Jessie The Jeep

Utah Beach We spent most of the day at the D-Day experience, so when we left, we made a trip to the coast to Utah Beach for a coffee and snack. We'd been to the Utah Museum back in 2005, but it was too late in the day to visit at that time. We had a look around the outdoor exhibits, still in the pouring rain and planned to return another day. The landing craft had recently been repainted. Ellon Cottage Fairly close to the cottage where we were staying, was this ruined cottage. I don't know whether it was damaged during the war, or just collapsed due to neglect. However, the first time I saw it, it immediately struck me how similar it was to the demolished building in the Airfix D-Day diorama kit I'd built with my daughter a few years ago. Here's the full diorama.

July 27th - D-Day Experience, Dead Man's Corner The D-Day Experience museum didn't exist on our last visit in 2005 and having heard positive reviews of the place, we decided to give it a go. The weather on the 27th was forecast for solid heavy rain all day, so we figured that being indoors here for the day was a good option! We weren't disappointed with the display and really enjoyed the C-47 flight simulator. The original windows have been covered over and flat screens mounted a little higher up, clear of the passenger's heads. You hear the engines start, taxi out and take off. Hydraulics lift the C-47 to simulate the take off and flight. Upstairs, there's a large diorama area. The Dead Man's Corner building is focused on German items and dioramas.

Centaur Memorial at La Breche D'hermanville After an ice cream, we drove a little further West along Sword Beach to visit the Centaur Tank, another small memorial we visited back in 2005. Back then, the paintwork looked quite fresh, but looking at the markings, it doesn't appear that it has been repainted in the last 18 years. Around 400 feet away, on the edge of the beach, was another memorial, this one to the Royal and Merchant Navy. Churchill Memorial at Lion-sur-Mer About another mile further West was the Churchill Tank and sun dial memorial. Three metal plaques on the side of the tank show dates of restoration. Back in 2005 when we visited, the Churchill appeared in a realistic dark khaki green. This time, it was in a rather unconvincing pale green. It hasn't faded to that colour, as I've found pictures on the internet of it freshly painted. A Youtube video shows the body restoration has been done with wood and plastic, pop-riveted together. It really deserves a proper rebuild. We headed back to the cottage after this, finishing our second day.

Sword Beach From Merville, we headed a little West and took a sea front walk along Sword Beach, taking in the memorials along the way.

Battery at Merville-Franceville This was another museum we'd been to before, but this one had changed quite a bit. Back in 2005, there were the concrete gun emplacements with the museum displays inside and a circular car park. Now there's a larger car park, a shop and visitors centre, a hangar and Douglas C-47 Skytrain. This C-47 was a first for me, as it had the fairings and mountings for the under-belly cargo canisters, something I've never seen before. This museum was another with an audio tour to guide visitors around the site, telling the story. The 9th Parachutists Battalion landed under cover of darkness to capture the battery in the early hours of June 6th. Many para's drowned in the nearby marshes but the battery is under Allied control by 5:00am.

July 26th - Pegasus Bridge & Museum This was another museum that we visited on our 2005 trip. In general, the museum hasn't changed a great deal over the last 18 years, although smaller displays have changed or been added to. It was still nice to revisit this part of the story, as on this trip, we had more time to spend at each location. When viewed from the other side of the hedge, the Horsa glider probably looks very similar to glider 1 after landing in the early hours of D-Day. The first men on the ground on June 6th were the 5th Parachutist Brigade in charge of capturing the bridges over the Orne river and canal. Landing their gliders within yards of the bridges, they captured them and held them until Lord Lovat's Cammandos Brigade arrived to reinforce the positions. After the canal was widened, a new bridge was built and the original bridge became part of the museum located close by.

Advanced Landing Ground B12, Ellon After Longues sur Mer, we went back to our cottage to eat. Before heading to France, I had noticed that about a mile down the road from our cottage, was the location of A.L.G B12 Ellon, so planned to visit it. We did it that evening. Sadly, it is quite over-grown with algae growning on many of the information panels. The airfield map did provide an orientation, so I was able to take photos each way, approximately along the line of the old runway. Looking North East Looking South West

Battery at Longues-sur-Mer Next on the list and a little West along the coast, was the Gun Battery at Longues-sur-Mer. We visited this battery back in 2005. The battery of four 150mm guns overlooks the coast from a 200 feet high cliff. The guns were silenced on D-Day by the Allied Fleet and the Garrison surrendered to the British the following day. As can be seen, the guns survive to this day. The memorial stone, located closer to the car park, is for Advanced Landing Ground B11, Longues sur Mer, and reads... "300 meters to the East, was the operational B11 aerodrome of Longues sur Mer, from June 21th 1944 to September 4th 1944. During this period, J. Aubertin P. Clostermann and J. Remlinger, heroes of the F.A.F.L, were in this place within 602 "City of Glasgow" Squadron. Units also present 132 "City of Bombay" Squadron and 453 Squadron R.A.A.F. 441 Squadron R.C.A.F."

Events wise, early July was quiet for us. The Dodge was busy moving stuff in the garden, but that was about it. On the 23rd of July, we went on holiday to Normandy - sadly, without a Jeep. It was just going to be too expensive to add the trailer cost to the ferry. The last time we were in Normandy was 2005, the first year we had the Jeep and we did 700 miles up and down the French coastline. So this time was without a Jeep, but with our daughter for the first time. We planned to visit a number of museums we'd previously visited, plus some that didn't exist on our last trip. We also have some non-WW2 places to see. So we travelled down England on Sunday the 23rd, stayed overnight, then caught the ferry to Dieppe mid morning on the 24th. Next was a drive across the top of France to our cottage in a little village South of Bayeux, arriving that evening. July 25th - Gold Beach, Arromanches, Battery at Longues-sur-Mer & Advanced Landing Ground B12 Ellon The first location on our tour was the new Arromanches Museum on the sea front. We had a quick look at the halftrack and field gun outside before going into the museum where an audio guide took us through the story and museum. Once back out, we went right to the sea front to see the remains of the Mulbury Harbour, a section of the pontoon bridge and harbour anchor. Further up the hill was the Royal Engineers Memorial, two more sections of pontoon bridge and a Sherman tank overlooking the bay.

You can buy magnetic plastic on Ebay, so you could just paint your own. Not sure of the legality of non-standard plates vintage plates. On my Jeep, I made the front one fold up behind the bumper. On the Dodge, it's held onto the grille and is removable. I don't bother taking the back ones off.

Fortunately June and the start of July have been quite dry, meaning the main lawn has been firm enough to drive the Dodge over again and again. Much of the bagged top soil was dumped either on the new lawn area, or on the existing lawn next to the new area, so I didn't have far to move it. I've lost count of the number of bags of soil that I've spread out to flatten the area, but finally on the 11th of July, the new lawn was finally seeded. There's still a lot more work for the Dodge to do as there's still more soil to be moved from the driveway, to build up the earth embankment to the right of the railway. That bank will eventually be covered in plants and wild flowers, but they probably won't be planted until early next year.

Early July The Dodge has been busy in the garden again over the first part of July. The last of the ballast was added to the track and the plants cut back so they don't drop plant matter into the gravel. The track area looks much more tidy now. The Dodge was back to hauling bulk bags during the first week of July, after we had around 10 tons of top soil delivered onto the driveway at the front of the house. So far, around 30 bulk bags have been filled up, most of which were transported to the back garden for the new lawn area next to the railway.

June 21st & 26th The Dodge was back on duty hauling ballast for the railway on the 21st and 26th. Five 850Kg bags were delivered and each bag was divided into three loads, all of which were transported to the back garden. Most were delivered to the railway build site, while the last two were dumped by the workshop. The ballasting was almost completed by June 28th.

I almost always use my laptop for browsing the net ( Firefox and Adblock ). I can't stand a tiny ( 6.5 inch ) phone screen unless I really have no other choice. I've just looked at this thread on my Android phone ( Samsung A52 ). There is one advert ( not pop-up ) above the Allied Forces banner advert, then nothing else until the bottom of the page, below all the comments and the "Prev /Next" page links. Going the the American Vehicles section and looking at my Jeep thread, there is one advert above the Allied Forces banner advert again, then amusingly, two identical "Turn Off Ads" adverts, one above and one below the "Prev /Next" page links, then the thread comments begin. There's no other adverts until the bottom of the page, with once more two identical adverts, one above and one below the "Prev /Next" page links and then some further ads below that.

The wheel to wheel arch clearance on the grey one looks much closer than the others, certainly on the front wheel.

There's these two...... and then this one from the N.E. M.V. Club, seen here at Ryhope Pumping Station.

Not sure, there's a few up here. John has owned this one for at least 6 years that I know of, probably more, but I don't know anything of its history. I think there's at least three around here.

With the thunderstorm due around 3pm, the battle in the rail yard was held at 2pm. Everyone started packing up around 3pm and we set off for home soon after, thankfully beating the rain and getting the Jeep packed away in the dry.

The event is spread around the village, with the other main focus at the village community centre. However there were a number of other locations with things going on across the weekend including an England v Germany football match. We had a wander along to the village and I got these pictures of the overgrown rail yard and line on the way back. Their steam loco has run at previous events, but for the last few years it hasn't operated as the boiler certificate expired. It will be a lengthy and expensive task to put it back into operation and I don't know if the museum has the funds.

In the court yard, there were several dioramas, including the French resistance, Beach Assault display and a German camp. While I didn't take any photos of the Wizz Bangs vehicles and display, I did shoot some video of their weapons demonstrations.

Bowes Railway/Springwell Village 1940s Weekend - June 25th Since I was at the Breighton Aerodrome vintage aircraft fly-in on Saturday the 24th, we only did one day at Bowes on Sunday. The weather forecast was looking good for most of the day, but there were thunderstorms due late afternoon. I didn't fancy trying to pack the Dodge canvas away in a thunderstorm when I got home, so decided to just take the Jeep, as that would be quick to put back in the garage. Bowes is a fairly small village event and so there were only around ten vehicles there and half a dozen displays and dioramas. Amongst them were a Kubelwagon and BMW bike and side car. There was one classic car, a few other Jeeps and a Dodge.

I browse with Firefox and Adblock and never knew there was a problem! Never seen a pop up ad here, only the small banner ads for MV insurance etc.

Here's the other Jeep that turned up. I thought I recognised it and it had been at the Stannington show in June last year. The railway has about one and three quarter miles of track heading South East from the museum. We took a ride later in the afternoon. The day was mostly dry, but we did have a very heavy shower part way through the afternoon. I think it was the first rain for several weeks. Further pictures and a short video can be found on my website here - https://www.sacarr.co.uk/mymvs/events/2023/stephenson.htm

There was live music across the day and dance teachers doing demonstration dancing and getting the public involved too. In the museum, they have the third oldest surviving steam loco on display. One of the displays in the museum, depicted a horse drawn coal wagon. This type of coal transport began at Tanfield Railway almost 300 years ago and was the dawn of the world's railways. It was this type of railway that ran across the bottom of our garden many years ago.

Stephenson Railway Museum 1940s Weekend - June 18th Since I was at the Tanfield Railway Steam Gala on Saturday 17th, I could only attend the Stephenson Railway Museum show on Sunday. I'd originally planned to take the Dodge and camp over, but the site has very little space free, and virtually nothing suitable to camp on. As a result, I decided to go to the steam gala for one day and to Stephenson for a day in the Jeep. Due to the limited space, there were only a few displays, but there were several re-enactors. My Jeep was the only one there to start with, but another turned up later. There was also an Austin Cambridge and a BSA bike.