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This is the fourth year for the Blackfell school
visit, and each year, it has grown in size. Sadly, some of the people who originally wanted to come, couldn't because of work or mechanical failures, but we still had four vehicles on show and five lectures/demos in the classroom or on the school field.
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We parked up on the school field around 9am then
headed inside for the first lectures. To start the day, John Stelling from the
local aircraft museum gave us the history of RAF Usworth. It was our former
local airfield and once an RAF Sector Station during WW2, although its origins
date back to WW1. That was followed by my dad who gave a talk on life as a
school boy during WW2. This took us to morning break.
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After break, we headed onto the school field where
Paul Browning then gave a comprehensive talk on his impressive collection of
British Airborne kit and weapons. This took us right through to lunch. After
lunch, we headed back to the field and John the Kubelwagon owner, gave a talk
of some of his German kit.
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Miss Dodds, the class teacher, drove the GPW around the field
next and then we went back to the classroom. Because the various talks had
gone on longer than anticipated, I shuffled things around and did a talk and
practical about messages, codes, semaphore and Morse code. This took us to the
end of the day. When school finished, two other teachers wanted Jeep rides,
one of whom also had a go driving. The rain kept away apart from one brief sprinkle and I think we all came away having learned something new.
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