10 Things You May Not Know About the 94th Bomb Group's Time in Bury St Edmunds

94th Bomb group at Rougham 3 Brad Schwarz

Members of the 94th Bomb Group at Rougham airbase. Photo: By kind permission of Brad Schwarz

1. The 94th Bomb Group flew 324 missions from Bury St Edmunds in 8,884 sorties from 13 May 1943 to 21 April 1945.

2. 153 of the 94th’s aircraft went missing with 27 lost through operational accidents. With a crew of 10 per aircraft the human cost was approximately 1,800 persons killed, missing, injured or captured.

3. The 94th moved from Earls Colne in Essex on June 13, and were sent on a mission to bomb Kiel and then return to Bury St Edmunds, their newly assigned base. By the time they reached Bury St Edmunds they had lost 8 pilots and crew. Among those killed on the Kiel mission was pilot Lt Andrew Loog, the father of Rolling Stones manager and prolific record producer Andrew Oldham.

4. The 94th was assigned to the 4th Combat Bombardment Wing, and the group tail code was a "Square-A".

5. Prior to D - Day in June 1944, they helped to neutralize V-weapon sites, airfields, and other military installations along the coast of France.

94th Bomb group at Rougham 2 Brad Schwarz

Photo: By kind permission of Brad Schwarz

6. As part of the 4th Combat Wing, the 94th received a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for the raid on Regensburg's Messerschmitt factory on 17th August 1943.

7. In a US Eighth Air Force raid on Brunswick on January 11, 1944, the 94th Bomb Group made a rare 2nd run on the target and received their second Distinguished Unit Citation.

8. Air crews took great pride in their planes and often named them and adorned them with artworks on the nose of the airplane, known as nose art. The 94th Bomb Group’s B17’s had wonderful names such as Idiot’s Delight, Nine Yanks and a Jerk, Texas Mauler, The House of Lords and Mission Belle.

9. Many of the 94th received a ‘Lucky Bastard Club’ certificate. An informal rewards system started among US air crews in the East of England during WWII, certificates were given to those members of the crew who had gone into enemy territory a certain number of times, hit their targets and managed to get back to the East of England while being targeted by anti-aircraft fire and Luftwaffes.

10. The 94th was one of the last units to leave England in December 1945 after they had carried out missions to drop leaflets and help displaced persons.