For many the Second World War is the stuff of history books and movies; and for others it's playing soldiers at weekends. "Operation Anvil" saw the Tonsley Time Team travel up to Leicestershire under the guise of the French Resistance.
At the Great Central Railway, Quorn and Woodhouse Station was the centre of the operation and base for the Allied Forces GHQ. The railway was divided into two portions with Allied Occupied Territory from Loughborough Central to the North side of Swithland Reservoir, representing the English Channel. South of there was Continental Europe occupied by the Axis forces, which were in control of Rothley and Leicester North Stations.
With Spitfires over head, resistance skirmishes and a full scale battle for allied control of German held Rothley station, it all kicked into life. Most were dressed appropriately in 1940's and all gave an eerie sense of being on a movie set.
ROLL
| Woolfy | Renée |
| Henri | Mademoiselle Fifi |
| Rob | Ezel Leclerke |
| Niki | Madame Sassy |
| Ed | Group Captain Edwin Irvin RAF (disguised as a French Waiter) |
| Christian | Madame Cholet |
| Floody | Monsieur Jacques Patterson |
| Joe | Jean Baptiste Le Tache |
| George | Madame Kemble, the wife of the Chief des Gendarmes in the sleepy village of Sassetôt |
In the evening, the formal event, the Tonsley Time Team annual dinner was aboard the steam train running up and down the stretch of line. We were piped aboard by a Seaforth Highlander and fine wine and superb cuisine was sampled, only being marginally disrupted by Waffen SS Officers bursting onto the train and demanding to see our papers (or Perfonal Answeis!).
A great day capped only by a superb evening provided for an apt setting for the inaugural TTT annual dinner. A big 'thank you' to The Station Master himself, Chardo Bruce.
2004 seems destined to mark another interesting year from the Team with diving on Scapa Flow, a visit to Waterloo and possibly Auschwitz and the Second Annual Dinner with the Edinburgh Military Tattoo as a side order.
JB
