_What was The Friendly Invasion in East Anglia

East Anglia has had five invasions in two thousand years. The Romans, the Anglo Saxons, the Vikings, the Normans and then the fifth and final Friendly Invasion of East Anglia when more than 350,000 United States servicemen and women were stationed in and around Suffolk and Norfolk during World War II.

The Friendly Invasion had the biggest landscape and cultural impact on the East of England since the Norman Conquest, 900 years earlier.

It was an extraordinary time, unprecedented in history. From 1942 to 1945 hundreds of thousands of North American service personnel ‘invaded’ Suffolk and Norfolk, part of the United States Army Air Force’s vas contribution to the Allies’ strategic bombing offensive waged against Nazi-occupied Europe – the longest battle of the war.

East Anglia echoed to the roar of B24 Liberators and B17 Flying Fortresses as huge aerial armadas took to the skies from a countryside so freckled with bomber bases that it became known as ‘Little America’.

Why was The Friendly Invasion in East Anglia?

Eastern England is ideal for airfields. Its relatively flat terrain and proximity to the continent meant it became an unsinkable aircraft carrier. It also became temporary home to the United States Army Air Force.

It wasn’t just air crew, of course. That air force needed firemen, engineers, weather analysts, ground defence, an army of people involved in administration, logistics and supply, plenty of cooks as well as civilian support staff recruited locally. For every flier, there were three ancillaries, meaning any airbase could support more than 3000 people.

Hundreds of miles of concrete runway were laid in a matter of months (it took 250,000 tonnes of concrete to build one runway). These communities were the ‘Fields of Little America’, small towns that were often bigger than the rural settlements around them.

If East Anglia was monochrome when they arrived, it was soon turned technicolour – just like The Wizard of Oz, released in 1939, the first year of the war!

The Americans had heard about ‘jolly old England’; their hosts knew America as the land of cowboys and Hollywood.

As one general said: ‘In all history, probably no two allies were as genuinely friendly to each other as the United States and Great Britain.’

These young Americans brought a breath of fresh air. The Friendly Invasion introduced a rationed, rural backwater to the big band music of Glenn Miller, peanut butter, popcorn, chewing gum, nylon stockings, donuts, jitterbugging, Coca Cola and much more. A slice of the American Dream had crossed the Atlantic, although baseball never caught on!

The Americans also brought their own pets, including a grizzly bear and a monkey, but also segregation. It is shocking to us today but Diss was a town that only black servicemen were allowed, and in Harleston there were alternate days for black and white.

Did the fact that black servicemen were served by white people here, and were given equality by East Anglians, help ferment the American civil rights movement?

The Americans were a revelation to the British. They were a big hit with local kids – and the local girls too. Wartime conditions led to some extraordinary behaviour. The official estimate for children fathered out of wedlock by GIs was about 24,000. There were also many marriages, and around 40,000 ‘GI brides’ sailed for the USA after the war, so many that two cruise ships had to be requisitioned to take them.

Hollywood Royalty in Norfolk

Hollywood legend Jimmy Stewart flew out of Old Buckenham and Tibenham before serving as a staff officer at Ketteringham Hall. Stewart was one of the few base commanders who led his men into combat, stating that he wouldn’t ask the servicemen to do anything he wasn’t prepared to do himself. And bear in mind the Americans flew daring daytime missions.

The first film he made on his return to America was ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’, featuring a decorated American flyer wearing the uniform of the Mighty Eighth!

Hollywood actors Clark Gable and Walter Matthau also served here.

The man who should have been American President

One of the most poignant stories of the time was that of the man who should have become President of the United States, Joe Kennedy jnr. Flying out of Fersfield in Norfolk on a secret bombing mission, he was tragically killed in action over Blythburgh Church in Suffolk when the plane he was flying exploded mid-air.

Another plane on the mission was flown by Colonel Roosevelt, the son of the US President at the time.

Children ‘adopted’ by the airmen

Americans were renowned for their generosity. People who were children at the time tell fond tales of how youngsters were ‘adopted’ by airmen.

On Christmas Day, 1942, USAAF officers based in Norfolk hosted 60 local children, and then took them to the pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Norwich.

Two years later, the Eastern Daily Press newspaper reported ‘thousands’ of local children getting a Christmas they would never forget courtesy of the generous Americans. As guests of the bomber bases, they got unheard of treats such as ice cream. Santa Claus arrived at Bury St Edmunds in a Flying Fortress bomber, then the children helped load up a Liberator aircraft with fruit, candy and toys they had made to send to kids in recently liberated Paris.

It wasn’t all plain sailing. To the jibe that the Yanks were ‘over-sexed, over-paid and over here’ the Americans retorted that the British were ‘under-sexed, underpaid and under Eisenhower’.

There was also something deeper between the Yanks and the Brits. Partly historical – it was settlers from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland who had formed the first wave of colonists to North America. The majority of passengers on The Mayflower were from Norfolk and Suffolk.

We were also ‘two nations divided by a common language’, understanding each other without a translator, although who knew if US servicemen could understand the thick countryside dialect of old farmers they might have come across.

And there was politics – both Britain and the USA adopted democracy during the 19th century and never relinquished or questioned that was the best form of government. That was reason enough to fight Nazi fascism.

The American Air Force’s first mission was on July 4, 1942. They were determined to go on that date for symbolic and propaganda reasons. What a message it would send – wanting to help Europe regain its independence from Nazism on their own Independence Day. Trouble is, their planes hadn’t turned up – so they had to use RAF bombers instead!

In total, 350,000 US servicemen transitioned through East Anglia during the war’s longest battle – 26,000 of them losing their lives.

Today, we continue to honour, remember and reflect on the sacrifices and bravery of the Mighty Eighth Air Force. Their contribution to the Allies’ strategic bombing offensive helped turn the tide of war against the Nazis and free occupied Europe. In Winston Churchill’s words, the US Air Force became Masters of the Air.

The airfields are silent now. Many have been returned to the arable fields they once were. Others have been lovingly tended, rescued and conserved by groups of volunteers. They stand as monuments to what happened more than 80 years ago and ensure their legacy lives on.

Those who experienced those events never forgot. They handed the stories down to us, the generations that followed. The legacy of the Friendly Invasion is still with us. That intense heat of war forged a bond that was never broken and every year East Anglia welcomes many US visitors who want to know ‘where Grandpa Joe served and where Grandma Mary came from’.

Read The Friendly Invasion e-magazine, with forewords by HRH Prince William, The Prince of Wales, and Tom Hanks.