Bungay (Flixton) - Station 125 - Murals

Whilst a great deal has been recorded about nose-art on U.S. aircraft, and also the images painted on aircrew jackets, it is only in recent years that the importance of the murals and graffiti surviving in buildings on former U.S. bases has been realised.

Numerous buildings once within 8^th and 9^th USAAF bases survive in East Anglia.  Some have been restored and put to good use, whilst others continue to linger on in reasonable condition; many others are in a very poor state and probably won’t last for many more years. 

Murals, graffiti and other artwork can still be found in such buildings and they will certainly survive where a museum occupies them, or the landowner takes care not to damage their surroundings or change their environment.  Surviving buildings on the former Bungay airfield are all on private land and fall mainly into the latter category.  Some images have been lost over the years - fragments of paint can be detected on walls without a clear outline - but many are still clearly recognisable.   Humour was often the motive for the artist, nostalgia for home, and also pride in their units; the Bungay murals fall into all these categories.  Whilst some of the images shown are not perfectly clear, and others are partly obscured, they have been included for completeness.  More murals may still lie undetected beneath a coating of whitewash. 

When the 446^th Bomb Group USAAF left Bungay airfield, the Fleet Air Arm took over for several months (HMS Europa II), followed then by a Maintenance Unit of the Royal Air Force.  At least two of the images are British artwork examples: one depicts a British sailor swimming underwater with a mermaid - his hat floating on the surface - and another of a serviceman in football strip giving instructions on where “the gear” should be placed. 

See also our webpage on the bricks rescued from the Maltings at Ditchingham.

The shape of individual States of the U.S. are painted as a frieze, at head height around one of the rooms. On closer inspection of each image, the names of personnel have been added, along with a location dot and the name of a city or town - these are in pencil.

An image of a mermaid surrounded by exotic fish (artist George P Hutschenreuter) was rescued from a 446^th billet by the owner before it was demolished some years ago and he donated it to us - this is displayed in our 446^th BG collection. George had occupied the billet in WWII - once his artistic skills were revealed he was soon in great demand.

Four good examples of US “pop art” have also been donated and are on permanent display in our Ken Wallis Hall - they were rescued from a building on Raydon airfield (Station 157) many years ago and had been in storage with the IWM Duxford.