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May 5 2012
If it's
Saturday it must be ...
Portsmouth!
Hello dear Friends from the historic Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth.
Today we
have the special treat of boarding MGB81 - a Motor Gun Boat - the
last
operational MGB from WW2 (although she is up in dry dock for some
repairs at
the moment). We have the great honor of accompanying John Squires,
one of
the original crew members of MGB503, and the family of Andrew Smith,
who
both helped rescue Robert Sweatt and a score of other allied airmen
off a
beach in Brittany in 1944.
It's in the 40's here today, cloudy, with a fine drizzle, and my
jeans have
just dried out. I've had to wash them in the sink to get out the
vestiges of
mud picked up when Charley and I decided to walk out to the now
derelict old
fort in Gravesend-Shornemead where he was a prisoner of war in
1946-7. Along
the way we tried to find the house of a family who treated him as a
son
while he was he here, when he would break out of the enclosure and
visit
with the local people.
Unfortunately, their house is now gone, and its location can only be
reached
through a long hike through a nature preserve/firing range
(interesting
combination). We almost turned back after enduring about an hour of
wet cold wind filled with peppershot pellets of rain but a random
jogger
encouraged us to keep going.
Finally, we found the spot, and then headed towards the fort, which
had lost
everything over the years but its outer shell. All the same, Charley
was
delighted to arrive and see it again. When we walked along the
seawall on
the Thames back to the car we sunk in mud to our ankles. Although it
must
have been 5-6 cold, wet, uncomfortable, muddy miles, Charley was so
grateful
to have the chance to visit the sites. We agreed that neither of us
would
have done that on our own, but the comradeship made it work.
Monday we had sun for our visit to Hethel air field (now a Lotus
Cars test
track), where Fred Squires showed us around his exhibit of 389th
Bomb Group
memorablia and the former chapel. A representative from Lotus let us
climb
up the control tower (now a staging area for photographers) for a
spectacular view of the former field. After our tours we headed into
Norwich
to find the pubs Bob Sweatt frequented while an airman here (they
are still,
of course, pubs. It's only been 69 years!)
Tuesday we had a lovely drive around the countryside in Norwich
until we
found the estate of Ken Wallis, a British bomber pilot of WW2 and
inventor
of the autogiro plane. He's 96 and still flies his autogiros around
when the
weather is fine. Ken is a phenomenally interesting man who survived
losing
several planes - parachuting out on one occasion when he and his
crew
couldn't land due to fog, running into a British barrage balloon and
subsequently crash landing on another. We probably could have stayed
several
days and just scratched the surface with Ken.
While working our way south, we then interviewed Major John Semken
on
Wednesday. The major, also in his 90's, is a Military Cross holder
and
Sherwood Ranger who served from Palestine before the start of war
through
D-Day, Holland, and breaching the Siegfried Line.
Never a dull moment and I'm sorry I must go - next: Bournemouth and
dinner
with some Sherwood Rangers and then Tuesday on to the Bovington Tank
Museum.
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