Brothers travel from Texas and Louisiana to pay tribute to their father, who was stationed at RAF Balderton in 1944

Two brothers have travelled all the way from the United States to pay tribute to their father, who was stationed at RAF Balderton in 1944.

Allen Simmons and Jon Simmons have travelled from Texas and Louisiana respectively to visit St Giles’ Community Hall over the weekend, where the RAF Balderton Research Group held an exhibition showcasing years of research into the airfield’s history.

Their middle brother, Bryan Simmons, was unable to join them on the trip but was remembered throughout their visit.

RAF Balderton opened in 1942 and was used by both the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces, predominantly as a troop carrier transport airfield. After the end of the Second World War, it became the headquarters for No 254 Maintenance Unit (MU) before becoming a sub-site of No 255 Maintenance Unit (MU) at Fulbeck. It then became a site for holding explosives for No 93 MU before it was closed in 1957.

Their father, also named Allen Simmons, was a US Army Air Force pilot from Natchez, Mississippi who was just 25 years old when he arrived in Balderton in March 1944.

Allen served as co-pilot in a C-47 military transport aircraft and trained at RAF Balderton before moving south to Devon in the weeks before D-Day.

His son Allen said: “I was 12 years old before he let me find out they made something else besides a C-47, and I was kind of resentful of him for having flown a C-47 instead of a P-47 fighter or a bomber or something with teeth and fangs — not realising the importance of troop carrier.”

From there, Allen Snr’s unit launched into Normandy on the night of 5 June 1944, and he went on to fly during Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge, and Operation Varsity, the Rhine crossing in 1945.

During their visit to Balderton, the brothers brought with them family items, including their father’s original flight jacket, which was displayed at the exhibition alongside wartime photographs of him wearing it in the 1940s.

They also brought copies of their father’s meticulous scrapbook, containing photographs, flight records and personal notes, which the family has preserved and made different copies of.

The scrapbook included pictures of Newark Castle, his squadron, and even two ‘local chums’ as Allen Snr called them in his scrapbook.

Jon Simmons said their visit was less about them, and more about remembering their father and his generation.

He added: “He was our dad, but there were hundreds of thousands just like him.

“If anybody tried to call him a hero, he would have said the heroes are the ones in that cemetery.

“He got to come home and have a life, and put up with people like us for the rest of his life.”

Allen and Jon shared memories of growing up with stories from the scrapbook. While their father rarely spoke about the war itself, he loved to talk about flying and the friends he made at the air force.

Jon remembered taking his dad in an aircraft and how his dad would try to ‘teach him’ and remind him of things along the way.

The RAF Balderton Research Group – run by Colin Savill, Leighton Topham and Pete Stevens – has been uncovering stories like Simmons’ for decades.

Leighton said: “What we do here and in the book is as much a memorial to all the men and women who served at Balderton during the war and afterwards.

“It remembers the people and gets their stories out.”

The exhibition included photographs, documents and personal artefacts linked to the men and women who once served at the base.

Visitors were able to see the Simmons’ jacket and scrapbook alongside local and international contributions gathered by the group since officially forming in 2016.

The brothers also shared memories of their father’s careful commemorations later in life, including taking flights on June 6 to mark the D-Day anniversary at the exact time his unit had once taken off from England on June 5.

The brother’s trip was not the first family connection to the UK, as in 1994, Allen returned with their mother for the 50th anniversary of D-Day.

Allen Simmons died on December 7, 1989, and for Allen and Jon, standing where their father had once been brought them closer to him.

Jon added: “I actually do feel closer to him here. He never got to come back over, so we’re making sure to for him.”