Positioned in front of the museum entrance.

A freestanding interpretive information board describing the history of the Upottery Nissen Hut Heritage Centre and RAF Upottery's contribution to Operation Overlord. The display includes historical text alongside the insignia of the U.S. Army Air Forces' 439th Troop Carrier Group, 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, and the 9th Air Force.

THE UPOTTERY NISSEN HUT

HERITAGE CENTRE 

RAF Upottery was the last of three wartime airfields to be built on the Blackdown Hills. On 25th & 26th April 1944, the USAAF 439th Troop Carrier Group arrived by air and road from Balderton Airfield, Nottinghamshire, bringing four Troop Carrier Squadrons each, with around twenty Douglas C-47 transport planes, in preparation for the invasion of Normandy on D-Day.

Shortly afterwards over 1300 American paratroops from the 1st & 2nd Battalions of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, moved down from Aldbourne, Wiltshire together with over 1000 American glider troops of the 325th and 401st Glider Infantry Regiments, 82nd Airborne Division.

The exhibition in our Heritage Centre features a unique collection of photographs and artefacts of aircraft and personnel preparing for the invasion. Much information is on loan from the family of the late Col Charles H Young, who was the war-time USAAF Commander of the 439th TCG.

The photographs on display show the training the pilots undertook, the briefings and also show the troops literally minutes before they flew to Normandy! They provide a rare insight into what took place prior to D-Day and the missions that took place after the invasion.

For more local colour our Home Front room gives a flavour of what it was like to live during WW2 and has proved interesting to young and old - especially the WW2 rations and evacuees.