Friends of Boxted Airfield website

My name is Scott McClure and my father, Billie B. Boyd, Jr., served in the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) as a Waist Gunner/Flight Engineer on a B-26 Marauder, "The Bad Penny", stationed at Boxted Airfield in Summer/Fall 1943. He spoke quite fondly of his time at Boxted Airfield, Colchester, and nearby Great Dunmow Airfield during 1943-44. His Marauder was part of the USAAF 386 Bomb Group, 554 Squadron, completing 50 flight missions in the European Theater of Operation (ETO).

I had the wonderful opportunity to travel from the United States to Colchester, England, in 2016 with one of my daughters, Hannah, to visit the Boxted Airfield Museum. We experienced first-hand the amazing work of Richard Turner and many other volunteers who support and operate the Museum. They have donated thousands of volunteer hours over the course of a decade to create and maintain the Museum that honors the USAAF 386th BG, 354th FG, 56th FG, and 5th ERS stationed there during WWII. This very special group of men and women have created a non-profit Museum that showcases the storied history of Boxted Airfield and preserves its legacy as one of the few remaining WWII Allied Airfields in the UK.

To continue preserving this legacy, the Boxted Airfield Historical Group (B.A.H.G.) is excited to introduce a "Friends of Boxted Airfield" program that offers individuals the chance to share their personal and/or family stories about Boxted, both then and now. These stories will be shared in the B.A.H.G. Newsletter as well as compiled for publishing in a Commemorative Boxted Airfield Museum book. Additionally, the "Friends" program will promote sharing of information amongst its informal membership group via e-mail and a "Friends" blog site. We would of course welcome information and contributions from families of men who served with the RAF at Boxted or anyone who may have worked on the airfield in a civilian capacity.

If you would like to participate in this new "Friends of Boxted Airfield" program, you can upload your story just click on Friends of Boxted Airfield. If you know of someone who may interested in this program, please feel free to forward this introduction for their review.

We hope you will consider joining the "Friends of Boxted Airfield" program and help us tell the stories of the men and women who called Boxted home during WWII.

Friends of Boxted Airfield

Boxted Red Cross ladies