Bombing of Lyon by the Allied air forces, 26 May 1944: damaged sites recorded by the City Property Service — Nouveau cimetière de la Guillotière: graves bombed / photograph by Sylvestre Municipal Archives of Lyon; 3PH/126 Date 26/05/1944

Buried under the Bombs

Posted on January 2, 2026 • No Comments

One of a series of stories and place-based sketches exploring locations that sit at the edges of the narrative told in The Écrivélo Book. Bombing of Lyon by the Allied air forces, 26 May 1944: damaged sites recorded by the City Property Service — Nouveau cimetière de la Guillotière: graves[...]

The Pilot of The Admiral Prune

Posted on July 24, 2025 • No Comments

Context Thursday, February 4, 1943. It was 22:30 hrs, and Lancaster W4118 was four hours and twenty minutes into a mission to bomb the Industrial Italian city of Turin. Six Lancasters from 106 Squadron had left RAF Syerston as part of a bombing mission consisting of 188 aircraft. The last[...]

Day 16 – Knipton to Woodhall Spa

Posted on July 25, 2018 • No Comments

...and finally to Woodhall Spa. The site of the old RAF Woodhall Spa, where on 26 July 1944 9 Mosquito Pathfinders took off. Cycling wise - today was an easy run up from Knipton to Woodhall Spa. I had intended to travel via RAF Syerston, which had been the base[...]

Day 1 – Lyon to Létra

Posted on July 10, 2018 • No Comments

Lyon to Letra The big day has finally arrived. With the bike loaded I took a train into a Lyon. It's Tuesday morning; the city is busy. I cycled the short distance across presqu'île, along the banks of the Rhône, Parc de la Tête d'Or, Université Claude Bernard - Lyon[...]

??‍♂️ ?? 1 MONTH TO GO ????‍♂️

Posted on June 10, 2018 • No Comments

With only 1 month to go until I start, I thought this would be a good time to remind you how you can help raise the profile of Bomber Command for future generations. I will start on 10th July and arrive in Lincoln on 26th July - 74 years to[...]

Lyon to Lincoln the Route

Posted on April 22, 2018 • No Comments

The Route DistanceElevationDurationMoney Raising TargetDistance 1,610 km (1000 miles) Elevation 12,944m elevation gain (425,000 ft) - equivalent to one and a half times up Everest Duration 96 hours - estimated moving time Money Raising Target 2000 euros Use this link to donate directly to the IBCC Tweet to @@ecrivelo!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script',[...]

Recce of the Start

Posted on March 27, 2018 • No Comments

Strava Route Photos from the stage Lancaster WA118-ZN-Y Admiral Prune belonging to Squadron 106 departed at 6:30 pm on February 4, 1943, from the RAF Syerston near Nottingham, England. It was part of a mission of 188 aircraft including 77 Lancasters en route to Turnin to bomb industrial. The last[...]

Air Force Records: A Guide for Family Historians

Posted on August 30, 2017 • No Comments

If you are new to searching old records like me, then this is an excellent book . One of the first things I did when researching the Mosquito in the Forest was to buy the service records of the crew. Without this book I think it is fair to say[...]