After a chilly but pleasant drive (apart from the 30 mile
section on the A1 sharing the road with Bank Holiday traffic) via Sleaford and
the A143, we arrived at Petwood Hotel in Woodhall Spa, an early 20th
century Tudor style building set in beautiful grounds and at £100 per night
including breakfast was excellent value for money too.
Friday was mostly meet and greet our fellow participants
with drinks on the terrace, excellent food in the bar and a difficult quiz.
That said there was a clue in the weekends’ title, the fact that the hotel is
also known as the home of the 617 Dambuster Squadron and there was a whole bar
dedicated to Dambuster memorabilia. The hotel was requisitioned in the war by
the RAF as an Officers Mess for those serving in the surrounding bases. 97 and
617 squadron still fly over the building to this day.
After a hearty breakfast on Saturday morning, 15 cars set off
on a 12 mile journey via Coningsby airfield to the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage
Centre in East Kirkby, owned by the Panton brothers. We had our own allocated
parking area outside the vast hangar there and our cars proved to be a hit with
the general public and the many bike owners who were there on a day trip. We
spent a fantastic day there. It still has an operational air strip but is
mostly a WW2 museum complete with fully restored control tower and Nissan huts
teeming with WW2 memorabilia and airplane relics. A remote control model
airplane group also entertained us. The term “model” inadequately describes
these planes judging by the size, complexity and speed of the planes. I was
particularly impressed by the jet planes.
At 1.30pm we watched the Avro Lancaster “Just Jane” take 11
passengers for a taxy ride around the airfield, an amazing sight. It is the
only privately owned Lancaster worldwide and only 1 of 3 that move under its
own power. I would have felt honoured just to see it at such close quarters but
I was lucky enough to go one better and be on the 4pm “flight”. A contribution
of £310 towards the plane’s refurbishment secured me my place, money well and
truly well spent. It had just undergone a £250000 repaint and looked good as
new. We met in a Nissan hut for a briefing at 3pm and I was lucky to get my
first choice as Bomb Aimer in the nose of the plane which gave me a marvellous
view of the ride, the only downside being I couldn’t see the propellers turning.
I had to kneel down on the cushion but had I been a 6’ 3” airman as some of
them were I’d have had to lie down. Imagine that- 9 hours in the freezing cold,
being shot at and not knowing if you would return. 5% didn’t after each mission
and if you did, you had to complete 30 missions before being released by which
time you had a 1 in 4 chance of dying. Adding to that fact that most were no
older than 24, I had mixed emotions as we assembled at the edge of the airfield
with the engine noise increasing and the plane vibrating- excitement but
sadness too for all those lives lost. The 11 of us, me being the only woman,
were also given a guided tour around the plane. For such an enormous plane,
there was very little room to sit or move around but somehow 7 crew managed to
fly, navigate, bomb and hopefully return back to base. We also learned that
these enormous contraptions were delivered by little ATP girls without a crew!
The day went really quickly. We had visited all the museum
buildings as well as chilling at the NSRA van where Bob and April kept us
supplied with tea and biscuits, enjoying the coolish but sunny day and got to
know several of the pre-49ers.
Back at the hotel, we walked to the Inn at Woodhall Spa for
dinner where we had a delicious starter but not very good main course. We should
have had the fish and chips. Part two of the quiz was all about the Dambusters
but we weren’t very good.
An early start on Sunday, this time only 6 miles and 16 cars
to Metheringham Airfield, home of the 106 squadron in WW2. The cruise was
pretty much in a straight line from Woodhall Spa. Once again we were expected
guests and had our own parking area in afield with some classic vehicles. All
of our cars were pretty understated and have muted colours. They looked pretty
impressive in the line-up and most of them are driven regularly. The attendees
came from as far south as Surrey and Durham in the north. The airfield was
hosting a 1940’s weekend so we were treated to singers from the era, re-enactment
groups and people in uniform giving us all that wartime feel. There was plenty
to occupy us and while some just chilled, Dave and I went in the Dakota as well as the
1948 boneshaker coach for a tour around the airfield where we saw the remains
of the old runways and various wartime buildings including sick quarters,
Station ops, control building and FIDO pump, accompanied by an interesting
running commentary. It was originally a farm, requisitioned in 1942 when the
occupants were given only 48 hours to leave. The site was known by the pilots
as “The Middle of Nowhere”. Afterwards I spent some time in the museum housed
in the old rations store reading about its history and looking at the diorama
of the site which even had had a fog clearance system. Lastly I attended the
mission briefing – a reconstruction of an actual briefing of a genuine mission-
as if we were pilots going to Nuremburg. Unfortunately this was not a
successful trip as the weather forecast was wrong and also the bombs were
dropped short. 11% of the planes failed to return. It was quite a sobering half
hour and made me appreciate the sacrifices these young men made.
Back at the hotel we had another excellent meal and then we
all walked to the Kinema in the Woods to watch “Their Finest”, a new film fittingly
set in wartime London. The Kinema is a 1930’s art deco cinema and we even had
an interlude with a pianist.
The next morning we had our final breakfast together before
assembling the cars in front of the hotel for a photo shoot and saying our
goodbyes.
We took a long route home stopping off at Tattershall Lakes
for a trip down memory lane. Most of it was familiar from our weekend visits in
the late 90’s/ early 00s and the pub is definitely more upmarket these days. We drove
cross country using the A15 and then stopped off at Stamford and then the Fox Inn
for dinner with Russ and Vicky, arriving home with about 250 miles on the clock
for the weekend.
