My cycle rides take me through the tranquil fields and under the vast skies of Romney Marsh in Kent. But in 1940 it would have been a very different scene. Air war was being waged here and as I turn a corner ahead I can see a lonely roadside monument.
Arriving at the corner one sees it is a grave, but a grave without a body. The remains of Pilot Officer Arthur William Clarke lie still within his Hurricane fighter nearby - embraced by Mother Earth, 30 feet beneath the peaceful fields of Romney Marsh, but by no means forgotten. Whenever I pass I will stop for a moment and there are always fresh flowers on the monument.
The story behind this little corner of the earth is poignantly told in detail here. Please do Arthur the honour of reading it.
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few"
The above link is a fitting ending to this post and is worth watching to the end.
The above link is a fitting ending to this post and is worth watching to the end.
