The Operations Room

A fabulous day out today at Duxford with my good friends G, M and M. The photo is from the Operations Room which is set out exactly as photos show as taken in the Summer of 1940. Whilst looking at the equipment, charts and plans which mapped out the movements of the aircraft overhead, you listen to the sounds heard during a German air raid. Impossible to imagine how busy and how awful this must have been.

Three of us also paid extra to sit in a Spitfire and have the instruments and pedals pointed out to us. Whilst there was more legroom than I expected, the instruments seemed fairly close and it must have been quite claustrophobic with the canopy closed. A special experience and quite thought provoking to have your feet on the rudder pedals, hands on the spade grip-style stick and finger on the gun trigger.  We all took the opportunity to see inside a Lancaster bomber too and see a 'bouncing bomb' such as used in the dambuster raid.. Amazing to hear how cold the crew would have been and how basic everything seemed.  A great day of experiences.