The Club was invited to the VE day celebrations at Chatham
Historic Dockyard held over the weekend of May 7th and 8th. There were lots of
wartime vehicles, display stands and of course the Veterans. The Royal Engineers
were there in force based as they are just up the road at Brompton Barracks with
a bridge layer and various vehicles an stands. It was a good weekend if a little
chilly due to the North wind coming off the Medway. Thanks to Johnny for the
pictures.
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| Here we are on the corner of a
large paved area... |
...with some of the models
parked up behind our banner... |
...overlooking the vehicle
park and other stalls. |
As usual, Jim brought along
his large collection of Dragon figures and dioramas... |
...but it didn't go all his
way as Chris brought along his excellent jeep. |
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| Is Bryan ringing up Howard as
it's been so long since he's driven any of his models? Surely not!!! |
One of the Engineers drives
Bryans Elephant. |
The latest model in the SE
Divisions arsenal is this Sturm Tiger of Johnny's (yes, don't faint!) ex of
Pete Shaw, it has very low operating hours but high mileage as it is well
travelled. |
Robin's loader struggles with
an 88mm shell. |
Howard takes on Jim's King
Tiger with his Leopard II. |
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| Jim's King Tiger rolls past
some bigger brethre. |
Humpy takes it easy and lets
his JP do the work. |
There were a large range of
military... |
...civilian... |
...and commercial vehicles. |
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| This lovely fire engine
positively gleamed in the sunshine. |
This huge US staff car dwarfed
the English cars of the same era. |
This is an Austin K8
ambulance. |
There were various re-enactors
at the celebration with these US troops encamped under the trees. |
As well as all the additional
attractions, all the Dockyards exhibits were open to visitors including HMS
Ocelot, the last ship to be built at Chatham.. |
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| HMS Gannet, the last sloop in
the Royal Navy... |
...and HMS Cavalier the last
wartime Destroyer. |
As well as all the Naval
exhibits, the Dockyard had a huge railway network some of which still exists
and is used for demonstration trains such as this. |
On the Sunday morning a large
parade was led by this band from the Duke of Yorks Royal Military School,
Dover... |
...and followed by various
veterans proudly flying their standards... |
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| ...and a flypast from a couple
of Spitfires to finish it all off. |
This chap is the original
sleeping policeman! |
After lots of gesticulating it
was decided that the Home Guard could do with being taught a lesson... |
...after which they were good
enough to let us help ourselves from their capacious stew pot! |
Johnny sits in Johnny's Sturm
Tiger! |
