June 2005
"It's all my Dad's fault!" | |
|  | | Bradley (on bike), Haworth 1940s Weekend 2005: "It's a great opportunity to meet up with my friends" |
| | 16-year-old Bradley Johnson could be doing loads of things over the weekend or holidays in West Yorkshire, but he spends a lot of his time taking a trip back in time to the days of the Second World War...dressed up as a soldier! He explains more... |
| |  |  It's all my Dad's fault really. He's always had an interest in World War Two as his father (my granddad) served in tanks in the Royal Scots Greys. It was 12 years ago that my interest really took off as my Dad went out and bought a World War Two Jeep! His plan was to take it and his father and father-in-law back to Normandy for the 50th anniversary of D-Day. It was a trip none of us will ever forget it was one of those 'once in a lifetime' opportunities.
 | | Bradley: It all started with a Jeep... |
Once back we started to go to the local classic cars shows and people kept saying that the Jeep didn't look right with someone dressed in jeans behind the wheel. That's when the collecting of uniforms and associated paraphernalia started. As the Jeep was ex-British Army it only felt right that it should be British uniforms we'd buy.
As with all these things, the net began to widen. In 1995 my Dad organised a VE Day celebration dance in the local village hall which turned out to be great fun and looked superb with the village hall decked out with flags and full of people in period dress. The interest just kept getting stronger and so we started to go to more wartime weekends. Haworth's 1940s weekend has been going now for ten years and is the first of the events organised throughout the summer, so has always been a 'must'.
 | | Bradley (middle) in front of his Dad's truck |
It's a great opportunity to meet up with my friends who are also avid collectors of militaria. We're able to see each other's new acquisitions from over the winter and chat about our plans for the summer months. My Dad's collection has also grown as he has acquired a 1943 three-ton Canadian Ford truck and a 1944 James ML motorbike. It's now quite something to get all the vehicles to these events.
Once there, all the effort is well worth it because when the vets see them they start to talk about their experiences during the war. They talk to us about the uniforms and the weapons and so on. You can see in their eyes that they are so pleased that their efforts haven't been forgotten and are appreciated by a younger generation.
It is very humbling to hear them talk in a matter-of-fact way about something to me that is just truly remarkable. Ordinary men and women doing extraordinary things, unbelievable... 
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