This Website is Dedicated to

Stephen J. Supina

Below you will find pictures of his flight logs and other documents, plus his uniforms and medals.

Also included are photos of Rougham Airfield as it is today.

click on a thumbnail to see a larger picture.

This picture shows Stephen , the left-most crew member. Unfortunately, nothing was written on the back. There is no record of a Lady Esther B-17, so we are assuming that this picture was taken when Stephen was training in Florida. The Drew airfield is now Tampa International.

The following are the crews that had trained at Drew and were shipping out.

Stephen's crew is on page 7, leftmost, second row.

 

Below is the crew that Stephen trained with and flew with in England.

While in England, he was first stationed at Rougham Field, outside Bury St. Edmunds.

(A point of history....the first draft of the Magna Carta was drawn up at the Abbey in Bury St. Edmunds.)

While Stephen was at Rougham, he was attached to the 94th Bomb Group, 331st Squadron.

The 94th was identified by the Big Square A on the tail

The book

LINGERING CONTRAILS of the BIG SQUARE A

has a paragraph on page 234 which tells the story of Roy Kennedy crash landing their plane in Belgium after they were badly damaged by enemy aircraft.

This same story is told in Stephen's letter pictured below.

 

Note, that in the second part of the letter he entreats his family to send letters to his brother, John, who is in the infantry down below. He also mentions Thomas, who is a Representative in the Connecticut House.

He mentioned Rudolph, who was in the infantry in WW I .

This is a picture of the ME-163 Comet

Stephen writes of going with a German girl in order to learn German.

Hidden in the hem of his coat I found a silver ring.

 

The following are his flight logs:

Drew Field....March 1944 5 flights

Drew Field....April 1944 18 flights

Drew Field....May 1944 10 flights

Langley Field....June/July 1944 11 flights

Rougham Field....Aug-Nov 1944 43 flights

Rougham Field....Dec 1944 2 flights

Rougham Field....Jan 1945 5 flights

At this point Stephen had completed 29 missions and was awarded the

Lucky Bastard Club Certificate

At this point he was assigned to a neaby airfield for some unknown function.

Station 595...Feb 1945 5 flights

Station 595...Mar 1945 7 flights

Station 595...April 1945 3 flights

Realizing that "there was a job to be done", he requested reassignement to the 331st at Rougham from which he made additional flights.

Rougham Field...May 1945 3 flights

 

On May 30, 1945 Stephen received orders to be transferred from the 94th to

CP,70th Reinforcement Depot AAF . He was to train on B-29s for missions in the Pacific Theater, but the war ended before he reported for duty.

He is listed in Crew #6.

On June 7, 1945 Stephen was furloughed.

Orders to go home.

 

Here is a poem that Stephen wrote

This is a pillow case cover that Stephen sent home.

All fliers had a raft book which was to be used for guidance and survival if they ditched in the North Sea.

All Fliers carried silk maps of France, Belgium and Germany.

Here are pictures of his uniforms

 

 

Here is a picture of Stephen next to an antique airplane. If anyone can identify the plane, I would appreciate hearing about it.

Rougham Field......Today

I am told the during WW II, southeastern England was covered with airfields, 5 miles apart. Of course, most of them are gone now, but fortunately, Rougham Field is mostly intact. The tower/headquarters building was rented out as a residence for many years and most of the infrastructure buildings have been revitalized as an industrial park.
While no runway exists to land a bomber, one runway is still servicable for fighter aircaft. The facility is used frequently for airshows and other events.

Che

Bob and Gail outside Tower/Hdq
Briefing Hut ...currently used by farmers to store machinery
Mortuary and Lubrication buildings
Parachute building
Photoshop...mostly overgrown by weeds and vines
Taxiway and runway
Memorial and memorial area. The center of the memorial is a B-17 engine that was retrieved from the North Sea a few years ago
1000' from the tower/hdq bldg was an underground bunker which would have been used in the event of an attack on the airfield. Left pic is the entrance; middle is an interior shot; right picture is the peep hole to view the airfield.

Rougham Radio Shack which is adjacent to the tower/hdq building.
General Castle was the Commanding Officer of Rougham Field. He died Dec. 24, 1944 while leading 2000 Fortresses and Liberators. He was THE ONLY General of WW II who died leading his men into battle!
   
   
   
   
   

Check out their web site.... <http://www.rougham.org> ....but keep in mind that Uncle Stephen was in the 331st Squadron of the 94th Bomb Group.

To Honor Stephen's Memory, we participated in the Memorial program and had a placque installed for him.

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++===

Needless to say, this experience had a great effect on Stephen.

Back home in Connecticut, he continued to monitor word affairs. It bothered him to see that the UN was not doing anything about the tension building in Korea,. On July 22, 1948 Stephen took his discharge papers, wrote a note in blood..."Don't you see you are starting another war???", 'borrowed' a friend's Aeronca, took a couple sticks of dynamite, a battery and took off from Willamantic. He flew down to the UN Headquarters, which was at Lake Success, Long Island. Dropped his discharge papeers, detonated the bomb and proceeded to land at LaGuardia Airport as 6 'Black Widow' fighters took off to force down this bomber.
Stephen had landed at LaGuardia because the Aeronca did not have enough fuel to return to Willamantic. He took a bus into New York City and went to his neice's apartment.
"Stephen, what are you doing here?"
"I just bombed the UN"
"You are crazy!"
"Turn on the radio!" he replied.
As the radio crackled.....Gabriel Heater announced...."...7 state alarm for Stephen Supina..."

It just so happened that at that time, Stephen's brother Thomas, was a Connecticut Legistator. Thomas convinced Stephen to turn himself in to the authorities.

(This photograph with caption was retrieved from the archives of the Houston Post in 1977)


Unfortunately, Stephen pulled his stunt just as the Long Island court went into recess, so he was in jail for 6 months.

As the above article states, he was faced with a charge of 'malicious mischief', and fined $500.

......BUT THERE ARE NO HORSE THIEVES IN OUR FAMILY!!!!!

 

 

 

This web site designed by Bob Supina, Jan 18, 2008
And updated September 21, 2009

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