Group History

The special service office also started a program of athletic activity. There was participation in several sports but it did not involve a large of the personnel on the base. No dances were held on the Base during April. The Unity club, an organization of young women in Sudbury, invited a group of 30 officers to a dance one week and a group of enlisted men the following wee.

Spending an evening in Sudbury was a popular diversion. Some of the men walked or rode bicycles but most of those going went on the "Liberty Run". Several Army Trucks left at 6:45 and returned from 10 until 11. An officer was in charge each evening. The choice of things to do in the town was limited. Most of the enlisted men spent part of the evening at the Red Cross Club where food was served at low prices. A second possibility was to attend one of the two Cinemas where a double feature program was the rule and the pictures often had been shown years before in the United States. The third possibility was to visit the pubs (bars or taverns). It was not necessary, however, to go to Sudbury to enjoy the latter form of recreation, since there were two pubs on the edge of the Air Base, the White Horse and the Compasses. English beer, bitters, stout, ale, by whatever name h was called, aroused considerable amusement among the G.I.'s. Some of those who were old enough to remember the Prohibition Era compared it with stale home brew. They found it hard to get used to drinking their beer warm. But they enjoyed the quaint atmosphere of the pubs. A frequent feature was a grandmotherly woman presiding behind the bar.

The relations between Group personnel and the English were fairly cordial. The English, in keeping with their reputation, are rather reserved and dignified, but our men were often not bashful about making the first advance. Some of them were rather quick to canvas housewives in Great Waldingfield to have their laundry done and a good many solved their laundry problem in that way. They were pleased both with the quality and the price of the work. This involved friendly conversations, gifts of food, and other amenities. Some of the men, with proverbial American enterprise, found farmers who would sell them eggs. The little grocery on the edge of the Base did a rushing business in non-rationed articles.

It was soon discovered that England is very short of goods. There is a shortage of everything and almost everything is rationed. The men found that the Post Exchange had the barest shelves they had ever seen and that a ration card was necessary for buying most of its wares. Tuesday was scheduled for issuing of rations, and each person was privileged to buy seven packs of cigarettes, two candy bars, a package of chewing gum, a package of cookies, and a cake of soap. It was common to increase the candy allowance and sometimes those who were early in line could get a can of huh juice.

The food situation caused considerable dissatisfaction for a time. There were three mess halls: one for administrative officers, one for the officers and gunners of the combat crews and a consolidated mess which fed all the other enlisted men on the base. During the period of organization there was a good deal of trouble with the latter mess. Lines were very long and food sometimes ran short. Schedules were arranged which reduced the time spent in waiting. The diet was necessarily more restricted than the American palate was accustomed to. The Group encountered its first powdered eggs and found them a poor substitute for fresh ones. Despite all they had heard about the prevalence of brussel's sprouts in England, they were not served any. Beets at first were the most common vegetable, next to potatoes. After a while, cabbage appeared on the menu frequently but was received without enthusiasm. It was more like collards that the cabbage Americans are used to. Jokes in the ETO to the contrary, Spam was not served. Meat on a menu was more likely to be stew or wieners. Bread was made from the unbleached flour used by the English during wartime. Occasionally a delicacy was served, such as chicken, fresh eggs, and oranges. Shortly after arriving at Sudbury, it was found advisable to select permanent KP's. Those appointed usually felt very unhappy about it. The first member of the Group tried by Special Court Martial had disobeyed and order to on permanent KP.

ADMINISTRATION

When the ground personnel arrived at Sudbury on April S they found that about three fourths of the combat crews had arrived before them, beginning with the airplane flown by Major Norton and Captain Edward M. Rex who arrived on Match 19. The air echelon, minus one gunner from each combat crew (replaced by the crew chief) had flown from Tucson to Herrington, Kansas had flown to England from there by way of Florida, the West Indies, Brazil, Africa, and Wales. The long flight was made without mishap. The remainder of the combat crews all joined the Group by the third week in April. Lt. Col. Overing had assumed command of the Base late in March.

The Air Base, known as AAF Station 174, was the headquarters for a new Combat Wing, the 92nd. This wing comprised in addition to the 486th another new Liberator Group, the 487th. This was located several miles away at Lavenham and its history paralleled that of the 486th. It was based on an antisubmarine squadron operating in the Caribbean and had trained at Alamagordo, New Mexico.

Station 174 had had troops since November 1943. When the 486th Group arrived the following organizations were already located there. An RAF Detachment, 76th Station Complement Squadron, 1237th Quartermaster Company, 1202nd Military Police Company, 803rd Chemical Company, 1453rd Ordinance Company, 473rd Sub-Depot.

The Group was now confronted with the necessity of running an Air Base in addition to the duty of operating a bombardment group. The members of the advance detail, Major Thompson, Major Havens, Captain Currie, and Lieutenant Hogan, had arrived in England several weeks before and had visited a number of bombardment groups, as had Colonel Overing. Nevertheless, it was not an easy task immediately to form an Air Base organization largely from Group personnel. It was necessary to do this and still stay within the Group table of organization.

One of the conspicuous changes was to give Base jobs to the four squadron executive officers, leaving the squadron adjutants to perform the administrative details. Captain Weigand of the 834th was appointed Air Inspector. Captain Gardenhire of the

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