IWM Duxford is set to open three newly restored Second World War spaces, offering visitors an intimate look at the lives of aircrew stationed at the Cambridgeshire airfield during the conflict.
From Friday 5 December, the public will be able to step inside the Historic Duxford: Air Crew Room, Pilot’s Briefing Room and Pilot’s Locker Room for the first time. The rooms, transformed using original artefacts and immersive elements, explore the pivotal role played by RAF Duxford during the war and the personal experiences of those who lived and served there.
The Historic Duxford: Air Crew Room, located within the Battle of Britain Hangar, focuses on the stories of the US 8th Air Force and RAF Bomber Command through personal belongings of former pilots and crew. Among the highlights is the story of American fighter pilot Lonnie Moseley of the 78th Fighter Group, who was forced to bail out of his P-47 Thunderbolt over France in 1944. After surviving a dramatic free fall, he was sheltered by a French farming family until it was safe to return to Britain.
Items donated by Moseley’s family will go on display for the first time, including his parachute ripcord, false identity papers used to evade capture and a diary documenting his time with the Lestang family. Also being shown publicly for the first time are objects belonging to British bomber pilot William Jeffrey Rees, who completed two tours with Bomber Command and was twice awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross after bringing heavily damaged aircraft back to Britain.
Opposite the Air Crew Room is the Historic Duxford: Pilot’s Briefing Room, a reconstruction of the space where American fighter pilots of the 78th Fighter Group gathered before missions. Using archive imagery from IWM’s collection, the room has been recreated to reflect its wartime appearance, complete with an audio-visual presentation of a real briefing delivered on D-Day, allowing visitors to sit among their ‘fellow pilots’ as orders are issued.
The third space, the Historic Duxford: Pilot’s Locker Room, is located at the front of the Air and Sea Exhibition and examines the everyday routines of pilots stationed at Duxford in 1940. Once a busy hub where airmen prepared for sorties, the room has been closed to the public since the Second World War. Interactive displays include replica uniforms to try on and lockers recreating the personal details of pilots who flew from the airfield. Visitors will also hear recreated conversations, including exchanges between 19 Squadron’s George “Grumpy” Unwin and 302 (Polish) Squadron’s Julian Kowalski.
Adrian Kerrison, curator at IWM Duxford, said the new rooms offer a rare opportunity to experience the site as it was during wartime. “IWM Duxford is steeped in history,” he said. “We’re delighted to open these historic spaces and give visitors a window into what life was like here during the Second World War. These rooms allow us to showcase smaller, deeply personal objects from our collection and tell the individual stories of the pilots and crew who operated from Duxford. It’s been a privilege to work on a project that brings the site’s past to life as it was more than 80 years ago.”
The project has been made possible with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies as part of its leadership backing for IWM’s new vision for Duxford. Additional funding has been provided by the 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust and the Estate of Mr Robert Finan. Photo by K.ristof, Wikimedia commons.