78th Fighter Group
78th Fighter Group
78th Fighter Group - Duxford Commemorative Plaque
A June, 2000 picture of the 78th Fighter Group commemorative plaque located at the Duxford Air Musaeum complex main gate, Cambridgeshire, U.K.( Picture Source: Andrew Height )
A picture taken in 1945 of the 78th Fighter Group commemorative plaque at it's original location on the Duxford parade grounds. ( Picture Source: "Duxford Diary", East Anglian Aviaition Society, reprint, 1975)
( Thomas W. Whitehead reports: The couple standing in front of the memorial are Mr. and Mrs. Adrian J. Bean of Shrevesport, La.. Adrian served with the 78th Fighter Group and met his wife during his tour of duty. They were married on June 23, 1945 )
Prior to the departure of the 78th Fighter Group from Duxford in 1945, a commemorative plaque was struck and placed on the airdrome parade grounds opposite the flag stand. Today, the original plaque still exists but has been moved from it's original location to within the main gate of the Duxford / Imperial War Museum complex.
The inscription reads :
" Erected by American Air Forces Personnel to commemorate
two years of combat operations against Nazi Germany
while stationed at Duxford.
American pilots flew 465 combat missions from this airfield from 8
April 1943 until the Victory in Europe 8 May 1945. They destroyed
333 German aircraft in aerial combat and 343 while strafing
airfields. This plaque is offered as a tribute to the courage of those
airmen and to the devotion to duty of ground specialists whose work
made these victories possible.
78th Fighter Group
including Headquarters 82nd 83rd and 84th Fighter Squadrons.
443rd Air Service Group
including Headquarters and Base Services Squadron 643rd Air Materiel
Squadron and the 819th Air Engineering Squadron. "
Return to the General Interestgsection.
