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Operation
Bolero Page 4
Saturday 30th June
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8th Air Force air and ground crews would have been up earlier than the
Bolero crews on Saturday morning. Briefing was at around 06:45 with
the vehicles forming up on the Peri-track at 07:00. With more vehicles
for day two, it took around 30 minutes to assemble all the
participants. The two convoys of the previous day were abandoned in
favour of one, with the vehicles in no particular order.
The first airfield on
day two was Horham, home to the 95th Bomb Group. Two long rows of
vehicles parked in a field nearby with a short walk down to the
museum. The old base hospital has been converted into a museum showing
life at the base.
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The
various rooms within the complex led themselves to a multitude of
different displays with some laid out as they would have been and
others having displays of art, artifacts and models showing the 95th
BG.
This first
stop was planned for a 'breakfast' stop. 'Break' yes, 'Fast' certainly
not! The food van that was laid on certainly wasn't the fastest
service on the planet, with the owners incapable of cooking more than
one order at a time.
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be honest, the van didn't have 'Fast' Food written on the side, so we
can't do them for the trade descriptions act, but it did taste good
after the wait! Some left the queue to look around the museum until it
was shorter, but unfortunately, it took around 2 hours for everyone to
be fed.
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With the convoy well
behind time, we pulled away from Horham hoping to catch up a little.
Our next destination was Station 139, Thorpe Abbotts, home of the
100th Bomb Group. Thorpe Abbotts has one of the oldest Tower museums,
started in 1977.
Adjacent to the Tower is the 351st Squadron perimeter track, of which
about 2/3 is still there. This and a small remaining stretch of the
secondary runway was our parking area. Some of the first vehicles
there however were parked in and around the museum itself.
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The
view from the top of the tower shows some of the vehicles parked on
the secondary runway. The visit also gave everyone to eat and drink.
Time at the museum was cut shorter than planned in order to be at
Hardwick.
It took a little while
to get everyone back to their vehicles and before everyone left,
departure order was changed. The vehicles were arranged in size/weight
order?? halftracks, GMC's, Dodges etc ending with Jeeps. This also
took some time to move the vehicles to the correct position.
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the convoy pulled away, Lynne and I waited, videoing and photographing
the vehicles bunched up along approximately 1/2 mile of perimeter. As
they pulled away, the video started rolling and lasted about 5 minutes
until the last Jeep rolled by and we jumped on the end of the convoy.
Once more the rain came down as we trundled on down the narrow
lanes towards Hardwick. When we arrived, there was a barbeque already
well under way, and serving food at a rate we had only dreamed of a
few hours earlier at Horham. |
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As
we neared the hangar, an old brick barrack hut stood alone in the
field. Parking space was almost non-existent so all the vehicles
remained on the road through the complex. The stop also allowed us to
have a close look around Maurice Hammonds P-51 Mustang, T-6 Texan,
PT-17 Kaydet, Auster and Cessna.
I didn't know that
Maurice was going to fly the P-51, and with sore feet, had wandered
back to the Jeep for a sit down by the time the aircraft was wheeled
out.
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did however put me in the right place to get a cracking picture of the
take off which probably wasn't possible from where everyone else was
standing.
As the power was
applied, air was being pulled through the prop disc very quickly while
the aircraft wasn't moving very fast. The propeller sucked the
moisture out of the air creating spiral vortices from the blade tips,
which I caught on camera. By the time the aircraft past the hangar and
the on looking crowd, its forward speed had stopped this condensing of
the moisture.
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It
also possibly gave me more of a top view of the aircraft as it made
its low pass prior to landing. This was the third time I'd seen
'Janie' fly in just a few days as I'd seen the P-51 at Bungay the
previous Sunday and also flying over Parham.
After leaving
Hardwick, some of the vehicles left the convoy to return to Parham
rather than continue to Metfield. That was a shame as they missed one
of the best sights of the day travelling down the zig-zig roads formed
by using the lines of the runways and perimeter tracks.
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far as you could see, there were lines of vehicles travelling left to
right and right to left, gradually heading to the far side of the
airfield, and this was probably the one time where everyone could see
the whole convoy at once. Once more a wreath was laid at the airfield
memorial, this time the 491st Bomb Group.
The convoy returned to
Parham after Metfield, though some vehicles went off in search of fuel
or food. Later in the evening, the '40's dance was held at a nearby
village, but I didn't take any pics at the dance.
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