Historic treasure found in garage

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Noelle Caldwell
  • 501st Combat Support Wing Public Affairs
RAF ALCONBURY, United Kingdom --  Councilor Derek Stebbing was a research and development engineer when he became a part of discovering a piece of American history on British soil.

A whopping piece of heavy steel, smooth with various nicks along its edges was tucked away and preserved in soil, waiting to be uncovered from a farmer's field. Mr. Stebbing, now the Mayor of Whittlesey, helped excavate a nearly 4'5" long and 12" wide half of a P-51 Mustang propeller along with a dashboard instrument clock almost 30 years ago, and dedicated it to the 501st Combat Support Wing Airmen at RAF Alconbury Wednesday, April 29.

"It's been in my garage for the last 30 years and (probably) in the ground for the last 34," Mr. Stebbing said. "Having dug it up, there was only one place to take it--(RAF Alconbury)."

As an R&D engineer, a local farmer contacted the councilor and asked him to bring in some of his company's heavy machinery to dig up a suspected American artifact. The farmer, who was draining his fields at the time, said he snagged a piece of his farming equipment on what he believed to be part of aircraft. When he heard a noise and smelled aviation fuel, he called Stebbing's company.

"I had no interest digging up aircraft at the time, but as a part of a big engineering company I saw it as an opportunity to give (my) machinist some work," Stebbing said.
Airman 1st Class Zachery Haley, a system administrator with the 423rd Air Base Squadron, said he was more interested in the engineering work that went into the propeller's design rather than the history behind it.

"Looking at how this was made is amazing to me...the curves, the shape," Airman Haley said. "All this was designed on paper. I've done some classes on designing objects by building it on a computer program, so I can appreciate what went into this piece of propeller from the Mustang."

Although the P-51 Mustang was a fighter aircraft, the councilor said he decided the best place to showcase it was at RAF Alconbury instead of a fighter base, such as RAF Lakenheath, since the base provided defense for British bombers as escorts and attacked enemy bombers coming from London during WWII.

"RAF Alconbury was one of the major protector units for London against Nazi attacks," Stebbing said. "I'd rather put it somewhere where it has use...and what better use than a place that helps showcase American military aircraft here!"

"It is very fitting we're putting it here because the possibility could have existed where this was a fighter aircraft escorting an aircraft from RAF Croughton," said Colonel Amy Hammond, 423rd Air Base Group commander. "Could you have imagined the skies (with all the aircraft) back then?"

Airman Haley said he left the ceremony learning one of the most interesting things about the area.

"The fact that (the propeller) is still intact is amazing," he said. "It just makes you wonder what happened to the rest of it."