My Flying Control Jeep - The Ongoing Story

[Jessie The Jeep]

We left Tadcaster just after 10:30, although the convoy was split into a few smaller groups as we tried to get out of the sliproad. It was a ten mile run in to the city centre and upon arrival, we were directed onto the green, to park up in front of the castle.

[Jessie The Jeep]

There were around 46 vehicles that attended the Crank Up. There was a good variety of WW2 and Post War, large and small, with Jeeps probably being most numerable, followed by Land Rovers.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Around noon, I took the long steep climb up the steps to the castle to get  photo of the gathering from above. Apart from a couple of motorbikes, I think pretty much all the vehicles can be seen in this photo.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Most of the vehicles were on the castle side of the green as we were sharing the space with a number of sculptures.

There were a few guys from the North East, who are based about 20 miles south of me, who also made the trip to York in their own convoy. They had come down on the much faster A19 dual carriageway route.

They were heading home the same way, but for the first 23 miles north out of York, it was a slower two lane road, so I followed them until they turned off to the dual carriageway. From there, I followed my original route, via the slower roads and country lanes. It ended up being a 166 mile round trip, using about 3/4 of a tank of fuel.

As a side note, April 16th was also the 9th anniversary of getting "Hope" my '43 GPW back on the road after its restoration.

Further pictures of the Crank Up can be found on my website here - https://www.sacarr.co.uk/mymvs/events/2023/crankup.htm

Edited April 17, 2023 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

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.

[Jessie The Jeep]

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.

[Jessie The Jeep]

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

[Jessie The Jeep]

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.

[Jessie The Jeep]

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.

[Jessie The Jeep]

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.

[Jessie The Jeep]

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.

[ruxy]

5 hours ago, Jessie The Jeep said:

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.

Is the Kubel - the car that's been around the NE for 50+ years , sits a bit low because it is a remount on a VW Beetle chassis  ?

 

[Jessie The Jeep]

21 minutes ago, ruxy said:

Is the Kube.....

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.

[ruxy]

3 qty.  -  more than I was aware of   !  - for many years I only knew of a single  ,  IIRC it did the Beamish Reliability run from abt. 1968 (just after inception) until early 1980's.

[Jessie The Jeep]

2 minutes ago, ruxy said:

3 qty.  -  more than I was aware of.....

There's these two......

and then this one from the N.E. M.V. Club, seen here at Ryhope Pumping Station.

[ruxy]

I need to get about more in summer - with a 6"  ruler   LoL    IIRC the one I knew of was 2" nearer the ground.

[Jessie The Jeep]

1 minute ago, ruxy said:

....the one I knew of was 2" nearer the ground.

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

[ruxy]

6 minutes ago, Jessie The Jeep said:

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

Yes - I realy do need to get out more - signs here that I'm lacking something  , ISTR circa 1980 it was actually owned by two people  - the two who re-purposed the Beetle ,  IRC it was a early  1950's /1960's Beetle prior to & I was reliably informed it was split rear window.  It had Zoom tubes to silencer box  (no heat exchangers) .

[Jessie The Jeep]

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.

[Jessie The Jeep]

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."

[Jessie The Jeep]

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

[Jessie The Jeep]

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.

[Jessie The Jeep]

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.

[Jessie The Jeep]

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.

[Jessie The Jeep]

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.

Edited August 10, 2023 by Jessie The Jeep