This is an annual event organised by the Lincolnshire village of Holbeach to enable those surviving D-Day veterans to return to Normandy next year for the 60th anniversary of the event. If the number of veterans who attended this weekend is anything to go by, they need to raise a serious amount of cash - there were dozens of them! Quite early on I was button-holed in front of the EOD 110 by a Bomb Disposal veteran, who'd seen service from Dunkirk right through to Arnheim by way of North Africa and Italy, which is an awful lot of service. He recalled how it had been his job to dig sufficient space around a UXB to allow the officer access to remove the fuse. He dug the holes, the officers removed the fuses... they lost a lot of officers.

Although billed as a two-day event, the weather conspired to ensure that Saturday was little more than a damp squib so far as public attendance was concerned, although there was a cavalcade that brought the village to a complete halt - what red traffic lights officer? In contrast, Sunday was a real scorcher, and the field filled up accordingly. Rex Hunt was persuaded to MC the EMLRA foray into the display arena, a job suddenly made more difficult by the fact that all the other military vehicles decided to join in - and there's a limit to what EMLRA members know about Jeeps, Champs and other assorted wheeled hardware from European sources. Gate-crashers aside, Rex was able to put together a very thorough twenty minute slot.

		...and the punchline was so funny, Colin Parr spontaneously ignited.

Rex's idea was to make EMLRA memorable. It seemed to work - we weren't asked to leave the site immediately, but were asked to do it all again. So, of course, we did. Well, it would have been rude not to.

Report and pictures: Mike Allmey