Mark C Stefanicki: Living History

I often branch out into other areas too: 1940s civilian, 1944 Warsaw Uprising, 1930s civilian, 1650s Polish cavalry officer

Why? (see below...)

 There are many reasons why we do what we do:

We want to remember and honour the sacrifice the forces personnel made by giving their lives in WWII

We want to remember and honour the sacrifices they made by serving in the forces in WWII

We want to ensure that the stories, lifestyle, equipment and systems used are all remembered and kept alive, in however small a way

We have an enthusiastic interest in the period and identify strongly with it

We love meeting veterans, listening to their stories and learning from what they tell us

We feel ourselves to be are re-incarnated pilots, ground crew, soldiers, sailors...

We enjoy re-creating and re-living the period and the company of like-minded people

We are collectors of 1940s artefacts, equipment and ephemera and prefer to show them off & use them to storing them on the loft

We are sad and mad (actually, if you really look at it, we are happy and pretty sane...)

We find the modern world shocking and brash, and are keen on finding ways to escape it for a few hours

We appreciate and thrive upon the welcome we get wherever we go

Organisers of events ask us to do what we do (so actually, its their fault really...)

        ...there are probably one thousand, nine hundred and forty other reasons I have not thought of...

A series of pictures taken at Didcot Railway Centre, Oxfordshire. They represent passengers on the Great Western Railway in the 1940s.

A gentleman at Didcot railway station, Great Western Railway, 1940s...

 A portrait of me as a Polish Flight Lieutenant in the RAF c.1942.

Taken at Goodwood Revival, September 2014, by Russell Cobb.

A recreation, by members of 212 Squadron Living History Group, of the 1940 original picture below,

taken at Shoreham Airshow, August 2013.

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Here's a link to a video to publicise the 2013 Battle of Britain weekend at the

RAF Museum, Hendon, recorded at the 2012 event.

Look out for fleeting glances of me at 0.07 and 0.19, as well as my daughter at 0.15.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/media-vault/videos/battle-of-britain-weekend-2012/

A recent detour I took into remembering the Warsaw Uprising, August - October 1944. Taken At The Royal Gunpowder Mills 1940s event, Spring 2014, by Bob's Fighting 40s.

...bit of a story here - bear with me, would you...

 The picture on the left, shows members of 212 Squadron Living History Group with Jeffrey Wellum, a Battle of Britain pilot, who flew Spitfires with 92 Squadron based at Biggin Hill. His memoirs, "First Light," were published in 2002, and 212 Squadron took part in the making of a film of the same name in 2010. There is therefore a close connection between this group and Squadron Leader Wellum, who came to see us during the Battle of Britain Day ceremonies at the BOB Memorial, Capel Le Ferne, Kent on 10th July 2011. This link will tell you more about him: [right click + open in new tab]

http://www.raf.mod.uk/bbmf/theaircraft/92sqngeoffwellum.cfm

 The picture on the right was taken at Shoreham Airshow, where 212 Squadron had the priviledge of being airside.

Saturday...early evening...show for the day is over...crowds have gone. Chap walks up to the barrier, and says..."I wonder if you could do me a favour, now that its quiet...I have a 1930s sports car and I would very much like to photograph it next to some WW2 aircraft. Would that be possible?" It sounded like fun, and was duly set up.

Well...quite a while passed, and we thought it wasn't going to happen. In fact, some of us had been about to go for a walk around the aerodrome, and I had to remind them - "what about the chap with the Aston..?" We waited a few minutes longer, and then saw the characteristic twin headlamps in the distance. He drove up in the Aston Martin, which he has owned for 20 years, parked it up as you see. Click click...pose pose...would you like to sit in it? (...difficult one, that...)  Chap says: "I really wanted to get these photographs taken, as it was only recently that I discovered that the car was owned by a Battle of Britain pilot..."

Yes, that's right. It was. Wellum himself.

And we couldn't believe it....