Cover of Ipswich Guide from WWII

A little local history. Ipswich was surrounded by American military stations during the Second World War. Some of the troops were African American who faced segregation both in their camps and when they visited local towns including Ipswich. #Ipswich #8thAirForce #923rdEngineerAviationRegiment

Shot of the African American soldier in the film.

Sadly, we don't know who the African American soldier from Birmingham, Alabama was as he goes uncredited. His uniform does tell us he was an engineer - perhaps from the #923rdEngineerAviationRegiment

On May 1 1944, the African American #923rdEngineerAviationRegiment handed over Debach Airfield in Suffolk to the #8thAirForce The Press were on hand to record the event and I provide details for this unidentified film from the Pathe Archive in the comments below
youtu.be/H6DJcTHEFBU

How to capture the experiences of an African American unit in the UK during WWII when there are few archival resources or oral histories? Spend years hunting down collections of contemporary letters. These are 150 from a man in the #923rdEngineerAviationRegiment covering his whole wartime service.

In 1945, the African American #923rdEngineerAviationRegiment produced 8,000 of these unit histories for its members. They are pretty scarce these days. Read more about the unit here: 8thaf.co.uk/exhibition/2...