Elvington Travel Guide

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In my teens I was given, as birthday presents, books by Nevil Shute - A Town Like Alice and The Far Country. Reading them set me off on a perpetual search for other books by him.. It was my older brother who gave them to me - he had been prevented by a poor health history from joining the RAF but was always fascinated by anything to do with aviation.

It was a long time before I became aware of Shute’s scientific and flying history
Many of his novels were adapted for both the big screen and for TV. He is now I think a neglected and under-rated writer - a real teller of a good tale that encompassed not only all of human life but sets it in the real, fast moving, technological world of the mid-20th century.

So finding a whole section in the Museum’s exhibition Hall devoted to Nevil Shute was, for me, a special pleasure.

It provides an insighful and colourful picture into the life and word of a neglected aviator, scientist and writer.

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I found looking in on these scenes (behind glass) rather moving in spite of the dummy models. To think of 1500 French men and women, members of the Free French Forces - about 500 air crew and 1000 ground staff, being deposited in the Yorkshire countryside while their country was under NAZI occupation brings home the disruption to lives in times of war. They were to serve in their own Squadrons - Guyenne and Tunisie alongside their British allies in the final assaults on the Ruhr, Berlin and Normandy. Many did not live to see the Liberation of their country and the eventual Victory of the Allies.

Memorial in France

But links that survive were forged between the people of the village and the young French men and women.

Links

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I had never before been in such a big Hangar! The height and overall size took me by surprise.
As well as the large aircraft and military vehicles displayed on the floor there are numerous examples of armaments, Rolls Royce and other engines including a Canberra,and a section cordoned off for objects awaiting restoration.
It is possible to experience what it feels like to sit in the cockpit of some of the aircraft. Most exhibits are clearly labelled, some have a written commentary and pictures describing their service and specifications.
Suspended from the rafters there are a number of tiny aircraft - the typical "kites" of the early 20th C.
The walls are decorated with the pictures and stories of aviation inventors and pioneers and the service records of airmen (and a few airwomen) including WW2 heroes.
From snippets of overheard converstion it is evident that this is a place much visited by enthusiasts who return again and again to see "what's new" ?
The Museum is run as a Charity and relies heavily on volunteers to help run and stewards.

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The Yorkshire Air Museum occupies over 20 acres and utilises the original buildings of the RAF Airfield which operated as a Bomber Base here between 1942 until 1945. The losses at Elvington were great - both in terms of allied lives lost and aircraft destroyed.
Its role now is to be a living memorial to all those who served and died here and to tell the story of the history of aviation, not quite starting with Icarus, but from the invention in 1853 by a Yorkshire man, Sir George Caley, of a man-carrying glider, through war and peace to the present day and modern aviation.

The outdoor display has an impressive collection of aircraft in the well kept grounds.
There is so much space that as you see them standing on the apron surrounded by mess huts, a control tower and workshops it is not hard to imagine those scenes seen so often in wartime films and documentaries and the sound of the Scramble Hooter.
Impossible too, not to remember how many of those young men did not return

For any French readers this account may be of interest -

A MemoireFrançaise