Battle Stations

Sat/Sun 2/3rd October 2010
Moored at Stoke Bruerne
No Miles No locks.

Star of the show was the Spitfire, well I thought so, especially when the engine banged into life.

We've had a brilliant time at the Stoke Bruene at War weekend despite the terrible weather on Sunday.  Saturday's weather was warm and sunny and there were a lot of people around, both pubs and the Museum cafe were busy, even the ticket offices were sentry boxes and the entrance tickets ration books to fit in with the wartime theme.

Clothing tent selling forties clothes.

U.S. Army Camp.

Boats like this were busy during WW2, Aldgate built in 1936.

I spent most of Saturday helping on "Nutfield and Raymond", Jayne's sister Pam turned up with her family so Jayne spent the afternoon with them, we didn't visit the pub on Saturday night, ate on the boat instead.

Sunday was very wet and windy but things carried on as planned with Winston Churchill leading the parade.

Sunday Parade in the rain.

By 4 o'clock the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to break through but most people had gone by then.

A Dispatch rider on his Royal Enfield Side Valve.

 We heard the V12 Rolls Royce Merlin engine of the Spitfire starting up at regular intervals as 'would be pilots' paid their money.

No Silencers on these exhausts.

Rolls Royce Merlin engines were used in other aircraft beside the Spitfire.

The Merlin Engine above is from a Halifax Bomber which crashed in the Lake District in October 1944, it's outside The Ruskin Museum in Coniston, (photo taken on one of my Lake District Mountain Bike expeditions).

Parts of the  wreckage are still visible up on Great Carrs. 

We finished the weekend off on Sunday night with a good meal eaten in good company at the Boat Inn.