We are a team of novice cyclists from 47 Air Despatch Squadron RLC, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Operation Market Garden (Arnhem) we are going to cycle from RAF Brize Norton (Oxfordshire) to Arnhem.
Operation Market Garden is big part of the history of the Air Despatch trade.
On 19 September 1944, RAF Douglas Dakota Mk. III, KG374, c/n 12383, (ex-USAAF C-47A-DK, 42-92568), 'YS-DM', of 271 Squadron, RAF Down Ampney, Gloucester, piloted by F/Lt. David S. Lord, was hit by AA in the starboard engine while on a supply sortie for beleaguered troops at Arnhem. Despite fire spreading to all of the starboard wing, the pilot spent ten minutes making two passes over very small dropzones (which, unbeknownst to the crew, had been overrun by German forces) to drop eight ammunition panniers. Just after the last one was dropped, the fuel tank exploded, tearing off the wing, and only navigator F/O Harry A. King escaped from the stricken aircraft, descending by parachute. He was captured as a POW the following morning, spending the rest of the war in Stalag Luft I at Barth. Killed While Flying (KWF) were pilot Lord, second pilot P/O R. E. H. "Dickie" Medhurst (son of Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Medhurst), wireless operator F/O Alec F. Ballantyne, and four air despatchers of 223 Company RASC, Cpl. P. Nixon, Dvr. A. Rowbotham, Dvr. J. Ricketts and Dvr. L. Harper. Following the release of King from prison camp, full details of the action became known and pilot Lord received a posthumous Victoria Cross on 13 November 1945, the only VC awarded to any member of Transport Command during the Second World War. In May 1949 the Dutch Government awarded Harry King the Netherlands Bronze Cross.[124]
We will be setting off from Brize Norton on Saturday 13th and plan to complete our journey in five days.
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