Roger A. Freeman  Roger A. Freeman (11 May 1928 – 7 October 2005) was an English farmer who also became a noted military aviation historian specialising in US Eighth Air Force operations during World War II. Born in Ipswich, Suffolk, Freeman grew up on the family farm in Dedham, Essex. In 1943, Martin B-26 Marauder bombers of the US Eighth Air Force’s 386th Bomb Group arrived at Boxted airfield – less than two miles away – sparking Freeman’s lifelong fascination with the wartime US Army Air Forces operating from Britain. When his father was granted permission to cut the airfield’s grass for haymaking, the young Freeman made the most of opportunities to examine the aircraft and befriend personnel on the base – later tenants of which included the 354th Fighter Group of the Ninth Air Force; and the Eighth Air Force’s 56th Fighter Group which, flying Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, became the highest-scoring USAAF group in the European theatre. The teenage Freeman also took bicycle rides to see many other airfields in the East Anglian counties of Essex, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk, and collated aircraft identification numbers – a hobby that once led to a security alert and a warning from his headmaster at Colchester High School. Interviewed in 2002, Freeman recalled a sight in February 1945, the sheer scale of which set him on a course to writing a book about the US Eighth Air Force and the enormity of its missions. "It was a freezing morning with excellent visibility. Two columns of bombers were going out, one overhead [Dedham] and the other over Suffolk, which I could see by the contrails. I counted 28 formations, and knew there’d be about 40 planes in each. So I was looking at more than 1,000 planes – 10,000 men – going to war." Formed in 1942, the Eighth Air Force could muster more than 3,000 bombers and fighters by 1944, and operated from some 60 airfields in what Freeman called the "greater East Anglia area" of England. After the war, Freeman continued to work for his father and began writing about agriculture for local publications including the "Essex County Standard". He also began to impart his knowledge about the wartime USAAF with articles for aviation magazines and started to collate material for his planned book. Much of this included official documents sourced from the United States as well as personal accounts and photographs from USAAF veterans.