The 1070 (Diss) ATC Squdron badge

Incorporated in the 1070 (Diss) Air Training Squadron (ATC) Squadron badge are elements of the Squadron's home town and local history. Many people would think that Diss has had little military significance, however, during World War II it was a major centre for the USAAF (United States Army Air Force).

The town is surrounded by numerous old airfields, many of them just a few miles from the town; Eye, Horham, Thorpe Abbots, Hardwick, Fersfield, Knettishall, Tibenham, Snetterton Heath and Old Buckenham to name but a few. Also nearby Redgrave Hall was the principal American hospital for all USAAF bases in East Anglia.

The local bases were home to elements of the 2nd and 3rd Divisions of the USAAF 1st Combat Wing, 8th Air Force which operated B-24 Liberator and B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber aircraft. [Hear a B-24 fly past or a B-17 taxi, take-off and fly past courtesy of The Recordist]

Frenze Hall on the edge of Diss was home to a radio beacon known as 'Splasher 6'. This site was operated by the RAF and some of the RAF men operating the beacon were billeted in housing at Mount Pleasant, just off Sunnyside where the 1070 Air Training Corps (ATC) Squadron is based.

Mobile generators and transmitting equipment at Frenze Hall provided a radio beacon used by the US 8th Air Force and other bombers to assist in the complex and dangerous procedure of assembling a mass formation for a raid in cloudy weather.

The bomber group of three or four squadrons at each airfield had its own 'Buncher' beacon for preliminary assembly, with Splasher 6 acting as the focus for assembly of wings comprising three local groups. These wing formations would head towards the coast via two or three other Splashers (and possibly, a Buncher or two!), picking up other wings of their division as they went.

A compact formation was an essential defence against the Luftwaffe fighters they would meet en route to the target. Other nearby USAAF Splashers included those at Cromer (No 5), Braintree in Essex (No 7) and Lowestoft (No 9).

As a consequence of both the location of the bases and the beacon, Diss was, without question, a major assembly point for American bombers preparing to set out on raids during World War II.

After 24 July 1943, when the Splasher system was first used, the skies over the town would be filled with hundreds of B-17s and B-24s prior to a raid as the aircraft assembled around the beacon and gained height before setting out across the North Sea.

The beacon also acted as their welcoming guide home, which is, perhaps, why the current magazine for survivors, descendants and historians of Thorpe Abbots' 100th Bomb Group is called Splasher Six. Now designated the 100th Air Refuelling Wing, the "Bloody Hundredth" still exists - less than a couple of dozen miles away at Mildenhall - where the 100th now fly Boeing KC-135 tankers.

The 1070 (Diss) Squadron Air Training Corps (ATC) Squadron badge therefore incorporates the blue and white of the Diss town shield, an eagle representing the US bombers that flew from the area and the "lightning bolts" being the heraldic representation of the beacon radio signals.