From the Rector - The Organisational Challenge

In last May’s “Faith Matters” I wrote about the challenge to identify and raise up leaders amongst us.  The challenge is still before us.  Let me repeat myself, and bring you up to date.

In the last six years we have experienced sustained and gradual growth at St Faith’s.  The congregation has grown in size to an average now of over 120 on a Sunday, with others attending mid-week.  Our main service of worship, the Eucharist, involves a large number of people in a variety of roles, serving, reading, singing, assisting with communion, leading prayers, welcoming people, decorating and cleaning the church.  The church shop is going very well and raising funds for the church.  We are supporting missions in Ghana and Japan, through prayer partners, and we hope to host this summer another visit, this time of lay people from our link church in Nsawam, Ghana.

The children and youth work has been largely responsible for the growth in the church.  The Sunday Club provides a superb experience of church for the young people and the Youth club gives them opportunity to relax and build relationships with each other.  We have begun to establish a Crèche for Sunday mornings and a team is being set up to assist with pastoral care, so that we can expand our provision and not rely exclusively upon the clergy.

These last two indicate the challenges of growing – there is always more we can and need to do.  Because we are growing, there are more people to minister to and care for.  There is a greater need for discipleship – to help people who want to learn more and go deeper into the faith, through Bible study, prayer or discussion groups.  Christmas 2006 our Christmas Eve service was so big we had to put on two for Christmas 2007.

If we look at the final verses of the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we can see how the new church community, which was newly formed after the Ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, occupied itself (Acts 2 verses 42–47).  You can see that this first church, led by the disciples was based upon five areas: service (sharing what they had with each other), worship (attending the temple, breaking bread in their homes and praising God), fellowship (being devoted to fellowship and gathering together), outreach (adding to their number daily) and discipleship (devoting themselves to the apostle’s teaching).  These five areas of the life of this new community has been the basis of church life ever since.

Thus we resolved to organise ourselves around these same areas of the church’s life at St Faith’s.  At a PCC meeting in September 2007, the Council approved our revised Mission Statement, reflecting these five areas of working. This is it:

We offer you the chance to deepen your spiritual life in Jesus Christ.

We do this by:

·         Welcoming all to

o        Men’s & Women’s Groups

o        Youth and Child­ren’s groups

o        Social activities

·         Praising God in

o        the Eucharist

o        music

o        mid-week services

o        silent prayer sess­ions

·         Deepening faith through a variety of groups that focus upon

o        the Bible

o        prayer

o        spirituality

·         Caring for and serving one another.

Our Mission is to increase the spiritual well-being of the community by being an open, accessible and inclusive community, which offers relevant Christian teaching, fellowship, worship and care for one another.

At the same meeting we also decided to seek to appoint five co-ordinators for each of the areas of Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry and Mission in St Faith’s.  The appointment of these co-ordinators is still going on, but we hope to have an executive group in place by the spring time.

I envisage this executive group of co-ordinators will have as their purpose:

• Co-ordinating the various groups and activities within each area of the church (so for Worship, Fellowship… etc)
• Enabling good communications between these groups and activities
• Providing support for the leaders of those groups
• Working with the Rector to plan ahead
• Where required, establishing leaders for new areas of the church’s work.

As well as these established five areas I also recognise a sixth group, that of fund-raising, which is the area Martin Poliszczuk has recently taken up in the role of co-ordinator.

As soon as co-ordinators are established and the scheme is up and running they will be introduced to you.  In the meantime, please pray for the ministry of the church and for those whom God is calling to leadership in his church.

David

60-70s Disco Night – 7.30pm Friday 25 April in Church Hall

For details contact Deborah Creasy on 023 9249 8828

The Lindbergh Mystery

Last month we read about the aviation exploits of Charles Augustus Lindbergh and I mention at the end that there was a sad tale to come of the Lindbergh baby.  Lindbergh had met Anne Spencer Morrow at the American embassy in Mexico where her father, Dwight Morrow, was ambassador.  He had flown to Mexico City on a goodwill visit in the “Spirit of St Louis”.  Eighteen months later, on 27 May 1929, the couple married.  They spent their honeymoon cruising for two weeks in a small motor launch off Long Island and the New England coast, doing their best to avoid the press.  After his feat of flying the Atlantic, Lindbergh had become a celebrity, with crowds and the media always around him.  There is no doubt that he loved the limelight.  The library in Waterlooville managed to get me Lindbergh’s autobiography, “Charles A Lindbergh” which was completed in draft form when Lindbergh suddenly died from cancer in 1974.  A friend edited the draft and the book was duly published.  It runs to 426 pages but baby Charles occupies just three short paragraphs of it.

This is how Lindbergh’s account of the abduction starts:  “On March 1, 1932, for my wife and me all material values were shattered by the kidnapping of our infant son.”  The baby was 19 months old when he was taken in the evening from his nursery room in the Lindbergh’s home at Sourland Mountain, near Hopewell, New Jersey.  Lindberg tells us: “I curtailed my aviation activities and began working with federal, state and city police hunting for the kidnapper.”  The whole world waited anxiously for news of baby Charles but, sad to record, his body was found a few weeks after his abduction on the edge of nearby woods.  Months went by while all the law enforcement agencies followed up lead after lead without success.  Lindbergh tells us:  “Newspaper publicity continued to be so intense, so inaccurate and sensational, that it resulted in our suffering threats, extortion letters, and the presence of sightseers in such numbers that I had to arrange for an armed guard to protect our second son, who was born in August of the same year.”  Incredibly, the day after the baby’s disappearance, Anne Lindberg wrote to her father saying that she thought that husband Charles had been involved in the kidnapping!  Shades of the controversy surrounding the McCann’s over the disappearance of Madeleine! 

Some two years went by when in Lindbergh’s own words:  “In the fall of 1934, while I was in California, I received a message from the New Jersey State Police saying they thought the kidnapper had been apprehended.  I flew back to the east coast and for months became involved in investigations and testimony related to the trial of the arrested man.”  The man was a carpenter named Bruno Haupmann, a German citizen born in Berlin.  He was eventually found guilty and executed in the electric chair.  The late Ludwig Kennedy wrote a book some years ago titled “The Airman and the Carpenter” which set out a powerful and persuasive argument that Haupmann did not murder the Lindberg baby.  I recently saw an old documentary in which Kennedy says, “I have complete conviction that Haupmann did not murder the kidnapped baby.”  So what is the evidence that caused all these doubts and controversies?  For that you must get next month’s “Faith Matters”.

Roger Bryant

Putting the Church back into Weddings

The Parish Church of Swanmore, St Barnabas, has great pleasure in presenting: The Hampshire Wedding Fair 2008 .on Saturday 12^th April from 11am to 4pm. Entrance is £2 which includes entry in the prize draw, a programme and directory of all exhibitors plus the first 100 guests will be greeted with a complimentary glass of bubbly.  Just follow the pink signs; car parking is free.  Doors open at 11am, and we look forward to seeing you there! 

For more information, see www.thehampshireweddingfair.co.uk

 Accommodation Required

Rod and Glenda Thomas, the missionaries that we support in Japan, will need accommodation when they come to England with their two teenage daughters for their daughter Amy's wedding in St Faith's in June.  They will be over here from 16 June to 13 August and could house sit for anyone on holiday for all or part of that time.  Please telephone Rosemary Thomas on 023 9248 3836 if you are able to help.

Indian Food Evening

There is an Indian Food Evening on Wednesday 9 April at 7.30pm at the Havant URC Church Hall.  There will be a variety of foods to sample (including vegetarian) and a simple cookery demonstration.

There is also a speaker from Cred Jewellers of South Street, Chichester.  Come along and find out more.  Tickets £6, to include a drink from Ann & Robin Hine 023 9248 3354.  All proceeds will be 50/50 to Havant URC Buildings Fund and APK Health Clinics, Uttar Pradesh.      

My South America Adventure

When I saw the brochure I was hooked.  The trip of a life time beckoned.  The Amazon to Argentina.  Wow!  I was on the phone to book our places as soon as Don walked in the door.  We could hardly wait to set off.  It was to me something I had wanted to do since I heard a talk about John Blashford Snell’s adventures on that very river and I own a copy of his book!  Why you might wonder?  Well I think it was the idea of rain forest and exotic fauna and flora, exciting ports of call, like Parentim, Santarem, Belém, culminating at the Paris of South America – Buenos Aires, not to mention Montevideo in Uruguay and Rio de Janeiro with its wonderful statue of Christ the Redeemer gazing down from the mountain top on the way. 

We were on our way just three weeks after our decision to make the journey.  Our plane, the big “Red Flying Carpet” – Brazilian Airlines – flew us to São Paulo overnight and we arrived in Brazil early in the morning.  Our flight onwards to Manaus was soon underway and several hours later we reached our destination.  Rather tired but keen to get our first sight of the Amazon we made our way to the arrivals lounge.  There we were greeted by Paulo and Louis – our Amerindian guides for our stay in the Eco Lodge which, as it turned out, was on the River Negro!  They were great.  “Welcome”, they said, “you have realised your dream!”  We were taken by bus to the waiting boats – luggage lower deck – us top deck.  Our adventure was about to begin.

Soon we came to the Eco Lodge.  A white sandy beach with grass covered sun umbrellas wasn’t quite what we expected!  However, we were soon walking into the coolness of the lodge reception area and, having already been given help with our luggage, we were given the key to our little wooden hut!  It was raised up on stilts with steps up to the door.  Opening up we peered inside – pitch black!  The switching on of the light revealed the fact that the shutters at the windows were closed as you would expect in temperatures of 30ºC.  Later on we found that the windows were not glazed but covered in metal mesh – to keep out unwelcome visitors.  The fact that we had running water – albeit cold – and electric light was quite a relief actually.  I guess that many years of camping in the rain in England, Wales and Scotland has diminished my enthusiasm for roughing it!  Well we had a quick wash and brush up and after a lovely lunch we were all set to don our jungle fatigues and explore the rain forest. 

That first afternoon we were taken to the monkey sanctuary, just a little way up the river, by canoe – motorised, not paddles.  We found a very well run monkey rescue and rehab centre.  Woolly, red faced capuchin and others.  Some were caged, in care as it were, while others swung through the trees overhead.  Small huts had been built where food was put out for them by the rangers. 

We returned to the Lodge and although a cayman hunt was planned, not to mention another meal, I decided that sleep was more of a priority, so I called it a day.  After all we had been on the go for almost 28 hours!

The next day (Monday) dawned fine and a jungle walk was on our itinerary.  We again prepared ourselves for “bitey” flies, ants, snakes and spiders, and set off with our machete welding guides Paulo and Louis.  While we walked and enjoyed the noises and smells of our surroundings, one of the young guides with us wove palm crowns for all the girls to wear!  I still have mine – perhaps I will wear it to church one day!  Well, after all our insect repellent, etc., we were told that “mossies” don’t like the sort of water available in this part of the Amazon delta!  Rather a relief really – but we did have to beware of the 1” long ants.  Young boys have to undergo an initiation ceremony involving these delightful creatures!  There were also so many trees to learn about.  One produces a sap that can be fed to babies, one is used in Milk of Magnesia, one fed the sloths and one produces resin used in rubber!  What ever you do, don’t get them confused!

After lunch, we were taken on foot to a clearing where we were to be entertained by local people dancing and plying musical instruments.  We were invited to join in!  I had my face painted tribal style – not a look I will repeat.  We returned to the Lodge by canoe, after a little tour in and out of inlets and bays where we were able to spot cayman and various birds, macaws, toucans, herons, kingfishers and osprey, to name but a few.

The next day (Tuesday) we boarded the cage boats for a visit to Manaus.  We were taken to see the Opera House, where as luck would have it, a rehearsal was in progress – the Brazilian Philharmonic plus an Opera singer.  We stayed for a while to listen – wonderful.  We then visited the market – piles and piles of all sorts of fruit, bananas, plantains, pumpkins, etc., and masses of fish of all sorts, many we did not recognise.  Then it was on to the river front where cage boats were being loaded with supplies for their journey down river to Belém.  We returned for lunch and had some free time to explore the grounds and relax in the hammocks!  Later on in the evening we went piranha fishing.  I didn’t catch a single one, but some people did and the fish were promptly fried and eaten – very good they were too.  By the way, there were about 40 of us intrepid Eco Warriors who would later be joining the cruise ship at Manaus for the rest of the journey to Argentina.  It was rather nice to be able to get to know one another before we met up with the 200 passengers (plus 170 crew) later on.

On our last day (Wednesday) before we were to join the ‘Spirit of Adventure’ we set off after breakfast in the rain to board the cage boat which was to take us to Manaus later that day.  We had had a very wet night.  The rain even came through the roof of our hut!  The electricity failed too.  What a good idea the candles were!

We said our goodbyes to our wooden huts and the Eco Lodge and the beach and once more headed towards Manaus.  We didn’t stop here however; we carried on and eventually arrived at a floating restaurant for lunch.  We saw some of the floating garden that Monty Don included in his series on Gardens of the World.  We then went to visit a village where the children came out to see us holding cayman, anaconda and sloths for us to hold, touch or cuddle! 

Earlier in the day, we had seen the fantastic sight of the “meeting of the waters”!  The two rivers – the Negro and the Amazon come together.  One white and one brown.  The water does not mix.  One is milky and the other clear and one is colder than the other.  The two lots of water swirl together forming a pattern.  They flow side-by-side like this for some miles before eventually merging to flow out to sea.  After this we were taken back to Manaus to join our cruise ship for the rest of our trip.  We still had the rest of the river to explore and many more sights to see.  I must admit the thought of a hot shower was inviting!  Our guides escorted us to the gangway.  We were sorry to say goodbye to Paulo and Louis, raised in the jungle as children, now doing a splendid job as English speaking rangers.  We thanked them for sharing their world with us for those few days.  I wonder if we will ever return.  Who knows?

Next time I will tell you about the Boi Mumba Folklore show at Parentim and more of the amazing country of Brazil (or Brasil as she prefers!)

Shirley Caunter

 

The APCM and our new PCC - should you stand for election?

This is the month when you must decide: is God calling you to use your gifts to serve us, your local church?  It is time that you became a lay leader?

The Anglican Church has not always welcomed laity in positions of leadership.  Before the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919, the administration and finances of a parish were, in law, almost entirely in the hands of the incumbent and his churchwardens.  The parishioners had little or no say in anything that went on, except to help in appointing churchwardens.  While church councils had been set up in many urban parishes, they existed only at the whim of the incumbent, and could be dissolved at any time.

But the fact that these early PCCs existed at all was proof of how much the laity wanted to share the burdens of parochial administration, and proof also that the clergy wanted to include them!

Things changed in 1919, when Parochial Church Councils were given a legal status for the first time.  Rules as to who should be on a PCC, and how its meetings should be conducted soon followed.  Down the years since then, there have been many revisions and fine-tunings of the system.

So - how does a PCC get there in the first place?  Well, the basis of the whole scheme is the electoral roll.

An electoral roll is found in every parish.  It is simply the list of people who are qualified electors in any given parish.  To qualify for the electoral roll in a parish, you have to be: - over 16- baptised - a communicant member of the C of E or at least of a Church in communion with the C of E - a resident in the parish, or be registered as a non-resident elector.

But how do you get from the electoral roll to the PCC?  Well, this all happens at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting.  The Rules state that an 'annual parochial church meeting'  (APCM) must be held not later than the 30^th April every year, and that everyone whose name is on the electoral roll of the parish is invited to attend.

This APCM is most important: it elects lay members of the parochial church council.  (These lay members must also be on the electoral roll, be actual communicants, and at least 17 years old.)

The APCM has other business as well: - the election (triennially) of lay representatives to the deanery synod, - the election of sidesmen, - the receiving of parochial and other reports, - and the general discussion of church and parochial affairs.

It is usual for the first PCC meeting of the year to be shortly after, the APCM.

So when you attend the APCM on Sunday 27^th April should you stand also for the PCC this year?  It is something to pray about, and to consider before God whether your gifts might not be of use to the local church.

Your PCC has a number of duties and responsibilities: it must look after the financial affairs of the church, the care, maintenance and insurance of the fabric of the church and its goods and ornaments, and the care and maintenance of the churchyard.  So we need people with talent and skills!

The PCC also has the power to buy and manage property for purposes that affect our parish, the power to frame an annual budget of money in order to maintain the church's work, and the responsibility to contact the bishop with regard to any matter that affects the welfare of our church.

If you think this might be you, please contact the Rector or the PCC Secretary, Roger Bryant.   

       

 Nuts in May

‘You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps.’  We’ve all seen this notice in shops and offices and perhaps it would be particularly appropriate for the Christian Aid Bargain Shop in St Faith’s Hall.  There we are, surrounded by other people’s cast-offs: bric-à-brac, books, clothes and the miscellany that ends up on the stage.  The quality varies from excellent (“Why on earth would anyone get rid of this?”) to the disgusting (“Not even fit for the rag merchant”) and at times the sheer quantity of goods coming in threatens to overwhelm us.

However it is also great fun, because we enjoy the teamwork, each year meeting old friends whom we see at no other time and getting to know new ones.  The customers too are interesting, for with some we have built up a relationship over the years, watching the children grow.  We look out for our regulars, speculating what might have happened if they don’t appear.  Flagging helpers join the customers at the ‘café’ and returned refreshed to their tasks, just as the customers’ tour the stalls again, to spend more money.

There are the comic incidents, as when a man turned up very shamefaced one morning just before opening time to confess that he’d left a bag of laundry behind on the afternoon before: his clothes had to be rescued from various stalls, and even from the rag-bag.  Once we found that a double-bass player had left his bow behind after rehearsal on the previous evening.  Fortunately his name was in the case and after the next rehearsal we found a generous donation in the tin.

All this requires a large team, so now we are ‘gathering nuts in May’ who during the fortnight 3^rd - 17^th May will give some time and enthusiasm to the enterprise.  We need people to man stalls, especially bric-à-brac, books and plants: are you an expert in one of these areas, or have you perhaps a friend who is?  Could you use your car to collect goods, particularly on Friday 2^nd May, when we set up the shop, or to take rubbish to the tip during the fortnight?  Can you wash and iron clothes, bake cakes, make tea, wash up, grow plants?  Delivering leaflets, and in some cases collecting goods, before we open is a vital part of the operation.  None of these activities need mean a massive commitment, because even an hour is of use.

Those who are housebound can also be part of the team, because you can support the shop with your prayers, not just that we may make a large sum of money, but thinking of the staff so that, in the words of Edmund Banyard, ‘as we face ... the petty irritations ...  we may lose neither our sense of proportion nor our sense of humour.’  Above all, pray that our customers may become more responsive to the needs of the developing world, for in the long term that will be our greatest achievement.

Join the ‘nuts in May’: you won’t regret it.  Your contact at St Faith’s is Valentine Searle.

Jennifer Moore-Blunt (Havant Christian Aid Secretary)   

Correspondence Column

The Rector received an email from Joy McPerson (née Stanley) in Australia. “I have been doing a bit of family history research and have discovered my paternal great-grandmother died in Havant in 1925.  Her name was Martha Stanley (née Tasker) wife of Arthur Stanley (who had changed his name from Knott).  She was born in The Cape Colony I think around 1870 and came to England as a young woman with her husband Arthur, a native of Oxfordshire who had been working as a mining engineer in South Africa.  Their first child Marion was born in the Transvaal in 1891 so I presume they married the year before that.  Their fourth child Evalene (Evelene, Evelyn) also died in Havant in 1916 at the age of 19 years - she was disabled.  They spent many years living on the Isle of Wight.  Arthur died in 1931 in Basingstoke at the age of 87 years.  Perhaps he is buried with his wife.  I believe they would have been of Church of England faith and was wondering if you had any records of their deaths”

No April Fools Joke!

In April 1956, the Soviet cruiser Ordjhonikidge arrived in Portsmouth Dockyard carrying the two Russian leaders, Kruschev and Bulganin, who were on an unprecedented state visit to Britain.  The importance of the visit could not be over emphasised.  It was the first thawing of the cold war and followed closely on the death of Stalin, who had been denounced to the Supreme Soviet by Kruschev following the dictator’s funeral.  What followed the arrival of the cruiser has been well documented.  Astonishingly, without any reference to Prime Minister Eden, military sources commissioned MI5 to conduct an underwater survey of the Ordjhonikidge to obtain the dimensions of the propeller to assist in the setting of the homing device on torpedoes.  As someone subsequently wrote, “As if to guarantee failure, the task was entrusted to Commander Lionel (Buster) Crabb who was heavy in nicotine, drink and years!”

It is beyond all comprehension that the success of a crucially important visit should be jeopardized in this way.  The information would only be of use if a conventional naval battle was likely to occur and the chances of that were remote in the nuclear age.  Crabb made his dive and was not seen again until his headless body was washed up in Langstone harbour some ten months later.  The claim last year by a Russian that he had killed Crabb underwater because he was about to plant a mine under the ship can be dismissed.  Even MI5 would not have blown up a ship on a state visit to Britain!  Apparently, Kruschev was hugely amused at Eden’s embarrassment when the incident was reported in the world’s media.  The Ordjhonikidge was an obsolete ship, used only for ceremonial purposes.  On their return to Russia, the ship was sold to Indonesia.  So much for its military value!  As a postscript, at the time of the visit, I was working for the Admiralty and, with a colleague, had a tour of the ship, albeit mostly limited to the crew’s quarters.  They were sparsely furnished, spotlessly clean and without any personal items.  There were no photographs of family, or any of the denounced Stalin.  But in each cabin was a single, identical photograph of Lenin!  Joy was amused at the time when I told her that there were not even pin ups on display!  Sincerely, this is not an April fool’s joke!

Roger Bryant

Seen on Church Bulletin

For those of you who have children and don't know it,  we have a nursery down stairs.

Memories of the Dambusters – Part 2 of 2

After the visit to the Aviation centre we returned to our hotel, where, after dinner that evening we were joined by an historian who had specialised in the history of the Dambusters but I regret that I cannot remember his name.  He gave a presentation that lasted about 75 minutes in which he covered the preparation work that was done in creating the bomb which was to be used in the attack on the dams and then, went on to give details of the raid itself.

As you will know, a Dr. Barnes Wallis conceived the idea of destroying the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe dams with the consequent flooding of the vast German industrial centre in the Ruhr valley and the infliction of serious damage to the enemy's war effort.  In 1943 the bombs used by the RAF were not powerful enough to destroy the dams and it was not possible to use torpedoes because the Germans had placed metal barriers under the water behind the dams to protect them from an attack.  Therefore Dr. Barnes Wallis had calculated that it was necessary to produce a bomb that would avoid these barriers and then sink to a precisely calculated depth where it would explode and the force of the explosion and the weight of the increased water pressure caused by that explosion would breach the dam.  We were shown a video that contained old newsreels which were taken at the time when the bomb was being developed and these included shots of the Lancaster bomber dropping the bomb from various heights with varying results.  Eventually it was calculated that the aircraft would have to fly at a height of 60 feet in order to get the bomb to bounce along the surface of the water.  This bomb was not streamlined but was in the shape of a barrel and contained 5 tons of TNT.  Apparatus on the aircraft spun the bomb rapidly in a vertical plane and in an anti-clockwise direction so that when it hit the dam it would then sink but the spinning motion would keep it in contact with the dam until a pressure switch detonated it at a pre-determined depth.

The historian then went on to explain the details of the raid itself which required great skill and courage on the part of the pilots and crews who undertook this mission.  Wing Commander Guy Gibson led the raid and he was responsible for choosing the team of fliers who would accompany him.  Nineteen Lancaster bombers were involved and their crews had been practising for weeks, flying at 60 feet above the waters of the Upper Derwent Valley and the Derwent and Ladybower dams in The Peak District National Park.  The Derwent dam with its twin towers was very similar in appearance to the Mohne dam and enabled the RAF to construct a simple but effective bombsight which would ensure that the bouncing bomb was released at precisely the right moment because great accuracy was required.  The high moorland on the sides of The Upper Derwent Valley was similar to the terrain surrounding the German dams.  The altimeters on the Lancaster’s were ineffective at 60 feet therefore two spotlights that shone downwards at an angle, were fitted to the aircraft and when the beams converged on the waters below, the pilot knew that he was at the correct height,

On the night of the raid the bombers flew in three waves all the way at 200 feet in order to avoid the enemy radar.  When they arrived at the target they were met with heavy anti-aircraft fire but with sheer determination and courage the crews succeeded in hitting their targets with several bombs and the Mohne and Eder dams were breached but the Sorpe dam survived the attack.  After dropping his bombs, Guy Gibson had switched on all the lights on his plane and had made a further run over the target to draw the gunfire away from the next waves of bombers which were coming in behind him.  It was for this action that he was awarded the Victoria Cross.  However, during this raid, seven of the nineteen Lancaster’s and their crews were lost.

The video then showed aerial photographs that were taken by a reconnaissance aircraft the next day and one could see the damage which had been caused and a vast area that had been flooded as a result.  Then followed interviews with German civilians and workers who had witnessed the assault.  Inevitably there had been loss of life when the wall of water rushed along the valley and swept away the first village in its path and many of the factories in the area were flooded and put out of action for a while, but the workers claimed that they were soon operational again.

Finally the video showed Guy Gibson addressing a large group of scouts at a rally and to these boys and teenagers he stressed the values of self respect, respect for others and discipline in their lives.  The Historian then referred to the second Dambusters film that is being made and especially to the controversy which arose over the name of Guy Gibson’s dog.  Some felt that the name "Nigger" would now cause offence and wanted it changed, but eventually when it was pointed out that it was factually correct and that you can’t change history, it was agreed that the proper name would be used in the film.

On the third day of the tour we were taken to the Upper Derwent Valley, a beautiful area with its large reservoirs, quiet forests and high moorland. The area attracts two million visitors per year.  Our destination of course was the Derwent dam which played such an important part in the Dambusters training and in particular, the western tower that houses a memorial and the Dambusters museum.  Here we were able to view the largest collection of memorabilia dedicated to the famous dams’ raid as well as material relating to the original Dambusters film starring Richard Todd.  An example of the "bouncing bomb" forms the centre piece of the display and our visit was made even more interesting because the curator made our group very welcome and gave us a talk on the many exhibits in this museum.  He played us a video which gave us further information on the work and lives of the Dambusters.  There was also a display of photographs and information relating to the construction of the Derwent and Howden dams which were built nearly 100 years ago by over a thousand people who were housed in a temporary “tin town" that was specially erected for them at Birchinlee.  Further down the valley is the Ladybower dam that was completed in 1945 to help supply an ever increasing demand for water by the cities of Sheffield, Nottingham, Derby and Leicester.  This resulted in flooding of the villages of Derwent and Ashopton and apparently when the waters of the reservoirs are low, you may get a glimpse of the village remains.

When we stood on the top of the Derwent dam and looked at the surrounding hills and the winding valley we realised how very dangerous it was to fly at 60 feet above the water at high speed with no room for error on the part of the pilots.  Add to that, the fact that the raid was made at night and the aircraft were subjected to heavy anti-aircraft fire, the bravery and the flying skills of the crews were remarkable.

Finally, on the fourth day it was time for us to return home from a tour which was always interesting and at times emotional.  Our group consisted mainly of elderly people like me who had lived through those turbulent wartime years and we had enjoyed each others company throughout our visit to the museums and airfields.  We each returned with our own memories of the people we had met and the places that we had visited, and above all, memories of the men who were known as "The Dambusters".

Peter Appleby