CHANNEL DASH MEMORIAL

At the recent Wreath Laying ceremony at sea on board HMS Ledbury the Chairman, announced the final stage of our appeal to raise the funds to complete the Channel Dash Memorial which will be completed in time for the Dedication Service in July 2009. It is intended to place the Memorial, a full sized replica of a Fairy Swordfish aircraft, at Manston Airport in a location near to both the Spitfire and Hurricane Memorial Trust Museum and the RAF Manston Museum. This location is almost the exact spot from which Lt Cmdr Eugene Esmonde signaled his Squadron to taxi for take-off on their mission to attack the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen.

Work on the Memorial is currently underway with Dave Hobson of GateguardsUK, the chosen builder, and  the CDA Committee leading the project. An original quote of £1.5 million! quickly became £150,000 and, thanks to Dave of GateguardsUK, only remains £40,000 remains to be raised.

Once the work of constructing the Memorial commences, progress will be shown on GateguardsUK's website at www.gateguardsuk.com

If you would like further details of this or, would like to contribute to the Appeal please contact any of the CDA Officers shown on the 'Contact Us' page.  

CDA President Lt Cmdr Edgar Lee DSO VRD RNR (left) with CDA Hon Secretary Peter Nixon (center) and Dave Hobson of GateguardsUK .