USAAF, 77th and 231st Station Hospitals (Morley); [1942]-1945; Morley and Wymondham, Norfolk

Corporate body

USAAF, 77th and 231st Station Hospitals (Morley); [1942]-1945; Morley and Wymondham, Norfolk

[1942]-1945

An emergency hospital designed by Ministry of Works and built under Lend Lease arrangement was constructed in the grounds of Morley Hall, near Wymondham, on the site of the golf course. Hospital handed over to the United States Army Air Force, Eighth Air Force. The 77th Station Hospital provided all medical care at station hospital level for local 2nd Air Division, Eighth Air Force personnel. 77th became Reconditioning Centre for Enlisted men, 6 March 1944. 231st Station Hospital moved from Redgrave Park, Suffolk to occupy the station hospital site at Morley. The hospital closed, 8 June 1945. Following the Second World War the site became a transit camp for Royal Norfolk Regiment and then two Training Colleges. Became a boarding school for Norfolk County Council when the Colleges closed. In 1991 this became Grant-Maintained School, Wymondham College.\r\nIn 1943, the Ministry of Works acquired a site in the grounds of Morley Hall, near Wymondham (now Wymondham College) for the purpose of building a military hospital. Before the Second World War the land had been used as the Mid-Norfolk Golf Course and then taken over for agriculture when war broke-out.\r\nThe Station Hospital was constructed as part of the Lend Lease Scheme (the agreement by which the United States supplied Britain with war materials between 1941 and 1945). On its completion in September 1943, the hospital was handed over to the United States Army Air Force (USAAF). The first unit based there was the 77th Station Hospital, which served 15 Bomb Groups, a fighter group, and affiliated groups of the Eight Air Force located in the area, totalling an estimated 60,000 flight and ground personnel. Most of the casualties were from the bomber crews and 60 per cent of all casualties had flak related injuries, 15 per cent were injured by cannon shells, and the rest by air crashes and accidents.\r\nFollowing reorganization, the 77th Station Hospital became a reconditioning centre for enlisted men, from 6 March 1944, and the 231st Station Hospital moved to Morley from Redgrave Park, Suffolk. From March 1944, the Station Hospital was a receiving hospital for Air Force casualties injured in missions over Europe and it also received evacuated battle casualties following the invasion of France. The 231st Station Hospital played a key role following the D-Day campaigns, in June 1944, when over 2000 patients were brought there for treatment by hospital trains which arrived at Spooner Row Station. In anticipation of the extra casualties, the hospital had to increase its bed spaces from about 800 to over 1000 beds in May 1944. Morley was also one of the few American military hospitals which was not racially segregated, with patients treatment based on their injuries and not their skin colour.\r\nThe Station Hospital closed on 8 June 1945. The hospital buildings and site had several post-war uses: as a transit camp for the Royal Norfolk Regiment, to about August 1946; by the Ministry of Education as an emergency teacher training facility, 1947-1950 and from April 1951, the first Wymondham College students arrived prior to the College opening for its first full academic intake in September 1951.

Morley, Norfolk; Wymondham, Norfolk

Catalogued

Minimal

Created on: 02/03/2011 by Drohj