World War II Day, Forge Mill Needle Museum, Redditch

The IPMS Birmingham display

Saturday 20th April, IPMS Birmingham were guests of the Forever Forties Group at Redditch's Forge Mill Needle Museum and Brodesley Abbey Visitor Centre for their World War II Day. The club was represented by David Child, Harry and Steve Newton, Rob Barwick and Roland Turner.



There was a fine display of 1940s vehicles, military and civilian, plus re-enactors in a number of Second World War guises including a 'Spiv' (Black market salesman) who found himself repeatedly coming to the attention of both the civil and military police forces during the day.

Police question the 'Spiv'.

One of the benefits of this type of event to our club is the opportunity to meet members of the general public and promote our hobby but there is also chance for us to meet other interesting people, one such being Arthur Jones from Wolverhampton who had a a display  near to ours. His is a fascinating story, in 1944 he was a young Sherman tank driver in Normandy and when his tank broke down and the recovery vehicle failed to turn up he was 'adoped' by a local family. To see more of Arthur's experiences go to the BBC's People's War Website. 

Arthur Jones

As is often the case, the Forever Forties Group had a singer, on this occasion Ruby Lamont, entertaining the public with songs of the period and David Bowlas the Forever Forties organiser accompanied her in a rendition of 'Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag'.

Ruby Lamont and David Bowlas

All in all a good day out with pleasant spring weather and plenty of visitors enjoying the atmosphere.

To view a full set of photographs of the day's activities please click on this link:
Forge Mill Needle Museum World War II Day 2013 on Flickr.