RAF Tour 2

I'm calling this an RAF tour, though it's not strictly all RAF related. Another chance to get out on Ginny and visit some memorials, to those who risked and lost their lives in the skies above Britain during WWII.

I started off by making my way down to the airfield at Headcorn. This is quite a busy place. From here you can take a parachute jump or even a flight in a 2 seater Spitfire. In normal times, they have quite a few events/air shows on during the year. There were some aircraft taking off whilst I visited, including a wing walker Boeing Stearman.

I watched for a while, then sought out the memorial, which was my reason for stopping off. 

From Headcorn, I went down to the outskirts of a village called Hamstreet, where there is a memorial, called Johnson's Corner Memorial, in memory of a US Flying Fortress pilot. Limping back from the continent, it became clear that the aircraft wasn't going to make it back to base. The pilot, Lieutenant William "Bill" Johnson, ordered his crew to bale out. Realising that if he did, the aircraft would crash into the village of Hamstreet, he stayed on board to pilot the plane away from the village, paying the ultimate price in doing so. Here I had my picnic, in the small garden in which the memorial stands.

Another, ex WWII airfield, now gone but now with an Aeronautical museum on site, at Brenzett. As with most of these places, there's a memorial.

From Brenzett I made my way to the coast and to a car park just behind Greatstones beach. There, hidden out of the way almost, is a memorial to another USAF aircraft crash. Not far from this site, a Liberator bomber came down, after taking a direct hit on the nose from an 88mm anti-aircraft gun. 2 crew were killed instantly. 2 more were killed when baling out over the sea, having insufficient height for their parachutes to open but 7 of the 11 crew survived the forced landing.

Heading back towards home now, I stopped at a memorial to Pilot Officer Arthur Clarke, who was killed when his Hurricane crashed nearby, having been shot down during the Battle of Britain. He was just 20 years old.

Finally, I made my way back to the other side of Headcorn airfield, where there is a memorial to US and Canadian air crews, who flew from the airfield.

Another lovely day for riding but sobering and thought provoking subject matter. Lest We Forget.