Towards in December 2024, the Martlesham Heath Aviation Society received an enquiry from the War Memorials Trust, asking if we owned, or knew of the owner of the USAAF 356th Group Memorial (the left one of the 3 in the photograph), located in Barrack Square, Martlesham Heath, as they had received a letter of concern about the condition of the name plate, where some of the names are difficult to read.

Since it was erected in 1946 on what was then the square within RAF Martlesham Heath, as can be expected, the condition of the memorial and the names on the metal plate, has deteriorated. Despite various local enquiries, approaches to East Suffolk and the Parish Councils, the American Cemetery at Cambridge and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, we have been unable to identify who actually became the owner of the Memorial following the closure and sale of the RAF Martlesham Heath site in 1963.

Consequently, in the public interest and with no claim for responsibility of ownership, the MHAS Trustees have been able, with a donation from a local firm of Solicitors and a grant from the Martlesham Parish Council, to place a contract for the restoration of the memorial. As can be seen in the photographs (a 'before' and 'after'), this work has successfully restored the metal plate and has made the 72 names much more readable.

MHAS is pleased to have been able help restore this memorial to enable us to continue to remember those who gave so much.