Bobby’s on Bicycles

 Nope, haven’t seen any. But yesterday five mounted Bobby’s were unceremoniously dumped from their steeds when road work spooked them into a furious race around the city. Don’t mean to make light of a serious event because a couple of the officers needed medical attention, and worse, the horses had multiple serious injuries  

I’m realizing how much I don’t know about London, and I’ve had some misconceptions clarified  I’ve pictured London as a quaint old city with a stiff upper lip attitude; true but not true, its population is not that much different than New York City. It moves about as fast, and seems just as international. It does feel more organized and polite., and the one thing I got right was the taxis, they express my perception of English culture perfectly. 

Our adventures today included a cultured side and an uncultured side.  But first we had an interesting lunch at a large market in an old church.   Beautiful setting, with many nationalities represented in food choices. I had Indian, don’t know what it was called but it was a stuffed potato. If, like me, you thought that was an oxymoron; think again. Don’t know how they got black beans, and lots of other Indian stuff in that spud but they did. It was hotter than it was tasty. It did give me what I was looking for, the experience. 

Early in the afternoon we visited the Victoria and Albert Museum.   

Wikipedia says, “ The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

The uncultured event can’t be found on Wikipedia  I think you call it a “hold my beer and watch this” event. It was called the Rocket on the Thames  It amounted to a first half narrated leisurely boat ride to see the city sights from the river, and a strap yourself in and hold on boat ride for the finale, Did I mention it was rainy and cold. I guess we can classify it as another experience. Nuff said about that  

Traditional steak dinner to end the day and sleep was a welcomed. Tomorrow we’re off to Oxford and Cotswalds, where we will visit Churchill’s home.

The Churchill Factor

 I mentioned earlier that Robert doesn’t give us a schedule of events on his trips so I didn’t know that we would be visiting.one of my all-time favorite hero’s war bunkers.. We had an after hours tour of the war bunker in London that Churchill and his political and military leaders managed and developed strategy during the Second World War. 

The Map Room was especially interesting; manned 24 hours a day, collecting information from army, navy and air commands, it served as central war intelligence center for all British military operations. You can see that the telephone was the main source of information. All telephones call were encoded to maintain strict security. Primitive by our standards but cutting edge in WWII. 

This map showed all 8th AAF air bases in England. The use of the “red” phone in the first picture was unknown, but speculation places it as a direct link to Churchill. 

Churchill personally managed the map and war room operations and had an adjacent private room with office and sleeping arrangements. 

The war room was large enough for all the elected officials who weee involved in managing the war and the three chairs in the center were for army, navy and air commanders. Churchill had them directly in front of him and regularly verbally attacked them to keep up the pressure when, in the early days of the war before we joined, seemed pretty hopeless. 

We are fortunate that Churchill was elected because Chamberlain opted for a capitulation to the Germans which could have changed the course of our history. This was a very good tour experience. 

Another first time experience was being served a six course dinner on a bus driving around London. It was very well done and for our group a great party atmosphere with music and visits by the chef. Eating is one of the important aspects of travel, and this was certainly a special “eating”. Cheers, Jim

1: Brioche and Brie 

2: Tuna TarTar and Avocado 

3: Salmon seared with steamed Leaks

4: Lamb Chops over a Sweet Potato purée 

5: Cheese course, light and semi-sweet 

6: Panacotta with Mango sauce

And, of course just the right taste of the appropriate aperitifs, wines and digestives. 

The Kingdom of the Crown

 We landed in London about noon, made it through Customs without issue and began our search for the Underground.

It’s a fairly long trip from Heathrow to the Westminster area where we will be staying for the first three nights of our trip. Taxi and Uber are both over $100 bucks. Actually, when we travel we try to take public transportation, mostly just to see if we can do it, but it does give a better visitor experience. 

The Underground took us within a half a mile or so from our hotel, the Saint Ermin’s in the Westminster district, but the climb out of the “tube” was a bit of a struggle with two sections of stairs. The St  Ermin fits the role of hotels 

Robert choses well and the Ermin’s fits the bill  Rooms while cozy, are well appointed and comfortable  

We took a walk about to keep awake after a sleepless night in the air and our hotel is located in a London tourist target rich environment.  

Our walk about took three hours or so and we made it back to the hotel and freshened for an early dinner. Pam had been looking for restaurants near our hotel and we decided on the Chez Antoinette. Good decision. 

We chose a small plate fare with steak tartar with soft egg, cheese selections, a pate of something I’m not sure of (but good), prosciutto, pepperonis, a warm baguette, and a nice cab made for a great first UK dinner. 

To bed early to let our bodies catch up with our minds. First day colder than expected but just a little rain, pretty good for London. Tomorrow, Jim

Switching Gears

I’ve been writing about my father, Vic’s WWII, POW experiences, but today Pam and I leave for a couple of weeks in the UK. If you’ve read earlier posts you know we have traveled with Robert StJohn for the last five or six years. 

Robert is a restauranteur from Hattiesburg, MS, who also takes small groups on really well planned, organized and guided European tours. This will be our fifth trip with Robert and hopefully we can continue traveling with his team. While we enjoy our guided tours with Robert, we more enjoy our independent travel  Although, Pam spends hours in talking with B and B owners, reading reviews and ensuring we always have a place to sleep when we get to our destinations. 

One of the interesting features of Robert travel is the itinerary, there isn’t one. We always know where we’re spending nights, but other trip details are surprises. So far, the surprises have been remarkably significant. Like having a balcony above Valencia Las Fallas. I didn’t know what it was either, but think Mardi Gras on steroids. I won’t go on but you see what I mean. I’ll keep you posted. 

Jesse Marin, Robert’s guide on this trip has become a friend and has provided private tours for us in Italy. It’s his livelihood and I’ll hook you up with him if you should want his help. Great guy and if knows you are from Mississippi, he’ll probably show up with a Bulldog quarter zip. 

Interesting note, we just boarded our plane for the first leg of our trip and we’re sitting next to Bart Gregory, one of our “voice of the Bulldogs” broadcast team members. Later, Jim

Vic’s War in the Air

 I became interested in my father’s wartime experience, regrettably after he left us and was not available for me to question about the finer points of his experience. I say finer points because a crew mate of his, in later life, penned his POW memoirs. My father, Vic, and this crew mate, Len, both gone now, bailed out together, were captured together and I believe spent their fifteen months of captivity together. 

Also, Francis Troy, a “Man of Confidence” was a gunner on dad’s crew and I believe dad was in his marching group. Francis, Men of confidence were elected by their prisoner peers and served as liaisons to the German camp officers. Men of confidence usually had more historical records associated with them than other POWs which further benefited my research. 

Early 1943, allied forces won the battle in North Africa and in June launched an attack on Sicily and in September 1943 on southern Italy. When the Italian forces capitulated (the Germans didn’t and fought hard to save Italy) and halted any serious military operations, US engineers built a system of air fields in southern Italy that could assist the airmen flying from 15th AAF bases in UK and extend bombing efforts deep into the eastern axis territory. 

Vic arrived at San Pancrazio air field, Italy in late 1943, where he would make seven bomb missions, the last being to destroy ball bearing factories in Steyr, Austria on February 23, 1944. Pam and I visited Steyr and the factory complex in question; it is still there and still making ball bearings.

The conditions in a B-24 at 24K feet are far from ideal when simply flying, but when Luft waft fighters are trying to shoot you down and ground batteries are trying to blow you out of the sky with thick burst of radar aimed flack, it’s an absolute miracle any of our boys made it out alive. They did though and they are the reason, in my book, that we were able to land ground forces and win the war. 

Vic’s plane was lost after a successful bomb run to a head-on attack by a ME-109 fighter.  He said things happened too fast to react; he shared that bullets passed through the engine next to the fuselage on his side (right) an then destroyed the right vertical stabilizer (the B-24 is twin-tailed). The engine cowlings began to fly apart and the plane went into a slow spiral downward. The pilot stabilized the plane and rang the “bailout” alarm.  Vic’s account agrees closely with Len’s memoir. The entire crew bailed out, were captured and made it home to build post-war lives. They also carried home the emotional trauma of their experiences and continued to pay the high price for our freedom.

I asked Vic one time how many practice jumps he had before he bailed out. He said none. I then asked if it was hard to jump out an airplane for the first time. Not hesitating he said, “it’s not hard to jump out of a burning plane”.  Jim

Kriegie Kids

A Kriegie Kid is the child of an ex-WWII POW. Kriegie is a shortened version of kriegsgefangene which means prisoner of war. The Kriegie Kids that make up our travel team are a worthy group not because of any personal attributes, but because of the commitment of our fathers. 

Our Travel Team

A University of Michigan WWII researcher (Laura and sister Ellen W.), two management consultants (me and Rich) and a public relations executive, (Ellen H.), make up our group of  Kriegie Kids explorers.  Spouses who elect to join our group will be along.  Pam will accompany me, Liz will join Rich and Dave will be along with Ellen W.  I’ll reserve sharing  last names for internet privacy.  However, Laura our member author, has written one of the best and most extensively documented accounts of a WWII prisoner of war who happens to be her father, I have read in my research on my father’s (Vic) POW experience.  Laura’s book can be found on Amazon; search On the Wings of Dawn, American Airmen as Germany’s Prisoners.  

I met Ellen H., our PR expert, when I read that she would be making a  presentation to the American Legion in Starkville (my town) about her father’s time as a prisoner of war.  As it turns out our fathers were in the same Stalag and shared many of the same hardships.  Ellen H. is also from Starkville and, I remember after she brought it to my attention, that her father had a service station in Starkville when I was in college. 

Laura and Ellen have been able to bring valuable research information to the group, as they made a 2016 visit to Stalag IV, the prison where all of our fathers were held and a number of other important Death March waypoints.  

Rich, my consulting counterpart, was welcomed into our group in the latter stages of our trip planning and has become a valuable asset in helping to organize the many travel details involved in getting a group of eight English speaking Kriegies to make and confirm hotel and rental car reservations with non or partial English speaking proprietors.  Rich and Liz and Pam and I will be sharing a rental car and plans are to be driving around two thousand kilometers during our excursions. Rich and Liz live in one of my favorite towns of all time, Charleston, SC.

Also traveling with us will be Christine and Susanne and Christine’s television film crew from ARTE television in Strasbourg, France.  I’ll save the television details to a later post but tell you a little about Christine and Susanne.  

Christine is a television producer, I may be taking some liberties with titles and descriptions here, but with good intentions, with ARTE and is coordinating our trip with regard to the proposed documentary filming.  Susanne, a German WWII historian who must know everyone in Germany who knows anything about the war and US POWs is organizing lots of interesting events and important venue stops as we travel.  Christine and Susanne will also be valuable in communications, our collective German language understanding is “danke”.  

The more we learn about the tribulations of the POWs we know without a doubt that our fathers were not representative of the greatest generation, they were the greatest generation. They would not claim that title and would be uncomfortable with the thought. Most of them would simply say, “we were just doing our job and trying to get home”.   Danke, Jim

Spring 2024, UK/Germany/Poland

Monday, April 15, 2024

Pam and I are preparing to hit the road early next week to continue our travels. This trip will take us to United Kingdom for a London refresher and on to Liverpool, you can guess what we’ll be doing there, and then to other interesting English stops. We progress northward to the Scottish Highland, Skye, and places I’ll report on along the way. 

Our UK trip concluded we will fly from Edinburgh to Frankfurt and meet up with a few other folks with whom we share similar family histories. Our fathers were all airmen shot down bombing axis powers and became prisoners of war during WWII. 

We will be recreating the Death March, a 600 hundred mile, 86 day forced march in an attempt by Hitler to hold US boys hostage to use as bargaining chips at war’s end. We’ll visit prison camps and “barn hospitals” as we drive the march route. Much more to come on that world war atrocity and the French/German television documentary that will be filmed as we recreate the March. Our plan is to honor our fathers’ commitment and sacrifice for freedom. 

We hope you will join us on our trip. As always, blame spelling errors on autocorrect and punctuation miscues on my English comp prof. Cheers, Jim