Round Britain Rally starts again.....

The Round Britain Rally (RBR) is an organised touring and photographic event for motorcyclists and drivers of sidecar outfits. It was originally started by the Norton Owners Club but died off in the late  '70s. However, it was resurrected again by a guy called Dave Hancock in 1993, and he's run it ever since.

The event encourages participants to explore back roads and lanes throughout Great Britain and visit places of interest.(landmarks) There are one or more such landmarks in every county throughout England ,Scotland and Wales. As proof that entrants have visited a specific landmark, each site visited has to be photographed with a pre-registered vehicle in the photograph as evidence of completion. Past landmarks have included castles, lighthouses, windmills, ancient monuments, follies and some remote pubs .Some are off the beaten track, some require the odd stretch of gentle green lane, and some a short walk. Every  landmark is allotted points which you earn towards the award you have decided to try and achieve. The amount of points received per landmark is sometimes dependent on it's location and difficulty, so a landmark in the Highlands of Scotland for example will attract more points to one in the Midlands.

The list of Landmarks is usually posted out to entrants 1 or 2 weeks prior to the start of the rally which is generally Easter (Good Friday) each year. This list just contains the county, a brief description for each landmark and a general location, so a bit of research required for the 90 or so landmarks.

Photographs and claim forms must be returned to the organiser for marking by the last day of October . Success is rewarded with the presentation of quite a substantial plaque for you to keep.

To gain an award you need the following points: -

100% All-rounder................... Maximum points gained (all landmarks no errors)

All-Rounder.......................... All landmarks visited (all landmarks but some errors and points >1700)

 

Platinum ..........................…….. 1700 and over

Gold.......................................... 1200 to 1699

Silver ........................................ 800 to 1199

Bronze...................................... 400 to 799

Standard................................... 200 to 399

Finishers Certificate …………… 0 to 199
 

Entrants can start at any landmark and do as many or as few as they wish, and anyone fancying a go can also register and start at any time between April and October.

 

However, If i'm writing up some rides in the blog, I'll have to be a bit vague about what the landmarks are and where they are as it could spoil the event for other competitors, plus the fact that its also against the RBR rules and I'll get booted out!!

 

This is the sixth time i've done this event and normally go for a Gold, but only manage da bronze in 2012 - a good excuse as any for rides out taking you to places you wouldn't normally think of going to. I normally get two long weekends in Scotland and one in Wales out of it as well as a good few days out.

Sat 23rd, Overloon & Steenbergen

Last 'mission' is to get to Gibson & Warwick's graves in Steenbergen. Originally planned to go there on way to ferry on Sunday but I've got time to do it Saturday. First off  though is a couple of hours at the museum in Overloon on the Dutch/German border. This place was opened by the Dutch to commemorate the second world war battle of Overloon and started with preserving tanks and vehicles left on the battlefield. Its expanded a bit since then and contains no end of army vehicles - one looking much like another by the time I was half way round!!

Museum is located in the Liberty Park in Overloon

Just under 3 hours spent staring at green lorries & armoured vehicles later, I'm on the way to Steenbergen and back on the Dambusters trail.

On 19th September 1944, Guy Gibson was flying a Mosquito with Jim Warwick as navigator. They were returning from a raid on Moenchengladbach when they crashed mysteriously near Steenbergen in the Netherlands. Various theories exist for the reason for crashing, from runnning out of fuel to being shot down by friendly fire from a Lancaster. Take your pick, but crash they did and apparently not much left of either of them.

The actual crash site was a field in 1944, but is now an industrial estate. Gibson and Warwick have a street named after each of them (Gibsonstraat and Warwickstraat) The Gibsonstraat and Warwickstraat meet on the location of the fatal crash, the location of which is apparently marked by a pattern of the Union Jack on the road - couldn't quite make it out myself though as it was circular for a start on the junction.
Update - the memorial with the union jack marked out in stone sets at the crash site is around the corner on Mosquitostraat

Crash site?, junction of Gibsonstraat and Warwickstraat).

Close up of street sign - 'James Warwick squadron leader RAF with G.Gibson in this street crashed and killed 19-9-1944'. (translation courtesy of Ken)

Close up of street sign - 'Guy Gibson, wing commander RAF holder of Victoria Cross for "bounce bombing" the Ruhr Dams 16-5-1943. In this street crashed and killed 19-9-1944' (translation by Ken)

There is also another Dambuster Memorial in a park in Steenbergen. I didn't have time I'm afraid to check it out, but its a stone pillar with a damaged propellor on it - the prop coming from a Lancaster that crashed in the vicinity.

Trip now done and off back up to Amsterdam for a Saturday night out with the brother. I got the14:30 out of the Hook on Sunday to Harwich. Roads were dry, but snow & ice on the verges. The worst road surface that I came across for the whole trip was 100m off the ferry - the spiral ramp you go up at Harwich to get over to customs/passport control hadn't been cleared properly and had a fair bit of compacted ice on it from thaw/freeze. Only became apparent as you get on it  and then its too late to get off.  After nearly 1400 miles in the cold & snow, be a bummer to come a cropper on this. Patches of ice & snow at the passport booths as well, not impressed at all with Harwich International Ports efforts i'm afraid. As soon as out of the port, roads clear getting back to Lincoln at 23:00 - again nice & toasty warm in me heated jacket despite temps hovering around zero all the way.

Next outing is 7 days in France end of May.

Track for Sat 23rd

No time!

Am back in Amsterdam at the moment but not had a wifi connection until now to update the blog - this is from the Tara on the Rokin and I'm having a pint on a pub crawl with me brother.
Also went to a place called De Bierfabriek - Beer factory - only sells its own beer, has tables for groups with their own beer taps and sacks of free peanuts nailed to the wall - the floor is covered in peanut shells!! Finished off as usual in the Cafe Gollem before getting last tram.
Went to Overloon and went to Steenbergen today so hopefully weather permitting back tomorrow via the Hook.

Ken says proost (cheers!).

 

 

Dam,dam,dam..............

Three dams today  - Mohne, Sorpe and Eder in that order.
These were the dams bombed on the raid as the primary targets, details can be found at this dambusters website.

Coldest day so far, with the temperature varying from -2.5c to +2c depending on elevation. The hills around the route going up to around 650m. Plenty of snow around but the roads dry and ice free.

I saw it lower than -1 !!!

Plenty of snow but nice dry roads.

First port of call was the Mohne Dam, which is only around 8 miles from Soest. Hardly anyone around, and the roads nice and quiet. Had a walk along the length of the dam and back and the water on the lake was frozen. Account of Mohne attack here

Mohne Dam, the breach was made between the towers and relayed back to the UK with the codeword 'Nigger' - named after Gibsons dog

Onwards to the Sorpe Dam next which was around twenty miles further on. This is not so spectacular looking as the other two as its not got any stonework - its just a big earth bank. However, the Lancasters bombed it along its length by diving onto it and then having to pull up sharpish to avoid stacking it into the opposite valley side. Only two 'planes managed to attack this dam, with one of them having nine runs before the bomb aimer was happy enough to release the bomb on the tenth run. When you stand on this dam and look at the village on one side and the wooded slope on the other it beggars belief that they got the planes down, over and up. They did manage to hit it but after all that this dam remained intact. Account of Sorpe attack here

The Lancs flew along the dam  L to R at 60 feet or so and then had to pull up over the wooded slope

This is the other side of the dam looking downstream. Nice hilly bit of Germany around here.

Although its been cold, I haven't had the need to have the heated vest switched on yet and the heated grips are taking good care of my hands. I've got merino wool base layers on and merino socks (gear left over from my time in Russia last year). Altberg boots, textile HG bottoms with the liners in for the bottom half, and just the heated jacket and HG textile jacket and a buff for the top half. Warm as toast. The journey over to the Eder dam from the Sorpe is around 70 miles with a bit of autobahn chucked in - just over 2.5hours but I stopped in Korbach for a bit of lunch - currywurst and chips at a roadside Imbiss, lovely. I switched the vest on leaving the Sorpe with the autobahn stretch in mind - bit more of a wind chill at those speeds.

Last dam of the day is the Eder Dam - another stone built dam looking dam if you get what I mean.
All these dams have hydro electric schemes associated with them - thats why they were built mostly for, and as coincidence has it, the Eder dam is owned by Eon Wasserkraft, a susidiary of Eon which is who I also work for at a power staion in the UK. Wasn't aware of his until I saw all the Eon signs and flags all over the place.
Account of Eder attack here

Eon flags fluttering in the breeze outside the turbine house on the downstream side of the dam

Picture taken from the point on the dam that was breached. The Lancs had to fly over the castle which you can just see on the right hand peak (see pic below for close up), and then drop down to 60 feet for the run at the dam

Close up of the castle on the hill - Schloss Waldeck, now a hotel.

Eder Dam - you can see where the breach was as they didn't replace the middle row spillways when they repaired it. Successful breach relayed back as codeword 'Dinghy'

 All in all around 190 mile round trip and mission accomplished for this part of the trip. Back to Amsterdam via Overloon tomorrow.

A visit to some who didn't come back....

Left Amsterdam around 09:30 and on my way to Soest. On the way, visiting Reichswald Forest War Cemetery near Kleve and Rheinberg War Cemetery between Rheinberg and Kamp Lintfort. as these contain the graves of some of the crews of 617.
19 lancasters were sent on the raid, and 8 didn't make it back. Of the 56 crew in these aircraft, 53 were killed and 3 became prisoners of war. As for what happened to the other crews after the raid, a lot of them were killed later in the war.

Out of Gibsons crew, P/O Torger Taerum; Bomb Aimer, P/O Frederick Spafford; Wireless Operator, Flt Lt Robert Hutchison; and Front Gunner, Flt Sgt George Deering were all killed on 16 September 1943 flying a 617 Sqn Lancaster on a raid on the Dortmund-Ems Canal. Rear Gunner, Flt Lt Richard Trevor-Roper was killed on 31 March 1944 flying in a 97 Sqn Lancaster on a raid on Nuremburg. He is buried in Durnbach War Cemetery. Flight Engineer, Sgt John Pulford, was killed in an aircraft accident on 13 February 1944 and is buried in Hull.



P/O Taerum & P/O Spafford in Reichswald Forest War Cemetery



Flt Lt Robert Hutchison, second from right here, P/O T A Meikle, and Sgt D J D Powell who also died in same crash as Taerum and Spafford.
Behind them, some of the 7594 others at Reichswald, almost 4000 of them RAF from between 1940 & 1944. As you enter the cemetery, air force on the left and to the right are soldiers belonging to other sections of the armed forces. Most of those lost their lives during the battles in February and in Operations ‘Plunder’ and ‘Varsity’ at the end of March 1945. 

The road from Kleve down to the War cemetery. A nice balmy 3c!!

On the way from Reichswald to Rheinberg I'm going close to what was RAF Laarbruch near Weeze. Its now a civilian airport, but most of all the RAF buildings are still there. The personal interest is that I lived at Laarbruch in the 70's and it was a chance for a trip down memory lane. I went to school in Hamm (an army boarding school - Windsor Boys), which isn't too far from where I am at the moment in Soest.

The Astra cinema is the building on the right.The building behind the missile is now a museum, but was closed. 

This is the closest I could get to the old married quarters where I lived. There was fences and gates on the roads saying it was now a training area for the polizei!!

After 'all our yesterdays' it was on to Rheinberg War Cemetery. The purpose of this was to visit the graves of the crew  'M'- Mother which was the second Lancaster to attack the Mohne Dam.

Lancaster AJ-M (‘M for Mother’), piloted by Flight Lieutenant John ‘Hoppy’ Hopgood, was the second aircraft to attack. Flying at tree top height to avoid enemy radar, an hour from the Dam, AJ-M was caught in a searchlight and raked by gunfire. Burcher, the rear gunner was hit in the groin and stomach, Minchin, the wireless operator was wounded in the leg and the front gunner Gregory, was either killed or seriously wounded and could not be raised on the intercom. Hopgood was also wounded in the head. On reaching the target Gibson made his bombing run with his bomb exploding as planned against the Dam wall. With the defenders of the Dam now fully alerted, AJ-M made its bomb run as John Fraser the bomb aimer recalled, "Gibson got away with it because he had the element of surprise. They (the guns in the towers) crossed up on us and the light flak battery came in on the side. We had to fly through the middle of it. I released the bomb. We were put on fire in the starboard wing. The one engine came on fire immediately.” Released slightly late, AJ-M’s Upkeep bounced over the top of the Dam and exploded on the far side. With his aircraft ablaze, Hopgood fought to gain the altitude that would allow his crew to bail out, but unable to do so and knowing that they had only seconds remaining, at 500ft Hopgood ordered his crew to abandon the aircraft.

Realizing that there was little chance of their parachutes opening in time, Fraser and Burcher opened them inside the aircraft and jumped, and although Burcher broke his back when he struck the aircraft’s tail plane, both men survived. Unable to help himself, the wounded wireless operator Minchin was pushed out by Burcher but, as was feared, his parachute was unable to open and save him. Immediately after this the blazing starboard wing collapsed and the Lancaster crashed to earth killing Hopgood and those who remained on-board.
Puts it all in perspective, especially when you consider Hopgood was just 21 years old.

Crew of 'M' Mother, right to left; Sgt Minchin, Flt Lt Hopgood, F/O Gregory, F/O Earnshaw, Sgt Brennan.
P/O Fraser & P/O Burcher survived as POW.

 Then spent the remainder of the day on the autobahns travelling to Soest. Wanted to get there before it got dark and colder, hence the autobahns and manged to get to the hotel for just after 15:00 thanks to 140Km/h plus, giving some time to have a bit of a walk around.

 

Staying here - right in town.

Bit nippy

At Harwich waiting to board. A fresh 2c when a left Lincoln and wet but no snow. It's 'warmed' up to 4c now but have been warm as toast thanks to heated jacket, which had to be turned off at Cambridge.
Pissed off that the Morrisons next to the port doesn't open until 0800, it was my planned breakfast stop before getting on the boat - thought it was 24hr but obviously not.

Off to see a Dam or two

Image of the dams raid - off an airfix model box!!!



Lancaster Just Jane at East Kirkby

First trip of the year, and this one has a Dambusters theme. On May 16/17 It's the 70th anniversary of the dams raid, so with the local connection of RAF Scampton down the road, and me living on the site of the former RAF Skelllingthorpe, it's as good excuse as any.
The plan is to get the ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland tomorrow morning (Stena Line so it's courtesy of Tesco vouchers). Up to Amsterdam to spend the night with brother, and then over to Soest for a couple of nights visiting stuff with a Dambusters connection, including the dams of course. I'm also tying in some visits to places I used to live during the 70's.
Weather looking slightly dodgy and very cold with some snow forecast but the heated jacket will be on board so all should be well.
Itinerary includes Reichswald & Rheinberg war cemeteries, Mohne, Sorpe & Eder dams, Hamm, Soest, Overloon museum, what was RAF Laarbruch, Steenbergen. Back to Blighty Sunday afternoon.

I had a day out in January, and popped down to Woodhall Spa to have a look at the Petwood Hotel and the 617 squadron memorial in the village.

It was when reading the date on this plaque and realising it was the 70th anniversary that gave me the idea of a trip out to the Ruhr Valley!!

617 memorial in the shape of a breached dam



Remains of one of the practice bouncing bombs - in the Petwood Hotel car park





Petwood Hotel - became 617 squadron officers mess  in January 1944 when they moved from Coningsby to Woodhall Spa