Just some interesting finds. The story, as I know, is that a group of B17s were returning from a bombing raid in Germany back to base and were packing away their guns and had dropped their bombs in the channel. When about 4-5 germans fighters shot them down. This particular plane set fire to 3 cottages during its crash and about 3-4 of its crew were killed.
Looks slightly different from the American 50cals, could be german as it looks like it's been fired(In the story I heard the Americans didn't fire back).
A small display that I have in a corner of a room at home. The two flags are also 30 years old, the Stars and Stripes came from the Crown Hotel at Framlingham, Suffolk. The base area for the 390th BG. I asked for, and received one of these small flags that were placed upon the tables for a 390th BG veterans reunion. If only that flag could talk !!
The .5 inch shell case came from Hardwick, as seen. The gunpowder is contained within the small test-tube. The Glider Pilots Wings are what I obtained from Haddenham airfield, Bucks. That was from a 1982 course I done there.
Another 30 year old piece of memorabilia. I bought this from the excellent 100th BG Memorial Museum at Thorpe Abbotts, Norfolk. So I was told at the time, ''This is a original piece of 'Hang the Expense'. No reason to doubt that as there was loads of it around after it's local crash during 1944.
Yes, the Thorpe Abbotts museum, it's a great little museum. My late father lived right next to the former runway and we even donated an aerial weight(which we found) to it.
