The stone American Memorial, to the personnel of the 25th Bomb Group, has been in place at Watton since the middle-late 1970’s, and it was joined by a propeller from Blenheim R3800, which had been recovered in 1985 from the site where it has crashed near Aalborg in Denmark on 13th August 1940. The propeller was dedicated in 1990 as a Memorial “To the memory of those of the Royal Air Force and Commonwealth Air Forces who lost their lives while service at RAF Watton and Bodney”
After their original Dedication services, both memorials were taken into the care of the RAF and were moved by them when the station was finally put up for disposal, when the Memorials and all the organisations housed on the station, including the Wartime Watton Exhibition, moved to the Officers’ Mess.
As a part of the redevelopment of the technical site (main camp) into what is now Blenheim Grange, developers made provision for, and moved the Memorials back to the main site, one each side of a slightly relocated entrance.
On the 21st June 2008, both the the RAF and American memorials were rededicated in this position and these videos record the Service and somewhat wet day. For convenience the video has been split into six parts.
On the 21st June 2008, the RAF and American memorials were finally returned to close by their original positions after having spent a period of time in front of the old Officers’ Mess.