It's amazing what we ride over and don't realise.

[biggs682]

If you know where to look you can find remains of WWII gun emplacements in the Forest too. And there's a trig point near the Forest. All sorts.

i remember walking down from the old station once many moons ago

You need to turn left in Draughton opposite the church if i remember it brings you out in Lamport @PeteXXX

 

[PeteXXX]

i remember walking down from the old station once many moons ago

You need to turn left in Draughton opposite the church if i remember it brings you out in Lamport @PeteXXX

I'll get the OS map out in the morning

 

[keithmac]

I'm sure Lancaster bombers used to take off from where I go drag racing near York (Melbourne).

My Grandads brother died in a Lancaster on his first mission (Engineer), I think he was only 19..

 

[lazybloke]

I'm sure Lancaster bombers used to take off from where I go drag racing near York (Melbourne).
My Grandads brother died in a Lancaster on his first mission (Engineer), I think he was only 19..

Always interesting to research past family members, Keith.
My own Grandad's brother was shot down (never found) over the Bay of Biscay after flying out from RAF Portreath in 1943. I'm tempted to go and look through the fence when I'm down in Cornwall this summer. Not sure why, or what I would gain from doing so...

 

[keithmac]

Yes, they always talked about him and had his picture on the mantlepiece.

I'd go and have a look just for curiosities sake!.

 

[keithmac]

I've been to the Yorkshire Museum at Elvington near York a few times and they have an old gunners turret.

It's tiny, just big enough to fit into. Can't imagine being in one and being shot at, must have been petrifying.

Apparently they used to kick the glass out as it was next to useless?.


My Grandad was a dispatch motorcycle rider, started off in England and ended up in Burma of all places.

Used to tell us his war stories.

 

[keithmac]

http://www.forgottenairfields.com/u...east-riding-of-yorkshire/melbourne-s1019.html

This is where we go racing, didn't realise they had rebuilt the control room; will gave to have a look next time.

It mentions Halifax bombers in the link.

 

[ufkacbln]

[QUOTE 4638357, member: 76"]What happened north west of Draughton, did you get lost? And why did you cycle up that dead end where you took the picture? I think your ride today has lots of questions [/QUOTE]

Cyclists were often used a spies, innocuous eccentrics bumbling round the coutryside in a very "English eccentric" way

You think he really got lost?

Is this really a cover story because he is a spy and this was no accidental discovery

We should be told the troof

 

[Tanis8472]

If you look closely at maps.google.com you will find loads of them all over the place. It's quite surprising how many there are. You can normally find more info by searching for raf and one of the closest villages names. They are easy to spot as most look like a letter A.

 

[subaqua]

[QUOTE 4638810, member: 76"]When I was a lad I was in the Air Cadets in Buckingham. Our adult leader was a rear gunner in Lancasters during the war. He was 18 on his first mission and their plane had to turn back to England over France. They were attacked by aircraft and anti-aircraft fire and he literally pi55ed himself. This caused a short in the electrics in the rear gun compartment and it wouldn't work. He reckoned that the place he sat during the war was the loneliest place in the entire conflict.[/QUOTE]

it was. to get in required you to move the turret to get door open and then reset to operating position and due to the limited space you couldn't wear parachute either just the harness, chute had to sit in the fuselage. problem being if the plane did ditch the power to the rear turret would have inevitably been lost so no way to angle the turret to get out to get chute .

 

[PeteXXX]

Cyclists were often used a spies, innocuous eccentrics bumbling round the coutryside in a very "English eccentric" way

You think he really got lost?

Is this really a cover story because he is a spy and this was no accidental discovery

We should be told the troof

It's a fair cop, guv.....

 

[PeteXXX]

http://www.forgottenairfields.com/u...east-riding-of-yorkshire/melbourne-s1019.html

This is where we go racing, didn't realise they had rebuilt the control room; will gave to have a look next time.

It mentions Halifax bombers in the link.

That's a really interesting link.

 

[gbb]

One of my regular rides takes me round several old airfields, some old, some still in use I think. One takes me up to Alconbury, formerly used by the USAF , also passing some former WW2 airbase but one day I took a right instead of a left, just to extend the miles a bit and explore a previously unbidden road...a few miles later I rode up to RAF Molesworth...home of course to the Cruise missile uproar in the 80s I think. There was so much about it in the news at the time but I never knew where it was, it shocked me to know it was on my doorstep...well, only 15 to 20 miles away.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

In Holmpton, near Withensea, a bungalow stands in the middle of a field just away from the village. The only tell tale sign that all is not as it seems is a rather large car park. Underground there are endless tunnels and rooms. It was built during the Cold War and was a fully manned operation and control centre monitoring Russian nuclear activity. It had its own water supply, power supply, air filtration plant etc and was built to be totally self contained in the event of a nuclear attack.
Today it is kept as it was when operational and is used to store RAF archives. It is open to the public on certain days of the year and if you are in the area it is well worth a visit.

Had a couple of looks around it, and as you say, it's very interesting.

Given it's use, it amused me to find that before they could open it to the public, they had to make some serious alterations to cope with fire regulations.

It also still makes me wonder if I'd want to be in it. What exactly would you be coming out to?

 

[Bollo]

It's a fair cop, guv.....

Say "Slough"