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Those known to have served at RAF Great Massingham during the Second World War 1939-1945. The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
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The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
Announcements
- 1st of September 2024 marks 25 years since the launch of the Wartime Memories Project. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over this time.
- The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 25 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web.
- 19th Nov 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than
264989 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible.
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Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our
Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. |
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Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted
photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them.
The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted.
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Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a
Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.
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Want to know more about RAF Great Massingham? There are:31 items tagged RAF Great Massingham available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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P/O. Thorkild "Teddy" Hoeg 107 Squadron (d.22nd Oct 1943) Teddy Hoeg was the fourth son of Danish parents and was born in 1921 at Wallington, a small village near Baldock, Hertfordshire. He always wanted to fly and he got his chance by volunteering for flying duties with the Royal Air Force. After an intensive period of training to become a pilot in Tampa, Florida, USA he was awarded his wings and returned to the UK as a Sgt. Pilot, flying mostly Harvards and Stearmans. Teddy was selected for multi-engined aircraft and posted to OTU at Bicester, Oxford, piloting Ansens, Oxfords and Blenheims as the next stage of his training. It was at Bicester that he flew with his crew for the first time.
Joining 107 Squadron at Great Massingham, Norfolk in early 1943 he learnt to fly the twin-engined Boston 111 and with his crew flew on several low-level operations, bombing targets in Belgium and Holland.
Being made up to Pilot Officer in late 1943, flying from 107's new posting at Hartford Bridge, the Squadron mounted a low-level bombing operation to strafe busy railway marshaling yards at Ceurcelles in Belgium on 22nd October 1943. This proved to be the tragic end of Teddy's short career as a pilot, for the raiding Bostons made a faulty landfall over the Dutch coast and several were shot down by a nest of German light ack-ack that opened up on them as they flew in. Shot down and killed with his crew, Teddy has no known grave, but his two colleagues are buried in a cemetery in Holland. In addition to the other crews lost on the raid, the CO of 107, Wing- Commander Geoffrey England, DFC, who led the Squadron, perished with his comrades.
Teddy is remembered on a Memorial Panel, (No 132), at the RAF Memorial at Runneymead in Surrey. His crew P/O Neville Gardner, (Navigator), and Sgt. Cliff Rodham, (W/0p A/G), are buried at Flushing North Cemetery, Holland, graves No's 29 and 30. Information about this tragic operation and the 107 crews who took part, including those brave men who never returned, is available at Great Massingham in the Air Museum set up by Sister Laurie who, sadly, is no longer with us.
The above information has been related to me by Teddy's brother John who lives in Hempton, Norfolk and at the time of writing, (2014), has just celebrated his 89th birthday.
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Sgt. John McKirgan 107 Squadron Sgt John McKirgan was my father, sadly he passed away in 2005. He told me he flew from Great Massingham with Bostons and he named me after his crew Robert McBride, Arnold Joe Kueber (Canadian) and James Abrahms.
He was a wireless operator/airgunner with 107 Squadron. He served from 26th December 1940 to 15th April 1947.
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Sgt. Harold Wigley 405 Squadron My father Harold Wigley was posted to 405 Squadron at RAF Pocklington around May 1941 and I think the squadron was formed to operate from there with Wellingtons and later Halifax Bombers. His logged raids start with a raid on Shwartz on May 12th, Cologne on June 2nd, Brest docks on June 4th, and the Big City on December 15th plus many others that year. He told me a story about a Wellington he was flying that overshot the runway on landing and closed the Hull York Road for a couple of days.
After that he went to Abingdon as an instructor and was then posted to 100 Group Special Duties.
We are only just finding out about that because he told me on a number of occasions that this was still on the secrets restrictions of 75 years, we know he was flying Mosquitos possibly with 169 Squadron at RAF Massingham in Norfolk. He met my mother there and it seems I was conceived somewhere there and later born in Kings Lynn
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