Visitors flock to Yorkshire Air Museum's 'We'll Meet Again' weekend

More than 100 wartime re-enactors have descended on the museum, at Elvington, for the annual ‘We’ll Meet Again’ event, which aims to recreate life on a wartime airbase.

There are also a host of vintage vehicles and machinery – all set against the backdrop of the museum’s original wartime buildings and, of course, its Halifax bomber and Dakota transport aircraft.

The museum was an air base – RAF Elvington – during the war.

A re-enactor demonstrates wartime rations at the Yorkshire Air Museum (Image: Yorkshire Air Museum)

Halifax bombers from RAF Elvington were used to strike German targets in Normandy on the eve of D-Day.

The aircraft were also used for towing troop-and-vehicle-carrying gliders into the battle zone.

Dakotas are another icon of D-Day.

They were used to drop British and American paratroopers behind the beach landings.

“Our ‘Dak’ has been repainted with D-Day markings – ‘Invasion stripes’ – to mark the anniversary!” a spokesperson for the Air Museum said.

The Yorkshire Air Museum's Dakota, which has been repainted in 'invasion stripes' (Image: Yorkshire Air Museum)

This weekend also sees the launch of ‘Elvington 44/45 – The Fight for Liberty’, a new exhibition that spans one of the most momentous 12 months in modern history.

It covers the arrival of two French-crewed Bomber Command Squadrons – 346 and 347 – at RAF Elvington in 1944, as well as the part played by aircraft on D-Day (June 6 1944).

Museum spokesperson Jerry Ibbotson said that, alongside the 100 reenactors on site today, there were also 600 visitors.

Wartime re-enactors at the Yorkshire Air Museum this weekend (Image: Yorkshire Air Museum)

The re-enactors are recreating scenes from wartime life, Jerry said – and not just military, but civilian, too.

There will be displays on the part played by airborne troops, based around the museum’s reconstructed WACO glider, and on the role of the French bomber crew at Elvington, which became known as ‘la petite France’.

Many of the re-enactors even camped out around the museum’s control tower overnight in camouflage tents, adding to the atmosphere.

The camouflage green tents of re-enactors who are camped out at the Yorkshire Air Museum over the weekend (Image: Yorkshire Air Museum)

“There was the smell of frying bacon in the air this morning!” Jerry said.

The ‘We’ll Meet Again’ event runs throughout today and tomorrow.

As well as re-enactments, there are talks and demonstrations relating to the allied war effort throughout the weekend.

Th new exhibition ‘Elvington 44/45: The Fight for Liberty’ will run right through into 2025, meanwhile, as the museum marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.