Day 54 Wroxall to Winchester 9 June 2018

We leave our atmospheric hotel under grey skies again but there should be no rain. Today we visit the much anticipated Bletchley Park. One of our group, Louis is an academic originally from new Zealand had one of the people who worked at Bletchley Park 1939-45 as a professor. He dies aged 99 and 11 months in 2010. We had two hours to visit and saw where Alan Turing worked and about the technology involved. It was a rushed visit and we also rushed up to the National Museum of Computing where they had the Colossus and Bombe computing machines.  The assistant was nice enough to start the machine up early and Elizabeth was thrilled. We both took video footage which we never ever do.

Above is Alan Turing's bear but he sems to be able to keep a secret.

A parachute for a pigeon. Being thrown out of a plane, one fellow asked what effect would have had on the pigeon, his mate replied that it would have been character building.

An excited Elizabeth watching the Colossus computer coming to life. It has been rebuilt as alabour of love by enthusiasts as everything was dismantled after the war.

Our last visit of the day is to the Shuttleworth Collection at Brooklands.  Here, in memory of their son a pilot killed in 1940, they have an extensive collection of aircraft and vehicles. They had some that we had not seen before.

They had buses, bicycles, motorbikes. They day we visited them a gyrocopter meeting which was the largest ever in the UK.  They cost probably $120,000 and they had the granddaughter of the Spanish designer present. It was developed in the 1920s and who would have thought they ther that old. Interestingly the propeller at the back provides all the thrust and the propeller on top provides the lift. The top propeller has no engine, it turns based on the rear propeller.

We did a quick tour of the Swiss gardens.

We arrived in Winchester and from what we could see prices were dearer than central London. We tried to go to the number 1 restaurant Piecarumba which seems very trendy with names of pies that are quite cute but it was like a sauna inside so we had tea at the golden arches. We did an evening walking tour by ourselves, as it doesn’t get dark till after 9.30 PM. We found King Alfred’s statue, who founded Winchester as his capital. He successfully fought off the invasion from the Danes. We discovered the town’s mill that had been rebuilt and went through the Abbey Gardens, found Winchester College that had been founded in the 14^th Century and is the country’s oldest continuous running college. We investigated the outskirts of the Cathedral and the park’s war memorials. There is a lot to see in the city, including the impromptu street theatre (it was a Saturday night!)

No photos unfortunately, until I can work out how to download them off the phone.

Day 53 Woodhall Spa to Wroxall 8 June 2018

Today we visited RAF Cosford, an active RAF base that was preparing for an air show. The new facility houses an extensive collection of British and Soviet aircraft from the Cold War. They also had a very good collection of WW2 aircraft which included Japanese and German as well.  

The grey skies held off with any rain and we visited the National Memorial Arboretum. This garden is firstly a memorial to those British lives lost since WW2 and the trees are frequently dedicated to individuals but there are a plethora of monuments and memorials to units or corps throughout. 

Possibly the most moving one is to those who were Shot At Dawn.  These were those soldiers who were executed by the British during WW1.  One lad executed was only 17, under age anyway. There were also Canadians and New Zealanders executed, but Australia never allowed it, presumably after the Breaker Morant Affair from the Boer War. I was intrigued that many names had Age Unknown. The army is usually excellent at record keeping and I am surprised that there were so many. Unless they enlisted under an assumed name it would have been easy through the available census to determine how old they were. Perhaps they didn’t want to be greatly embarrassed by revealing exactly how many boys they executed.

We had dinner tonight in the bar of the htel wheer the dambusters Squadron had their bar. Exciting stuff.

Day 52 Woodhall Spa 7 June 2018

Today we visit RAF Scampton, the home of the Red Arrows acrobatic team. This is also the airfield from which the 617 Dambuster Squadron left. They have Guy Gibson VC’s office replicated to how it looked in 1943 and the grave of his dog, N*gg*r. We were given a history of the base and it stretches from WW1.

 One of the bombs used in the Dambuster raid and below is the grave of Gibson's dog.

 They left his office the way it was at the time.

The new Memorial for Bomber Command has a Wall of Names. The metal is specially treated so it doesn’t rust. Its height is exactly the wing span of a Lancaster Bomber at 31 metres, and is the tallest monument in England. From here you can see the Lincoln Cathedral which was used as a navigation point for the bomber pilots.

The Chadwick Centre only opened earlier this year as a memorial to Bomber Command. Apparently those who participated were denied a campaign ribbon because the authorities may have been embarrassed about the ethics of bombing civilians. The Dutch absolutely adored Bomber Command because in the winter of 1944-45 they were starving and they were dropped food supplies. They also had an immersive presentation.

The view from the memorial takes in the Lincoln Cathedral. It was used by the pilots as a navigation aid. On returning from missions it was a godsend.

The last stop of the day allowed us two hours to visit both the Lincoln Cathedral and Castle. It was a Norman castle and this was the Lucy Tower. They then built a second tower motte/bailey which is considered to be unusual. Inside the castle walls they had a Victorian prison and the courthouse is still used today.

The Lincoln Cathedral was a very impressive sized structure and had chapels for the Army, Navy, and Airforce.

Day 51 Woodhall Spa 6 June 2018

In the town of Woodhall Spa they have a memorial to 617 Squadron. You can obviously see they thought of the design carefully, with its representation of the bursting dam wall.

Today, under grey skies, we visited RAF Coningsby, which is an active airbase and given the number of jet engines that hurtled above us, it seemed quite active. Here they have the battle of Britain flight which is maintained by the RAF. They have lots of Hurricanes, Spitfires and one Lancaster. All these aircraft still fly. Our tour guide was 85 but you would not have guessed, he was very good. He told us some interesting stories.

Our guide with a Tall Boy 10 ton bomb.

Next was East Kirkby Aviation Heritage Centre, home of the Lancaster. They have one that they are working on being airworthy. You can go for a taxy ride (that is the correct spelling) for like 325 pounds. As it was, it wasn’t available, not that I think we would have done it.  The displays were impressive given that it is a private organisation. Their presentation needs to be modernised but they have made some good attempts to do so. 

 Here is Eric, one of the Americans (ex-navy) either photographing, worshipping or proposing to the Lancaster, or possibly a combination.

Next was the Thorpe Camp Visitor Centre.  For a voluntary organisation they have done an outstanding job. Originally part of RAF Woodhall Spa, it was abandoned after the war and the buildings were only designed to last 10 years. After the war, they converted them into social housing. This lasted until 1962, and they fell into disrepair with trees growing out of them. In the 1980s the Woodland Fund bought the site and they were going to demolish the buildings. They had some excellent displays for a voluntary group.

In return we explored the grounds of our very picturesque Petwood Hall, which has connections to the Dambusters. This is where the Officers stayed, slept and drank. In our room it would have been
the bedroom of a couple of officers or more. Here is their mess, which is now our restaurant.

The photographs do not do it justice.

For dinner we went to the 13th Century Blue Bell Inn, which was one pub frequented by the bomber crews and they had lots of period memorabilia.