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Why? |
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This webpage explains why Peter Spowage is doing a charity motorbike ride called ‘Round the Outside’. To quote Peter: ‘My blood boiled when I heard of the treatment at a local swimming pool of injured and recovering soldiers. Money was needed to build a separate swimming pool at Hedleigh Court to assist rehabilitation, I began to read more and more about the injuries and suffering so I decided to do something about it’. To quote Norman Tebbit Peter decided to get ‘on his bike’ and combine his passion for motorbikes with raising money for the Forces charity ‘Help for Heroes’. Peter also has a connection to the Forces by means of his father Flight Lieutenant W.F.Spowage D.F.C. (Distinguished Flying Cross) so is also raising money in memory of his father. Peter’s father won the D.F.C. during World War 2 for landing a fully bomb-laden aircraft that was on fire. Flight Lieutenant Spowage was unassuming; so unassuming that he cut the medal ribbon up into pieces and gave each member of the crew a piece as he thought he could never have landed the plane without the help of the crew.. The name of the aircraft was Vergeltungswaffe (German – Vengeance Weapon). Vergeltungswaffe is the name Nazi Germany gave to the ‘V’ series of flying bombs, more commonly known as V1 and V2 or doodlebugs. Nazi Germany sent many Vergeltungswaffe over England, Peter’s father thought it right that Britain sent one back over Germany. ‘Vergeltungswaffe’ is shown below: |
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During the motorbike ride Peter and his brother Denis will be visiting two of the former airfields their father flew from; RAF Waltham and RAF Elsham Woulds in Lincolnshire. The visits will be particularly poignant as this will be the first time the two brothers have visited the former airfields together.
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