DAYS OF DEFIANCE - A FREE EDUCATIONAL DAY OUT FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN - 20th July 2010

A DRAMATIC display bringing to life the courage and determination of Kentish people during Britain's time of greatest danger is being offered to schoolchildren completely free, by the War and Peace Show. The Show takes place at The Hop Farm, Paddock Wood, Kent, in July.

Called "Days of Defiance", the exhibition will be an interactive walk through the dark days of 1940. Events featured will include the evacuation of Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, the blitz and its impact on children, formation of the Home Guard and anti-aircraft defences.

It's being created by Battlefield Partnerships, comprising TV historians Andy Robertshaw of the Royal Logistic Corps Museum, Surrey, and David Kenyon of the Royal Gunpowder Mills Museum, Essex.

Rex Cadman, organiser of the War and Peace Show, said: "The the resilience and defiance of people in the County of Kent played a crucial role in helping Britain survive the dangers of 1940 and to go on and win the War. We want to reflect that and make a contribution that will ensure their efforts are never forgotten."

The exhibition will feature:

• Four full size replica aircraft - a Hurricane fighter, two Spitfires, one with engine roaring and guns blazing and a Messerschmitt 109.
• A range of military vehicles from the time of Dunkirk
• A display which tells the story of the paddle steamer that rescued 7,000 men from the beaches
• Re-enactment groups
• A cooking display to show how soldiers were fed during the War
• Two 3.7 anti-aircraft guns manned by re-enactors

"Days of Defiance" will give children a chance to meet and question veterans of the Second World War and former child evacuees.

As well as live demonstrations and re-enactments there will be displays of historic photographs from the early War period.

The exhibition will take place on 20 July, the Tuesday before the War and Peace Show opens officially. After they have visited the exhibition, children will be allowed to visit the many other attractions of the Show. They will also be given a demonstration of the pyrotechnics used in re-enactments.

Up to 3,000 children will be able to attend. Full health and safety provision will be made and War and Peace staff will be on hand as escorts. However it is expected that pupils' teachers will also attend.   Click here for the Schools' Day Information Letter and here for the  Schools' Day Application Form

Students who attend will be given evacuee-style labels entitling them to a free return visit, provided they are accompanied by a full-paying adult.

The War and Peace Show is the world's biggest annual military history show. Now in its 27^th year, it incorporates military vehicle displays, mock battles, fly-pasts by historic aircraft, living history displays, the world's biggest stall market specialising in military collectables, and a full and varied wartime entertainment programme.

BEER that kept British troops fighting on the beaches during the Second World War will again be drunk in France in a tradition revived by a brewery close to Sir Winston Churchill's Kentish home of Chartwell.

Barrels of British Bulldog bitter will accompany an expeditionary forced to commemorate the evacuation of Dunkirk. The beer was named with Churchill in mind.

Westerham Brewery, which makes the beer, has inherited tradition and brewing recipes from the old Black Eagle Brewery, popular for its Westerham Ales from 1723 until it went out of business in 1965.

"Westerham beer was dropped to the troops from Spitfires during the Normandy Landings in 1944," said Robert Wicks, who runs Westerham Brewery, at Grange Farm, Crockham Hill, Edenbrige.

"It was poured into auxiliary fuel tanks - presumably ones that hadn't been used - and they bombed the beaches with them."

Black Eagle's legendary brewer Bill Wickett played a major role in the North African campaign by setting up a brewery in Egypt to keep troops supplied.

Dubbed "the beer that biffed Rommel" it won praise from Montgomery himself, who said two things won the war in North Africa, the Battle of El Alamein and Bill Wicket's beer.

Westerham Brewery plans to continue the tradition by providing free beer for the men and women of Dunkirk Dynamo, who will head for France aboard a Norfolk Line ferry on Thursday May 27 to commemorate the evacuation.

The project involves a small army of volunteers, accompanied by around 20 historic military vehicles of the type used at the outbreak of the Second World War. (photo: Andy Robertshaw with a 1939 Morris 8cwt destined for Dunkirk)

Among the volunteers are veterans of the World War Two, military re-enactors, serving soldiers, young people dedicated to learning about the War, historians and many others. Some of them will spend the night aboard Dunkirk rescue vessels owned by members of the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships.

They will be fed by chefs from the Royal Logistic Corps who will establish an authentic field kitchen providing the kind of food available to fighting soldiers of the 1940s.

Over the weekend May 29-30 the party will host a British evening for their French hosts, at which British Bulldog beer will be freely available.

In July the entire Dunkirk Dynamo project will create a display at the War and Peace Show

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For further information contact Robert Wicks, Westerham Brewery, 01732 864427 or Andrew Robertshaw (Dunkirk Dynamo) on 01252 833371.

THE day the war ended for Arno Zimmerman will be re-enacted in a living history display at the War and Peace Show in July.

It was October 27 1940 when Zimmerman was forced to crash land his Messerschmitt 109 on the beach at Lydd, Kent. (photos to left and right  courtesy of The Aircrew Remembrance Society)

He was returning from an early morning raid on London when, somewhere above Tunbridge Wells, he saw a squadron of Hurricane fighters below him and decided to attack.

Not such a good decision as it turned out, because one of the Hurricanes, piloted by Sergeant E.W. Wright, got on his tail and pumped incendiary shells into his engine. They burned out the spark plug leads and Zimmerman had no choice but to land. He saw out the war in a British POW camp.

(photo to left: a soldier examines Zimmerman's Messerschmitt 109 on the beach at Lydd, courtesy of The Aircrew Remembrance Society)

Now a group called Battle for Britain plan to demonstrate how captured aircraft were dealt with by civil and military forces, which might include police, local army units, Home Guard and aviation experts.

They will be using a replica Messerschmitt 109 painted up in exactly the same colours as the one used by Zimmerman, right down to the grey camouflage paint and the winged clog painted on the fuselage.

"When a German plane was brought down it would attract a lot of curiosity from local people, some of whome would be out to snatch souvenirs," said Simon Todd (pictured left), of Basingstoke, who founded Battle for Britain. 

"The replica we use was built 15 years ago for a special event. We have researched Zimmerman's plane thoroughly to make sure ours is an accurate reproduction."

The Messerschmitt will be part of a major display at the War and Peace Show to mark the 70^th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

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For further information contact Jacqui Curtis, Marketing Manager on 01622 870804 email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or Peter Cook on 01795 536915/07796 172680 This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

More details at: www.thehopfarm.co.uk

A UNIQUE collection of military motorcycles, mostly built during the Second World War, will be on display at the War and Peace Show at The Hop Farm, Paddock Wood, Kent, in July.

The bikes, which range from a 1938 BSA WC 10 to a 1956 Triumph TRW, are from a collection of 19 motorcycles built up by Bill Tipping, 82, from Formby, Merseyside.

"I always used motorbikes to get home from airfields in Lincolnshire while I was serving as an aircraft electrician," said Bill, who left the Air Force in 1956 after serving 10 years.

"When I came out of the services I started picking up bikes here and there. Some had been virtually thrown away. People weren't interested.

"I took them in and restored them, eventually specialising in Army bikes. Now I have 19 of them." All the bikes are in working order.

The first bike Bill restored was an Ariel 350 WNG machine, originally used by the RAF. He paid around £30 for it. Most have cost him no more than £80.

One of his favourites is a Royal Enfield purchased directly from the Army in 1946. It's in virtually new condition and entirely original.

His 1950s RAF Triumph TRW was found in a skip having been dumped there during a house clearance. It only had 6,000 miles on the clock. Nobody else wanted it so Bill took it into protective custody and restored it.

"The collection is unusual because all the bikes are different," said Bill. "There are bigger collections but not so varied.

"Of course the increased interest in vintage motorcycles has made the collection quite valuable now, and I regret that. The monetary value doesn't interest me. It's the bikes that are important."

Now retired, Bill set up a business repairing car radios when he left the services. The bike collection led to a business career for his son Peter, who runs a motorcycle MOT service.

"We have shown the bikes off at local shows on Merseyside and they have attracted a lot of interest," said Peter. "But we were keen to show them at the War and Peace Show because that attracts the biggest crowd of any military vehicle show."

The bikes that will appear at the Show include a 1938 BSA WC10, a 1944 BSA M20, a 1946 Moto-Guzzi Super Alce, a 1953 Moto-Guzzi Airone Militaire, a 1939 Velocette MDD (WD/MAC), a 1940 Velocette MAF, a 1944 Triumph 3HW, a 1956 Triumph TRW, a 1940 Royal Enfield Model C, a 1943 Royal Enfield Model CO, a 1939 Matchless G3, a 1941 Matchless G3L, a 1940 Norton 16H, a 1949 Ariel WNG, a 1943 James ML, a rare 1939 NSU OSL 251, a 1939 BMW R35 and a 1941 Indian 741B.

The Tipping family also own four wheeled military vehicles including Jeeps, a Hillman Tilley, a Dingo, and a Dodge weapons carrier owned by Peter's mother, which she still occasionally drives.

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For further information contact Jacqui Curtis, Marketing Manager on 01622 870804 email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or Peter Cook on 01795 536915/07796 172680 This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

More details at: www.thehopfarm.co.uk