Yorkshire Air Museum

Halifax Bomber with poppies (100 years of RAF this year)

A grey and cold day, we decided that as Tom is really in to planes at the moment, we should take him to the Yorkshire Air Museum which is only approx 20 miles away.  After enjoying our breakfast left by our hosts (croissants and chocolate muffin) we arrived pretty much dead on 10 to be greeted  by a very old man who seemed quite confused.  It took him an age to come to the car, then he over charged us entrance and forgot to give us our tickets.  By his own admission, he hadn't had his morning coffee yet - not sure manning the gate was the right place for him?!

There were some big planes parked outside so we went to look at those first - there was Victor, a big cold war bomber which had been converted to a refuelling tanker: explained to Tom what the refuelled does, not sure he believed us!   Also on display a Mirage - French nuclear bomber - there is a big link to France at this base - they had a lot of French pilots here during the war, a Nimrod - reconnaissance plane, Buccaneer: a fighter.

Pilot Tom

Then to a hanger where there were loads more planes including a huge Halifax.  I hadn't even heard of a Halifax, basically very similar to a Lancaster.  There were lots of poppies spilling out of the plane which was very effective.  Next stop was the 'paper planes' - replicas of the Wright Brothers' Plane and a couple of others which just looked ridiculous.

We then went to another hanger, where there were more planes, including a tiny plane which was developed to attack zeppelins, a 2nd world war glider with a perspex side so you had an idea of what they looked inside when packed (how anyone got the courage to go in one of those is beyond my ken!), some tanks, a bus and plenty of other vehicles.

We then found a kiddie section where kids could dress up in overalls and clamber around in cockpits. This was Tom's favourite bit and he happily jumped from one to another.  He seemed to enjoy being the front gunner, where he had to lie on his belly and look down for enemy planes.  Not sure he would enjoy that in real life at -40 degrees!

It was a freezing cold day and when we had finished there we went in search of lunch at the Naafi.  We found it - still a good old canteen where they slopped your lunch on to your plate.  Not sure how authentic it was though as the offering was lasagna (foreign and food of the enemy), chilli (foreign) or beef cobbler.  I went for beef cobbler and very nice it was too.  The boys went for weird foreign food!  No spam anywhere to be found???!!!!

Tom and Victor

Next stop was a display all about Bomber Command.  This air base, Elvington, was home to Bomber Command.  We saw some displays about it and then watched a documentary about it.  The documentary was brilliant - using interviews with veterans.  I had no idea but the attrition rate for Bomber Command was tremendous:  55,573 men died out of 110,000 who joined.  The government were obviously embarrassed at the numbers and tried to ignore them after the war.  They weren't even given a campaign medal or recognised in any way until 2012 when a memorial to them was put up in London - shocking stuff, considering the chances of surviving 10 raids with bomber command was only 1 in 10.  These boys knew they were going to their deaths and they got no recognition for it.  It affected all 3 of us, although I'm not sure how much of the documentary Tom understood.  Hopefully he learnt something.

We saw lots of other displays: French Officers Mess which was very lovely, billets for the regular men - looked very cold, very cramped and very basic, control tower which was full of machines we didn't understand - anyone know what a Mufax is?  There were lots of models of staff with fantastic hair cuts and moustaches though.  There was another building dedicated to airships, another one with Barnes Wallace and the bouncing bomb (wondering if Tom is old enough to watch the Dam Busters yet?) and another one regarding prisoners of war - did you realise that the Scottish Red Cross sent over parcels completely different to the English Red Cross.  Main difference was the Scottish one didn't have a semblance of a vegetable in theirs.

Nimrod

By the time we had looked round everything we were absolutely freezing, so we got back to the car, drove back to our holiday let and put on the mulled wine...and relax!  The wine went to our cheeks immediately but it was worth it.

We had showers to heat up more and then headed out into town for tea.  We went for Italian this time, it was a proper Italian too with loads of menu items other than pizza and pasta.  I went for veggie risotto with Gorgonzola (very tasty) whilst the boys went for pasta.  Tom ate pretty much a full adults portion of smoked salmon pasta whilst Matt went for carbonara which was really tasty too.  Then back home for a game of Rummikub, final of the Great British Bake Off and bed.