THE HIDDEN HEROES AFTER-WAR MEMORIAL AT TALLY HO FARM WINKFIELD SL4 4RZ ENGLAND
"Civilisation is helping each other: people to people, nation to nation"

   
  How you can give thanks with the Happy Landings Club
      
 
 

WELCOME & BASICS

CONTENTS 

LOCATION

NEWS 

TALKS  

CONTACT 

 

HAPPY LANDINGS CLUB
 

BEFRIENDING FLY2HELP & ROSIE
THE RIVETER CHARTER HIGH

 

CHAMPIONS AT TALLY HO FARM

2014 TIME CAPSULE

OUR B17's CREW

TCAAP IN MINNESOTA

ROSIES IN LONG BEACH 

INFORMATEERS

    

SCHWEINFURT RECONCILED 1943-2014

USAAF MEMORIALS IN UK

RETURNERS HOME

BLACK THURSDAY

DETECTORISTS  

 

BOMBEE'S EYE VIEW

SCHOOLS CITIZENSHIP STUDIES

IF YOU LIKE THE IDEA of Thanksgiving Field and its purpose, you might like to become a member of the Happy Landings Club - as an individual or group (of any size or configuration such as a school council or local association).

The Club is open to anyone. There's no joining fee.  Or Officers. Or Duties.  Or Rules.

The Club's main aim is simply to provide a conduit for news and views for interested people. It's possible that in the UK we may be able to arrange the odd event - but don't hold your breath. Suggestions are welcome as always.  Go to the home page to see the link for Registration.

NB A bit of background about you wouldn't go amiss. And your address will be used only for Thanksgiving Field and Happy Landings Club matters.

On joining, it would be good if you could donate something to Fly2Help in the UK or Rosie the Riveter Charter High School in Long Beach California, or the American Red Cross in the USA.  In other countries, please give something to your national Red Cross or equilvalent.  If you would prefer another good cause or charity with a similar sort of good citizenship angle - and in any country - please suggest it.

With best wishes
Hugh Gibbons
Co-ordinator Thanksgiving Field & Happy Landings Club




  AND THE HAPPY LANDINGS CLUB GIVES THANKS TO...

USAAF Eighth Air Force crews could look forward to getting their certificate for the Lucky Bastard Club showing they had completed their tour of duty and were heading home. Some were also members of the Caterpillar Club - for those who used their parachute at some time.  And some also had the award of the Goldfish Club, having exchanged their plane for a life-raft - often in the English Channel or North Sea, where they were fished out and given a cup of strong sweet tea and maybe a tot of rum by the RAF's Air Sea Rescue Service.


  HAPPY LANDINGS STARS FOR OUR STARTERS
To give thanks to those who have provided special encouragement in the early days of the Field, they have all been awarded the Happy Landings Club Star. (They don't have a choice, and get to print out their own medal shown here).  The main advantage is that they are awarded an extra day's holiday on the generally accepted anniversary of the birth of a spiritual patron, Sir Isaac Newton. Enjoy!
   
JEFF
THOMAS
Owner of Tally Ho Farm
CHRIS
ADKINS
Manager at Tally Ho Farm
LT COLONEL
GREGORY
GRABOW

Human Resources & Readiness Training Center Chief, Professional Education Center, Little Rock - for his fine Master of Art & Military Science thesis on Schweinfurt Raids and the Pause in Strategic Bombing

DR ROBERT
BAUMANN
Director, Graduate Degree Programs, US Army Command and General Staff College Fort Leavenworth - for being a good sport and feeding through an enquiry to Greg
ERNIE
PRICE
Chief of Education and Visitor Services, Appomattox Court House National Historic Park, Virginia, which provided the initial inspiration for the idea of a quiet place when war is over
GERRIE
SCHIPSKE
Long Beach California District 5 Councillor and creator of the city's Rosie the Riveter Foundation - arranging rivets from the airplane production line to go into the Tally Ho Hoard.
LIZ & SID MITCHELL,
MARIE
ANDREWS
Schoolchildren at Winkfield in October 1943 - eyewitnesses to the events in Winkfield on the evening of Thursday 14 October 1943!
PHIL
WENT
and the team
Manager, Oaktree Nursery & Garden Centre, Maidens Green - donor of apple trees
HUW
THOMAS
Librarian, Whitegrove Library, Bracknell Forest Borough Council, for engaging with his Reminiscence Group to find eyewitnesses.  Also good coffee and biscuits.
GREG
ALEXANDER
Historian/Archivist of the 92nd Bomb Group Memorial Association
BOB
DISHER
Nephew of ballgunner Jack Disher on B17 #3351Z on Black Thursday.  Also for increasing awarneness and appreciation of the Denver Broncos (not that it helped in the Superbowl 2014...)
PASTOR DIETER
SCHORN
Member of Deanery team, Schweinfurt Lutheran Churches, who sent soil from the Memorial Garden by Spitalsee for Thanksgiving Field
MICHAEL
PFRANG
Pastoral Worker, Christ the King Catholic Parish Schweinfurt - supplying soil from St Josef's Church destroyed in the bombing, and ballbearings to go in the Hoard
SUE
MOYER
Director of Education, Second Schweinfurt Memorial Association, who are providing the seating at Thanksgiving Field
HEATHER
WORTHINGTON
Deputy Manager, Ramsey County, St Paul MN; overall manager for redevelopment of the former Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant at Arden Hills
SARA
THATCHER
Executive at Goff Public, helping with information flow on the TCAAP project - and arranging a supply of artefacts from the site to go in the Tally Ho Hoard
RAY LAIDLAW  &
KELLY LE D'VON
Creators and organisers of the Berkshire Detectorists Club
MICHAEL &
JUDI
GOMES
Members of the Berkshire Metal Detectorists Club - and Michael for detecting Tally Ho Farm, and Judi as a Councillor in Winkfield Parish
SARA-JANE
RANCE
Corporate Communications Executive in local company, for assiduously exploring options!
ALEXANDRA
TORRES GALANCID
Director, WINTER Program at Rosie the Riveter Charter High School in Long Beach California
VIVIAN
 LAVATY
of Charlotte, North Carolina - wife of great nephew of Lt Richard Lyng, the pilot of B17F #3351. Viv also serves on the Board of the Carolinas Second Food Bank.
RICHARD WALTON,
ROSE WICKS
of the Parks & Countryside department at Bracknell Forest Borough Council, for their support and advice.
UPHAM
BREWERY
whose Winning Post pub and restaurant kindly offered British beer for the dedication ceremony.
JACK
CULLEN
When Pupil at St Francis of Assisi Catholic Primary in South Ascot, took Hugh Gibbons through his project on the bomb which destroyed the former school in November 1940 - a week before Hugh got his bomb in Birmingham. This led Hugh to take an interest in remnants!
MAGGIE GIBBONS
BUNNY GIBBONS
For providing the account about being bombed in Birmingham - Bunny in a family history, and Maggie for transcribing it.
MATTHEW
GIBBONS
For giving Hugh a metal detector as an unusual birthday present - leading him to join the Berkshire Detectorists and hence on to Thanksgiving Field
COLIN LEE Manager of Stirrups Country Hotel at Maidens Green - which the plane passed a minute before touchdown - for the gift of the interpretive panel at the Field
PROBUS
KINGSWOOD
For allowing Hugh Gibbons to trial the story in November 2013
SUTTON
NONSUCH
ROTARY
CLUB
For booking the talk in May!
JACQULINE BAGNALL Director, Centre for Peace & Global Studies, Sidcot School, Winscombe, Somerset - for providing bottles of the air that has given silence and breathing space at this Quaker school for over 300 years