Two Wartime Tales

 Carrying on from my last post where I promised more information on some of the photos I'd taken.

The sculpture above by Ray Lonsdale is on Scarborough's North Bay.  It's called Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers.  It was sited on the North Bay for a four week period but a petition was set up by a local resident, Maureen Robinson, to keep the sculpture in place.  With a short time  to go before the removal of the sculpture she purchased it and gifted it to the town.  It is now cared for by the local council.

Freddie Gilroy (1921-2008) was born in County Durham to a mining family.  He went to work at the local mine but also joined the Territorial Army.  In 1939 at the start of war he was called up to be a gun aimer for the Royal Artillery.  Towards the end of the war he became a Regimental Police Officer.  On the 15th April 1945 he was part of the force sent to Hamburg to liberate Bergen Belsen.  The horrors of what he experienced stayed with him for the rest of his life.  He spent his 24th birthday within the camp and when interviewed by a local newspaper in the 1980s he confessed that he had cried on every birthday since then.

That's Scarborough Castle in the background, shrouded in the morning mist.

In the Canadian Memorial hanger at the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington is the Halifax Bomber called Friday 13th.

We watched a small film in the on site cinema about how it came to be named.  Bomber Command 158 Squadron flew Halifax bombers from nearby RAF Lissett each plane having it's own unique call sign.  By 1944 all Halifax Bombers given the F for Freddy designation had been lost so when the new one arrived it was deemed to be unlucky.  On it's first mission in March 1944 bomber LV907 F broke that run of bad luck.  That night 95 aircraft were lost but LV907 returned.  The Canadian crew decided to call it Friday 13th to 'jinx' it even more, they painted many images of bad luck onto the plane and defiantly embraced the F for Freddy superstition.  LV907 Friday 13th went on to return safely from 128 more missions before the end of the war.  This particular Halifax was held in great affection by its crews and of course they all wanted to fly on missions in this aircraft.

Here is a - link - to more about this plane.

Planes and Roses

On Wednesday we had a day out and about.  The weather stayed dry until we were driving home when it absolutely cascaded down and the windscreen wipers were on overdrive most of the way.  

Firstly we visited the RAF Museum at Cosford.  There were lots of changes since our last visit.  I didn't take many photos this time.

Hawker Hind Trainer 

 

 

Boulton and Paul Defiant

 Wellington Bomber

Bomber Crew, the crew member with the dog was a rear gunner.

Spitfire PRXIX 1945

We then moved on just a mile or so to David Autstin Roses. It's really just behind Cosford's air field but you have to drive round to get there. 

  It was very busy so we didn't stay too long. 

I took photos of some of the roses that caught my eye.  It was hard to take general views as there were lots of visitors and no space in the cafe or garden for lunch.  It's a very popular place.

The Lion Garden although I didn't take a photo of the lion statue that gives the garden its name.

Renaissance Garden

 

 One of the avenues in the long garden.

I love all the different names of the Roses - Port Sunlight where we visited a few years ago when we stayed on the Wirral.

 

These smell of orange blossom.
 

The Poet's Wife has a lemon scent.

Tottering-by-Gently.  I really liked this one especially the name.  I feel I'm just tottering by lots of things at the moment.  Named after a cartoon by Annie Tempest which is apparently in the Country Life magazine.

Shropshire Lass - well we were in Shropshire- is a rose from 1968, the blooms fade gently from pale blush to pure white.

 

Gertrude Jekyll - a firm favourite with many including me.
 

Emily Bronte - such a delicate colour.

Sir John Betjeman - such a lovely colour.  I share a birthday with him.  Day and month not year of course.

Boscobel - had to include this as that's where we were off to next - it's just a few miles down a long and narrow but straight road.  We often call them Roman roads, perhaps they were.

Boscobel House

I think it deserves a separate post.

The last few days

On Sunday we decided to drive to Leek over the Roaches past the 'winking man' and on to Buxton. There was still a lot of snow around on the hills but Buxton itself was wet and slushy.

We had a wander around the town, a mug of coffee and a muffin in the shopping centre and then walked up to the Pavilion. There were some beautiful orchids in the glass house.

Then we drove back over the hills via Earl Sterndale, into Hartington and back towards home. The views were spectacular.

Today we decided to drive over to the Air Museum at RAF Cosford to see the new displays but when we got there we were diverted by the police because there was a security alert at the air base and museum. We ended up for lunch at Norbury Junction and looked at the canal boats instead.

Oh well, boats instead of planes. The lunch was very tasty but the weather was very cold.

Off to Nottingham tomorrow to visit some friends one of whom is just starting up a blog - so watch this space for a link.