Look at this lucky little devil......

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=46331

A Jeep ride wearing an A-2, lifted out by 'Ace' & group CO Col. Dave Schilling to be given a guided tour of Schillings P-47 LM*S 'Hairless Joe'.

I would imagine this was shot at Halesworth, as it looks far too rural for St Faiths.

Schilling was tragically killed in 1956 racing his Caddy powered V8 rag top Allard from RAF Lakenheath to Mildenhall Officers Club, for a meeting with a potential 'purchaser' only to collide with Eriswell Bridge en route whilst initiating a high speed overtaking manouver.

It was reported the cap he was wearing blew off his head & trying to save it he lost concentration, slewed sidewards resulting in the fatal collision with the bridge, so severe was the impact the Allard was cleaved in two; the front portion of the car was recovered from the river Lark below. A tragic end to a highly decorated & accomplished 8th AF Fighter Pilot; that narrow, twisting Fenland road did what 132 combat missions over Germany couldn't.

54 years later the three bases of Lakenheath, Mildenhall & Feltwell regularly lose personel in a sickeningly similar manner, when departing these installations, burning red moving message boards vainly remind those inexperienced & temerarious Stateside drivers of our treacherous Fenland roads.

tell me about it, it doesnt stop them though.... my uncle (inlaw) member of 48TFW, drove like a nutter... and the roads between bases are crap to say the least, especially on a motorbike.....

Taken today after leaving work at RAF Feltwell. The road from Lakenheath to Mildenhall where Col. Schilling made his final tragic journey in his Cadillac powered V8 Allard.

The first picture is an Col. Schilling & the Allard Sportster similar to the one he was driving that fateful day at Eriswell, Suffolk.

The second picture shows the new bridge & drainage dyke constructed in 1966 & known locally as 'Schillings Bridge', although it wasn't present at the time of his accident. In the background the white railings mark the site of the old bridge where the fatal collision occurred a decade earlier, it was reported that the 'driver was thrown from the vehicle in the impact & the car was in two sections, the front half lay in the river which was recovered some time later'

It illustrates just how fast the Allard was traveling for it to be cleaved in two when the car struck the bridge.

The final picture is the old original bridge where Schilling was killed or at least where it once stood over the now dried up drainage channel, since the new one became operational it no longer serves to absorb the surplus water from the rain sodden winter land but instead lies dormant & dry, clearly starved by its modern & more efficient counterpart just a few yards away.

A very lucky kid indeed!
The film is shot at Boxted, and its around Christmas/New Year 44/45.
The pilot in the footage with W.S.L on his cap is William S. Lear, who joined the 62nd FS in Nov 1944.
Thanks for the background information on "Schillings Bridge". I visited there in December last year and took some very similar photographs.
Nige