XJ Photo-Op Riding Challenge: Military Relics

Now that's a "Grocery Getter" must get at least 4-5 M.P.G. !!

 

Funny you said this,,, he was stranded here for an hour... out of fuel! Road side assistance was kinda out of the question. So his brother showed up in a equally impressive fuel truck.

 

Here are a couple of picks from the american legion post 282.

 

Nice XJrider

 

Hey, is that in La Mesa ???? That is very near my house....

 

Here are a few new ones. I know it's not an XJ but it still works. This was in Keshena, about 60 miles from home.





And since Google Auto Awesomed this for me I thought I'd share.

 

Here's my XJ550 next to a' Pill Box'. At the beginning of WWII invasion seemed a real possibility and thousands of these were built ready for our machine gunners to repel old Adolf and his gang.
This one is on our South East coast.

And without the bike and bollards....

 

I used to live in Guildford, Surrey and rode around the south a lot, care to elaborate where that Pill Box is ? I'm just curious is all

 

That one is at Pegwell Bay. Its on the road between Ramsgate and Sandwich. It had been quite well hidden for many years until the area around it was developed into a wild life sanctuary.

 

This monster was right around the corner from my house.

 

You guys definitely "have the bit" on this one; good stuff! (Is that a British front fender on the Seca? It sure ain't stock and looks a lot like my Norton.) Pic 2 is great! Love the juxtaposition.

Looks like I may actually get some decent weather AND free time this weekend so I can get my own contributions in. I know where there's an F4 Phantom on a pole.

 

I don't know what that fender is from, PO didn't give a whole lot of info when I bought the bike. I've had her for two years now, came with 19,000 miles & I about t0 roll over 38,000.

 

I know it does not really count as there is no motorcycle in the pictures, but I wanted to share some pictures of the events te commemorate that operation Markert Garden took place 70 years ago.
The route taken then goes within 2 km of were I live and within 500 m of where I work.
So I was virtually in the middle of it.
There were several parades of military vehicles along the original route.


And there was a WW2 camp recreated as a base for these vehicles.




BTW Operation Market Garden was an attempt to conquer a bridge across the Rhine and invade Nazi Germany.
If succesfull this may have ended the war in Europe in 1944, but it proved "a bridge to far."

 

It was an ill-fated attempt to take a series of bridges in a lightning advance to cross the Rhine. They got stopped at the last bridge, and the British paratroopers holding it took a real beating.

It's a classic example of "no good plan survives contact with the enemy."

 

The combat Engineer Tractor is not behind the silver car, it has been driven through it. The other one is a Chieftain tank.


Just a few miles from this spot is Sulgrave Manor, the home of the ancestors of a certain Mr. Washington. This spot is about 30 miles from my house.


This memorial stands on the edge of what was the Steeple Morden fighter base. From the airfield flew P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs. Here was based the 355th Fighter Group.


Apparently this is a P51 prop and spinner.


There's some perimeter track and a few buildings, but little else. From the map of the airfield on the plinth (to the left of the memorial, here) it covered the ploughed (brown) field that you can see here. This is about 40 miles East of my place. For more info: http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Cambridgeshire/SteepleMorden355thFighterGroup.html

There are lots of gate guardians on military bases around here, but due to recent events they will be a bit wary of photographers for the time being. Somebody requested that I stopped talking about it and started providing photos. Fair enough! Though when I made my previous post I was without a running bike.

 

GOOD STUFF! And with your XJ no less!

That is most certainly the tippy-nose, spinner and propeller from a P-51.

Were it not for the 355th and the rest of the 8th AF, I wouldn't be here. My dad was a crewman in a Sherman tank, shortly post D-Day. Close air support saved him on more than one occasion.

The 355th is still active; currently based at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tuscon, AZ flying the A-10 Thunderbolt II.

As for the site, you can almost see the ghosts even in your pictures. The field itself holds a greater place in history than any monument can ever portray.

 

I went to just the right airfield, then. Excellent. Here are a couple more, this time very local to me.


This pillbox was built in Wolverton to protect the railway works across the road (right) The loopholes have been glazed and the pillbox is now a shrine; the wall surrounds the garden of a Catholic church.


There's another pillbox in this corner of the garden; this one is now a garden shed. All the loopholes including the ones facing the main road have been filled in. This is about seven miles from my house.


This is at the back of Bletchley Park, and it was this entrance that the dispatch riders used during World War 2.


This was the sentry post. It must have been a cold duty in the winter. This is a mighty three miles from home.

That's all for now.

 

A nice little ride over to Gettysburg PA today..