Wartime project joins forces with airport and local school to bring war memorial back to life
The Eighth in the East are working with Norwich International Airport and Firside Junior School tobring a war memorial back to life following recent vandalism. The memorial to commemoratethose based at RAF Horsham St. Faith, Norfolk, during the Second World War stands near theentrance of Norwich Airport which now occupies the site.
During the war the airfield was home to the 8th US Army Air Force and the RAF. The memorialstands as a lasting recognition to the sacrifice of those men, including those from the 319th &458th Bombardment Group and the 56th Fighter Group of the 8th USAAF.
The restoration work will take place with pupils from nearby Firside school, situated a wing’s tipaway from the memorial site. In the run up to the event the Eighth in the East’s learning officer,Annie Sommazzi, will work with pupils to share the story of the men stationed there and thesignificance of remembrance and memorials. They’ll then join forces with Norwich InternationalAirport over the 3rd & 4th July ( American Independence day) to establish a fitting memorial to all who were based here.
Andrew Bell, CEO of Norwich International commented “As part of our commitment to engagewith the local community we are pleased to be working with The Eighth in the East on thisheritage lottery funded project to restore the war memorial which dedicated to thoseservicemen based at the airport during the Second World War. It is tremendous that local schoolchildren of Firside Junior School will be involved with the restoration and will be able to learnabout the airport’s role in the war and the servicemen who ! were based here”
David Cain, project manager, said: ” We are thrilled to be taking part in this project. It’s reallyimportant that local people keep this history alive and working with Firside Junior School willenable us to do this in a special way”Stephen Keer Year 6 Teacher: We are really excited about finding out about the Americanairmen who were stationed in our local area, as well as working on restoring an important localmemorial site as part of our World War 2 topic.
Photographs of the site’s current state are available.For more information about the Eighth in theEast, a 3 year heritage lottery fund programme of Education, Community Archaeology, MuseumDevelopment and Oral History, please go to our website www. 8theast.org