A leaking roof over two 1944 squadron paintings — and the clothes a rape survivor needs for the witness box

Two painted badges survive on the inside walls of the old American Red Cross Aero Club at Station 125, a Second World War airfield outside Bungay in Suffolk. One is a vulture inside a roundel. The other is a golden winged horse against a dark triangle. Both went onto the brick in 1944. 1

The roof over them leaks. Water has already cost the building two other paintings, and the trust that holds the lease believes sealing the roof would cost about £2,200. 1

"They're completely irreplaceable," said Kerry Wilmot, one of its five trustees. "Potentially we could have someone recreate them, but it wouldn't be the same." 1

She said the paintings carry the signature of a man who served at the airfield and later came back to it. "To lose them would be heartbreaking." 1

In 1943 hundreds of American airmen arrived at RAF Bungay, near Flixton, to set up base. Lilian Le Grys was 21 and lived on the farm next door. Her family had owned and farmed that land through the 1930s, before the airfield was built on it. She fell in love with one of the Americans, a colonel named Eugene B Thalman. 1

The romance ended, for reasons the family does not explain. What Le Grys did instead was keep the place. She let the buildings stand as they were, through decades in which almost every other wartime airfield in the region was demolished or redeveloped. She died in 2022, aged 99. 1

Her nephew, Mark Hadingham, says the preservation was her dying wish. "She would love the thought that it's being preserved," he said. "She would be ecstatic." 1

The trust that took on the lease, which runs 125 years, gives the same account in its own words. The trust says the buildings have survived more than eight decades because of "a sentimental connection between the family estate and the friendships made with the American Servicemen". A wartime relationship between a young English woman and an American serviceman is the reason the whole complex escaped the bulldozer. 2

The airfield was home to the 446th Bomb Group, four squadrons flying B-24 Liberators from November 1943. The group led the Eighth Air Force on the first heavy bomber missions of D-Day, 6 June 1944. 3

About 3,000 people were stationed there. The Aero Club held a dance hall, a library, a billiards room and a lounge, and Wilmot said it was a place where they could feel "human again". 1

Its director during the war, Erna Sittler, also left records and photographs of the club that have survived. 1

The trust's plan goes well past the roof. It is raising money to turn the site into a living history museum about the people who served on American airfields in Britain, from the armourers and fuel drivers to the 21,000 Black construction engineers who built and defended these bases. 2

The fundraising page has reached £20,684 of a £100,000 target from 190 donations, and small escorted tours of the site cost £30 a ticket. 12

Sarah Lee, 39, and Kayla Poulton, 36, have both given evidence in sexual assault trials. What they remember is the wardrobe. 4

"Should I wear this? How will that look? How am I going to be perceived? Will I be judged?" Lee said. "You're anticipating that people are going to put you on trial." 4

The two women have set up a campaign called CourtRobe. It asks high street department stores in Scotland to donate vouchers or clothing, and to give staff specialist training to help women choose something to wear. Shops would then offer survivors free personal shopper sessions. The project is aimed at women on limited incomes. 4

"For me it was, do I wear a dress?" Poulton said. "Then I got suit trousers and a blouse and then I was so worried that the blouse was going to be see-through." 4

They are developing the project with the Emma Ritch Law Clinic at the University of Glasgow, which provides free legal advice and representation to victim-survivors of sexual crime and describes its own work as trauma-informed. 5

Rape Crisis Scotland backs the plan. Its spokeswoman Nicola Love said the charity has seen evidence from juries that a witness judged to be wearing revealing or provocative clothing is found less credible. "Whether or not you're wearing the right outfit should be the last thing you're thinking about," she said. "Going to court is really costly. We don't have that conversation enough." 4

The roof at Station 125 still leaks over two paintings that have hung on for 82 years. The trust is taking tour bookings and asking for the £2,200. 1

CourtRobe is asking shops to sign up. Its next step depends on a few department stores agreeing to train staff and hand over clothing. 4

One story needs a roofer and a small sum. The other needs a shop assistant who has been taught how to read the room. Both are waiting on people who are not yet involved.