The Podington "Big Picture" - Air and Sea Exhibition, IWM Duxford, Cambridgeshire. - Murals on Waymarking.com

Podington airfield between Northampton and Bedford was originally built between 1940 and 1941 to accommodate two Royal Air Force (RAF) bomber squadrons. On 18 April 1942 it was made available to the United States Army Air Forces, 8th Air Force and was given the Station Number 109.

The subject of this mural is a B17 of the 325th Bombardmemnt Squadron (NV) and was painted on the end wall of the 325th's Ready Room. The squadron had arrived at Poddington as part of the 92nd bomb group in September 1943 from Alconbury, the 92nd being oldest group in the 8th Air Force having been the first bomber group to make the transatlantic crossing in July 1942.

The nearby information board gives the following information:

                         The Poddington "Big Picture"
           This piece of "wall-art" represents a B-17 of the 92nd Bomb
           Group. United States Eighth Air Force. The 92nd was the
           oldest group in the Eighth Air Force having been the first
           group to make a non-stop crossing of the Atlantic to the UK
           in August 1942.

           This Picture was removed from a hut at the Podington site in
           October 1989 by the Eighth Wall Art Conservation Society
           with the assistance of the USAF Europe. After the closure of
           Podington in 1946 the airfield was returned to agricultural use
           and the hut converted into a pig sty. It is probably for this
           reason that the picture survived.

           Originally painted by S/Sgt Waldschmidt the picture will be
           conserved by a team led by H Bosowitz.

A full report on the painting and removal of the Big Picture may be found here: Big Picture

In this write-up S/Sgt. George C.Waldschmidt is given the title 325th Sq, toggelier. This job is not quite equivalent to a bombadier but he still arms and releases the bombs from a bomber in action. In action the planes flew in formation and the lead plane had a bombadier who was able to use the Noden Bombsight. It was he who determined when to release the bombs using the bombsight and then the toggeliers in the following planes released their bombs when they saw the lead plane release. The bombadier actually flew the plane on the bomb run by remote control and had to take into account air speed, ground speed, altitude, and humidity.

With the end of military control at Poddington some demolition and concrete removal was performed in the early 1960s, however before all the airfield was ground into aggregate, a group of drag-racing enthusiasts approached the owners to use the main runway as a drag racing strip. In 1964 an agreement was reached for what became Santa Pod Raceway, which opened during Easter weekend, 1966. In 1972, the concrete was resurfaced with asphalt and Santa Pod became a major European centre for drag racing.

The co-ordinates given are for the entrance into no.3 hanger at IWM Duxford. For entry to Duxford see Duxford

City: IWM Duxford Location Name: Hanger No.3, Air and Sea Artist: S/Sgt George C. Waldschmidt, (325th Sq, togglier), USAF. Date: 1945 Media: Painted onto Brick Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]

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