the Air trips to England. Some of the trip feature historian Donald Miller. But they go first-class, are led by internationally known historians, and are very expensive. For the tours led by Miller, the cost for 10 nights is $8,595 double occupancy per person and $10,199 single occupancy.
The Masters of the Air tour offered by the WW2 Museum is only seven full days, but it is all-inclusive, including airfare. I just looked at the itinerary, which made give some people some travel ideas.
Day 1--London to Cambridge. Hotel Gonville in Cambridge.
Day 2--American cemetery outside Cambridge and the Churchill Archives at Cambridge University.
Day 3--The American Air Museum, which is part of the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. In the afternoon, there is a staged dogfight between a Spitfire and a Messerschmitt Bf 109.
Day 4--To Thorpe Abbots. To the base of the 100th Bombardment Group. Visit with locals with knowledge of the 100th in England. To Hurham where the 95th Bombardment Group was stationed. Party with 1940s music at what used to be the officers' club. Angel Hotel.
Day 5--To Bury St. Edmunds/ Parham for the museum for the 390th Bomb Group.
Day 6--London. To Bentley Priory, headquarters of Fighter Command, and the St. Clement Danes Church, which has a close association with the RAF. Rubens at the Palace Hotel.
Day 7--London. Imperial War Museum. Churchill War Room.
Day 8--Fly home.
Folks, I have no association with the museum. I have never taken and will never take a tour through the museum because of the incredibly high cost. But again I thought the itinerary might give some travel ideas to those in East Anglia who have an interest in World War II.
thanks for the info. I never pay to watch anything so probably why I never heard of it. Hope your trip works well for you.
Just a little typo for anyone else following this trail- Hurham is Horham (I cheated, I looked at the tour website). I've been working all evening on improving memorial records for there.
I'd never heard of it, I'm being educated here. On to looking at Parham tomorrow.
It appears from the website for the 100th Bomb Group Museum that the museum is closed from November through February. I was scheduled to be in Cambridge in early November, so the museum is out. It is open on weekends from March through October and on Wednesday from May through September.
Given what little can be seen in Tempsford, I may have to change my plans.
The 390th at Parham is the same- Easter to end of October.
Duxford seems to have a special 'Masters of the Air' trail on until the end of the year- https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-duxford/masters-of-the-air-trail and Bentley Priory is open all year on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
Duxford has a bus service (of sorts) and Bentley Priory is accessible by tube then London Bus.
Just out of general interest I don't know if you are aware of the ABCT- https://www.abct.org.uk/airfield-markers/marker-programme/
Isn31c, I was not aware. I just checked it out. Thanks for all the help.
