L is for The Longest Yarn - Breakout & Aftermath

I went round the exhibition alongside a couple, with whom I got talking, as we danced round each-other, giving space for photographs to be taken or spending a slightly longer or shorter time lingering over a specific scene, and the lady was saying she had her Father's log-book, from his time serving as a landing-craft captain/pilot. He and his crew crossed the English Channel 50-odd times between D-Day and December 1944 - roughly, a four day cycle.

 

Among the more obvious military cargos, and returning casualties, was the fact that he did several laundry-runs, not something one would consider, but with the initial breakout being followed by another11-months of hard fighting across Northern France, the Low Countries and into Germany, laundry for hundreds of thousands of troops would have been a very real problem!

Following, very much, the narrative of the book and subsequent film 'The Longest Day' by Cornelius Ryan, one is left wondering, as one sees familiar scenes in the exibition, how many stories, heroes, events and names have been lost in the retelling, but isn't that all history?

 

I can't recommend this highly enough, it's quite an esoteric thing, but done with love, and I would urge anyone who gets the chance, to get along and view it. I will try to keep an eye on its progress and report any new dates, but for now these are the one's pencilled-in for the near future;

 

November 21st - December 5th 2024

Stoke Minster, Glebe St., Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST4 1LP

 

December 7th - January 10th 2025

Tewksbury Abbey, Church Street, Tewksbury, Gloucestershire, GL20 5RZ

January 13th - February 8th 2025

St, Makartins Church, Church Street, Enniskillen, BT74 7DW

February 10th - March 1st 2025

Norwich University of East Anglia

2nd Air Division Memorial Library, Millennium Plain, Norwich, Norfolk, NR2 1TF

March 3rd - April 1st 2025

Peterborough Cathedral, Minster Precinct, Peterborough, Northamptonshire, PE1 1DX

April 25th 2025 - ? (TBC)

NAS Wildwood Aviation Museum

500 Forrestal Road, Cape May, New Jersey, NJ 08204, USA

(www.usnasw.org)

 

Cheack dates before travelling!