398th Bomb Group
Memorial
Association


398th Control Tower - Duty Control Officer Log History
January - June 1945

By Malcolm 'Ozzie' Osborn - July 2004

When the 398th had virtually left Station 131 in Nuthampstead, in late May 1945, they held an open day for the local residents. Many of the ships were still there prior to flying home via RAF Valley in Anglesey, North Wales, in June. A young girl went up to the top of the tower with her friend and they found it deserted. The log was lying on a table. She slipped it underneath her jumper and then took it home as a souvenir. She eventually married, emigrated to South Africa and set up home in Durban. She came back in the late 1970s and visited Tony Clark to ask permission to drive up to the remains of 131. They got into conversation and he told her of Vic Jenkins and me. She said "oh, I have got something Ozzie [Malcolm] would be really interested in, I will send it to him" Tony gave her his address and a few weeks later it duly arrived. He loaned me the log, then asked for it back in the late 1980s when I had to put the 398th aside for a while. Barry Tyler made 3 copies of it - one for Vic, me and himself. I loaned my copy to Ken Wilson and he transcribed it on an early word processor. The original is back with me as I write this.

The logbook is now old and delicate. It is bigger than A4 size and was purchased at Hertford for 20/6 in old pre-decimal money. That's £1-2.5p in today's money and was thus very expensive at the time. The original invoice was once inside it, but it appears to have gone now.