Yesterday, I wrote about our trip to Ballymoney, the ancestral home of Bill Cramsie. During this ten-day trip to Ireland, we took a couple days to fly over to Wethersfield, Essex, where Bill had been stationed at the time of his death. I had been to Wethersfield in March of 2010 and wrote about that visit here. Thanks to the perceptive intuition of Sally Stewart, one of the employees that I met in the site Administration building, I was able also to meet her husband Ross who is a Chief Inspector in the Ministry of Defense Police (MDP) at this base. Ross has been studying the history and evolution of the base for many years. He subsequently purchased a copy of First to Fall on Amazon.com and we became well acquainted through a regular flow of emails.
The reason for the visit this year was to meet with Ross and discuss progress on a project that he is shepherding. During my visit last year, I left a copy of First to Fall with the personal secretary to the facility commander. The book caught the attention of MDP senior management and before long Ross was tasked to conduct a feasibility study into the possibility of finding and, if possible, recovering 43-9699 and its crew. One of the first tasks under this order was to brief the US Air Force contingent in Britain, as well as teleconferenced individuals at the Pentagon. This was done with aplomb and before long the Department of Defense showed active interest in the project that Ross had dubbed "9699". Meanwhile, Ross selected a small team of interested staff to gather and evaluate data related to the mission of April 10, 1944. I was fortunate to meet two additional team members during this visit.
During the past five months, I've been in close touch with the "9699" team at Wethersfield and have assisted whenever possible by searching for and studying available mission records and related facts that may shed light on the precise location where Bill Cramsie's plane went down. It has been an exciting time and I was delighted by the opportunity to see Ross again and to expand my personal knowledge of the base. As guests of Ross and Sally Stewart, Doris and I were allowed to stay in former military quarters on the base. From our window, we could see the bronze 416th Bomb Group plaque that Frank Basford had installed adjacent to the chapel many years ago.
The MDP at Wethersfield made Doris and I feel like very special guests and the personal attention paid to us by the Stewart family was absolutely extraordinary. Through their kind hospitality, we were able to meet their daughter Sarah, just days after presenting Ross and Sally with their first grandchild. We also were able to spend a little time with Richard and Susan Clubley of Church Hill House at Wethersfield, friends with whom I stayed during the 2010 visit.
Doris Sayles, Ross Stewart, Wayne Sayles, Sally Stewart
With the help of Ross, who is intimately familiar with the buildings, roads, and structures on the base, I became much better acquainted with the nature of this facility during WWII. We visited the area where the 671st Bomb Squadron was quartered and marveled at the way nature has reclaimed that piece of land in the past 67 years. All that remains of the once booming compound are a series of air raid shelters, some concrete foundations for Nissen Huts and the remnants of communal toilets/showers. The interconnecting concrete sidewalks also remain.
Air Raid Shelter in the 671st Bomb Sq. quarters area remains intact
In the 668th squadron quarters area, there are still a few Nissen Huts standing. There are also several buildings near the flight line that were in use during the 416th tenure at Wethersfield.
Surviving Nissen Hut in the 668th Bomb Sq. living area
The trip to Wethersfield was a great success and I'm pleased to report that "Project 9699" is very much alive and well, with a strong commitment on both sides of the Atlantic.
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