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IWM Duxford
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Thank you to everyone who took part in the first IWM History Festival on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 March 2023. As a charity, your ticket purchase and attendance on the day supports the work we do.
New dates and a new history packed line-up are coming soon.
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Were you there?
The first IWM History Festival took place on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 March 2023. Find out more about the programme created for people who know why history matters.
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Daily line-ups
Each day included a packed programme of talks, book signings and special events.
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Programme highlights
These were our top picks from two-days packed full of highlights.
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Join us next time
Be the first to know about our next IWM History Festival or support us now by buying books from the IWM shop.
Explore the human experiences of war and conflict at IWM History Festival. Bringing together rarely seen before objects from IWM’s collections; the expertise of the museum’s curators; and book signings from leading historical authors.
Immerse yourself in real stories from the First World War, Second World War and contemporary conflict at the airfield that made history.
The perfect event for anyone interested in war history and a unique opportunity to experience the stories first-hand
The Cambridge Independent
Saturday 25 March 2023
Paul Tremelling: "The GR9 behind me, as you can see, is a fighter aircraft, it's primarily designed for air to surface and therefore, one of our strengths was close air support. It's a single seat cockpit, and the real virtue of the Harrier is its ability to land and take off vertically, but also conventionally and all ways in between. So a fantastic office.
My name is Paul Tremelling and I had a career in the fleet around on Flying Sea Harriers, Harriers and later the Super Hornet with the US Navy.
I think the Harrier is an almost perfect amalgam of a warfighting capability, but a real engineering triumph. The ability to take off slow, turn it into thrust and divert it through the nozzles to give you the vertical landing and takeoff capability is incredible. But having said that, it was a fabulous warfighting capability as well. And part of that capability was the basing options that it would give you. So, for example, we could land on ships, we could land on highways, we could land on short strips, we could even land in and woodland, et cetera, in prepared hides. And that made a really flexible machine, which gave it relevant specs in the Cold War when we were worried about basing options in the Falklands War, when by sea was the only way to get to the fight. And later in Afghanistan, where we were operating in really thin, high hot air. The ability for the Harrier to be there was one of its really key attributes.”
News reader: “The Harrier has been in operational service with the Royal Air Force since early 1969.”
Paul Tremelling: “I think the after the Second World War in particular, people were intrigued by the still flight vertical short takeoff and landing flight.
And there were a couple of attempts made. You'll probably have seen the flying bedstead, which was just a way essentially of directing thrust downwards and then attempts were made to launch aircraft vertically essentially by standing them on their tail. The Harrier was the one that really got to grips with the vectored thrust, the ability to move the thrust from straight off where you're flying like any other aeroplane and able to behave like any other aeroplane to straight down where you are able to hover on a stack of air and also everything in between that. The nozzles had over a 90 degrees worth of travel and that gave you flexibility and combat, but also many different ways of landing and taking off.
The Harrier is controlled like any other aircraft, it's got aerodynamic surfaces which develop lift and therefore that's how you if you move the stick you move the control surface and the aircraft, rolls goes up, goes down, et cetera. That way things are done in the Harrier which make it unique is that the really high pressure from the engine is also taken in pipes called reaction control veins out to the extremities of the aircraft. So in the wing tips in the nose and in the tail. And that means that when you start to deploy nozzle size and take nozzle from fully aft to fully down at about the 20 degree point, those start charging up. That means that you're that fully charged by the time you get in the hover. And then rather than using air flow over the wings like any other aeroplane does, you're now using jets in the wing, tips, the nose and the tail to control the aeroplane.
So when I pull back on the stick, the puffer duct in the nose opens, pushes down, the nose comes up, and I drift backwards. The wings are slightly more tricky because there is actually an up and a down. You want all your thrust going down if you can. So to start with, the aircraft just uses a bit of down thrust on one of the wings. If you really need maneuverability and you're moving the stick a long way, it'll open the up one on the other side as well. But so that's how it works in the hover.
I started flying to see Harrier in about the year 2000 after the end of SAS jet training, then went down to Royal Naval Air Station near Wilton to go to 899 Naval Air Squadron. And that's when we learned to fly in the Harrier, starting with a couple of trips in the twin seater. Then you're thrown into the single seat of your first solo on three. Then you had a go twin seat hovering with someone showing you what to do, and then it was straight into hovering on your own thereafter.
My first deck landing was done just off Plymouth. There's no way that you can do this in the simulator, there certainly wasn't at the time. So the way that we used to do it on the Sea Harrier Force was it wasn't actually addressed during the training course. You went to the front line and the first available opportunity, you simply went and landed on an aircraft carrier. I've said it quite often, but the funny thing about landing on ships is they don't seem to get any bigger until you're actually alongside them. You fly towards a small speck in the sea. You marshall above a small speck in the sea, and then you make an approach to a small speck in the sea. And it's only when you're alongside trying to hover the aircraft at the right height and sort out your forward motion that you're actually now alongside a big bit of British metal that you're trying to land on. And so it's quite a fraught experience, but a very rewarding one.
So the Sea Harrier was a Harrier 1, which meant that we went from the P1127 Demonstrator to the Kestrel to the Sea Harrier 1 very, very quickly. And one way that manifested itself is that essentially no thought was given into how it was going to be maintained and how it was going to be fought.
The FA2 that I flew was an upgrade of the first Mk1 that flew in the Falklands. It had a far, far better radar, a world class radar and a world class weapon, and that made it a great fleet defense fighter that had a multi role. We could still drop bombs, we could still do a limited reconnaissance task. Going to the new aeroplane, the role sort of reversed insomuch as we were now a air to surface platform with a limited air to air role. So that was something to get your head around. But the machine itself was fabulous and it was a Harrier too. It was not the all metal Harrier 1. It had a bigger wing and had a far more forgiving wing. That meant that actually flying it was a lot easier, had a lot more weapons station so you could carry more fuel and more weapons. And the cockpit was a ergonomic dream. It really was. Everything was at your fingertips. It had nice big displays, and it was perfectly set up for giving the pilot all the information that he or she needed to do their role. Whereas in the earlier aeroplane, that was a bit more of an afterthought.
All jets are a compromise. This there isn't a jet on the planet that isn't a compromise. Even if the compromises are the financial side of things, the money it took to make it the Harrier is not going to be able to carry as much and take it as far as land based air systems. But it doesn't need a long runway to do it. It has flexibility of basing options. And so actually it would still find its way into a force mix of other aircraft. When you look at things like the American aeroplanes, mainly land based. So, for example, the F-16. Yes, flexibility can turn really, really tightly. It's a single engine, single seat, very similar to the Harrier in some of the roles it can do. But it's got that lovely air to air roll that it does very, very well indeed. And the anti SAM role that it can do. But as a striker, then what did the Harrier give you? It gave you flexibility of weapon load. It gave you quite a large weapon load. So it could still fight its corner, if you like, and would be relevant in most contemporary warfare situations.
In about 2006, I went up the road to Cottesmore to start flying the GR7 and GR9. It was a mixed fleet at the time. I had to go via a desk job. I spent a bit of time at Royal Air Force High Wickham, but then went up the road to do what was called the conversion course to learn how to fly the new aeroplane.
I think the sensations of flying a fast jet are largely common as and the speed will be alien when you first strap into one. The thing that will really get you with Harry a flight is that most people are fairly okay with the thought, the thrust being behind you when you can move your thrust and it's £21,000 of thrust being vectored by, like I said earlier, up to 90 degrees, that throws you around in the cockpit and that can at times feel like being in a bit of a tumble dryer, particularly if you overcook it slightly and the jet does actually depart from control flight, then it's a bit of a ride and you get on with recovering the aeroplane. So largely common sensations with other fast jets, but a few Harrier-isms as well.
So I deployed to Afghanistan as part of the Joint Force Harrier detachment. What we did there was essentially keep a three unit cycle going for five years, just over five years, I believe. I went there with a naval strike wing in 2008. And as ever the joint force just made things work. It was completely seamless. As to whether or not you are a Royal Air Force Squadron or Royal Navy Squadron. Our job was simply to help the ground forces who are the real heroes in this. The people with boots actually on the ground, seeing the things, smelling the things that we didn't have to.
The missions would vary anything from what we called non-traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, so that might be sweeping a route for an infantry patrol, for example, it might be taking reconnaissance photographs or it might be direct close air support. So what we would generally do is some sort of graduation of hostilities where we would start - if the ground commander asked us to - with what's called a show of force over the top of the enemy position, show we meant business, down 100 feet at about 490 knots, give or take, depending on the day. And that could then graduate up into use of lethal force. We used to fly when I first got there, a mix of coffee, seven rockets and £540 weapons on one aircraft. Laser guided bombs on the other. We then got a new laser guided bomb called the pay for, which was superb. So both jets now flew with two paisley fours and two rocket pods along with all the sensors we needed to on the valley.
So this is my logbook, my roll naval flying log and it say at a sortie by sortie record of all my flights and all aeroplanes that I flew within the Royal Navy. So if I look here in July 14 of 2009, I flew Zulu Delta Force 61, which is the aeroplane you see suspended behind me. I was on my own and my job was to go and do an electronic warfare mission in the speed at them ranges.
And essentially we go there to exercise against surface to air missile systems to see if our countermeasures and our tactics work against them. Can we fly the maneuvers to essentially break locks on those radars and keep ourselves safe? It's odd to see one that you've actually strapped to your back. That's that's a little bit strange. And it looks like I had an hour and 40 of some of which 10 minutes was in cloud, which probably wasn't that much fun.
I was away with the French navy in 2010. I was on that aircraft carrier shoulder to go when I received the news that we were going to get out of service. So there was a significant element of bitterness and sadness, mainly because we had up until very, very recently done such a fabulous job in Afghanistan. And we were doing a damn good job of what we were calling regenerating into a force able to do other things, many of which were from the sea base.
So we were doing a lot of carrier embarked flying at about that time. I've got no qualms about the fact that the people who made those decisions did them for all the right reasons. We ran out of money. We had to save money, we had to retire an aircraft type, but it still feels like a bit of a kick in the teeth.
And I think the proof of the pudding is that right now there are US Marine Corps Harriers deployed as hostilities rage in the East. Right now the Spanish have got their Harriers up working with the US Navy and it's 12 years since we got rid of ours. So still a relevant platform I'm going to read a short excerpt from my book Harrier How to Be a Fighter Pilot that has recently been published, of which I'm very proud.
And at the end I set myself the quite considerable task of trying to work out what the best moment I did have whilst flying aeroplanes with the Royal Navy in the Joint Force and the US Navy was and I came up with this at the very end. It's hard to be categorical about my best moment in the Royal Navy, however tied for first place, is that moment in a dusty valley somewhere near collapse in Afghanistan when the firing had stopped and the ground forces could speak with normal tones and breathing rate, which meant that Simon and I had done our duty.
Sharing top spot is when I found out that I was a Sea Harrier pilot.”
Hear stories live on Saturday 25 March 2023 at the first IWM History Festival.
Meet Fighter Pilot Paul Tremelling as he tells us his story and experiences in Harrier: How to be a Fighter Pilot.
You can also enjoy Real Objects. Real Stories. Real History:
- Talks from IWM curators telling stories from our collections using rarely seen objects, film, audio, documents and ephemera
- A special film screening of The Battle of the Ancre and Advance of the Tanks (1917)
- Get up close to, look inside and discover the stories of some of IWM’s most famous static collections including IWM's Spitfire N3200 and Avro Lancaster
- Hear from respected academics and authors as they discuss their best-selling books and the stories that inspired them
- Special book signings from our IWM History Festival authors
Sunday 26 March 2023
Clare Mulley: “Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg were the only two women to serve the Nazi Third Reich as test pilots during the Second World War. These women were in many ways similar. They were both brilliant pilots, they had a very strong sense of honour and duty for their nation, although they had a very different understanding of what honour meant. For Hanna Reitsch it was blind patriotism, for Melitta it was patriotism for her nation Germany but not for the Nazi regime which she she fought to actually help bring down.
Hanna Reitsch started the war testing a machine called the Gigant or Giant which is actually a massive glider. It could take up to 100 armed troops or even a tank and the front of it would open sort of bit like a seed pod and this tank would come juddering out into action. She was about five foot four, her head only reached the top of the wheels and in fact she had to tie wooden blocks to the bottom of her feet in order to be able to reach the pedals to test this machine. From there she tested things called wing blades on the front of bombers which were designed, sort of as prototypes, to cut through the steel cables that tethered barrage balloons, Britain's main defence against bombers and later against the V1s. She went on to test even the Messerschmitt 163 Comet which was powered by the combustion of these very unstable fuels, an incredibly dangerous machine that cost the lives of many of the test pilots. Her great skill was in gliding and these machines would burn their fuel incredibly fast and then have to glide down and she was testing the gliding landings. This is a V1 here. By 1944, Hannah proposed having a manned version just like this, but with a little cockpit on the top and the idea was that then they could target shipping in advance of D-Day and be very precise in in what targets they took out. Essentially, she tested a prototype cruise missile.
Melitta Schiller, Melitta von Stauffenberger as she became with her married name, wasn't just a pilot she was a brilliant test pilot, but she was also an aeronautical engineer. And so, she would spend her days developing the equipment for some of the most pioneering military aircraft. For example, she developed the dive sites and the dive breaks for the Juncker JU-87 and she also worked on the 88s. The 87 is the Stuka Dive Bomber so these machines they're absolutely extraordinary they are the machines that are synonymous with the Blitzkrieg. They go incredibly fast and then they the way it works is they come up quite high and then they turn, and they come down at virtually 80 degrees this will be at about 350 miles an hour. And they come down to target very individual tanks or particular targets on the ground. And Melitta was not just the aeronautical engineer on these things, but also insisted on conducting her own test. So, if a male test pilot would test a dive bomber in the morning, do a nosedive I mean that was considered courageous. Melitta would test a Stuka dive bomber 15 times in a single day. She did over 2,000 tests during the course of the war. No one else came anywhere near her, so really she was working at the limit of what was humanly possible. As you come down at those speeds what happens is normally you red out first the blood gets forced into your face and into your eyes and then very often the pilot would black out. So, part of the value of Melitta's work was the development of the dive breaks which would automatically kick-in, slow the machine and enable it to curve up again and circle back around to the airfield and this is what saved the lives of many of those pilots.
There was a reason why Melitta was working so hard because in in 1937 when the Nuremberg laws came in Melitta found out that her father had actually been born Jewish. So, she tried to secure not only her life, but to save her family by making herself so valuable to the regime that they offered her what was called "equal to Aryan status" so she was working under duress. Later Melitta also worked on the BF-109 sometimes called the ME or Messerschmitt 109 which was a very versatile plane. It was initially conceived as an interceptor, but it was used in day bombing and night time bombing as well. It was a very pioneering plane, it was enclosed, it had retractable wheels, and Melitta worked on it for the blind flying equipment.
I think if there's one thing that really comes from this story that is quite simple, it's the absolute hypocrisy of the Nazi regime who believed that there was only you know one space for women really Kirche, Küche, Kinder, and there was no place at all for Jews. And yet when they needed them, they gave two women in the very masculine, as they thought, field of flight the highest honours, the Iron Cross. They're both nominated for the Iron Cross First Class, and they were women of course and one of them the Third Reich themselves designated as Jewish.”
Hear their stories live at IWM's History Festival on Sunday 26 March 2023.
Based on her book The Women Who Flew for Hitler, author and broadcaster Clare Mulley explores the lives of Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg. Both very different women – who became decorated test pilots in Nazi Germany.
You can also enjoy Real Objects. Real Stories. Real History:
- Talks from IWM curators telling stories from our collections using rarely seen objects, film, audio, documents and ephemera
- Get up close to, look inside and discover the stories of some of IWM’s most famous static collections including IWM's Spitfire N3200 and Avro Lancaster
- Hear from respected academics and authors as they discuss their best-selling books and the stories that inspired them
- Special book signings from our IWM History Festival authors
Ticket Prices
IWM History Festival ticket bookings are powered by SEE tickets. No booking fees applied.
As a charity, your ticket purchase and attendance on the day supports the work we do. There are other ways you can support us including purchasing food and drink in our cafes on site and purchasing from our IWM shop on the day.
If you can, please also consider adding a voluntary donation to your booking to help IWM preserve our collections and share our stories with every generation. Suggested donations are £3, £5 or £10.
| Standard tickets | IWM Member tickets | |
Adult IWM History Festival Ticket Aged 16 + years |
£40.00 | £40.00 |
Adult Museum Entry Upgrade Upgrade for £8.00 to be able to visit the rest of IWM Duxford as part of your day. IWM Members should have their membership card ready for free museum entry. |
£8.00 | Free |
Personal Assistant All visitors with a disability can bring a carer free of charge. |
Free | Free |
Parking Please book a free parking permit if you are planning to drive to IWM History Festival. |
Free | Free |
General Event Information
IWM members
- If you are planning to visit the museum hangars or exhibitions during the festival, please book a free 'Member Upgrade ticket' for each member of your party covered by a valid membership.
- IWM members should book their festival ticket and sessions as soon as possible. Session spaces are limited and will sell out.
Your tickets
- Please book your ticket and sessions as soon as possible. Session spaces are limited and will sell out.
- Our programme is designed to enable you to choose four sessions during your day. If you are planning to visit the museum hangars or exhibitions during the festival, a special £8 museum upgrade ticket is available. You will not be able to visit the rest of the museum without an upgrade ticket.
- Tickets are powered by See tickets. There are no booking fees.
- Please read our terms and conditions before booking.
- If you have any questions on your tickets once you have booked, please contact See tickets.
- On the day of the event, you can contact us between 9-5pm on 020 7091 3067 (standard call costs apply).
Travelling to IWM Duxford
- IWM Duxford is just south of Cambridge at Junction 10 of the M11 motorway, less than 50 miles from central London and approximately 40 minutes from the M25 (Junction 27). Via the M11, IWM Duxford is easily accessible from the A1, A14, M1 and the North.
- If you plan to drive to IWM Duxford please ensure you book your free parking permit.
The programme
- Our published programme is available now to help with your booking. Any changes to the line-up or session timings will be published before the day.
About your tickets
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Your ticket enabled you to pre-book four talks throughout the day.
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Your day booking allows you entry to IWM History Festival on the day/ date that you choose your programme.
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This will be either Saturday 25 March or Sunday 26 March 2023. It does not cover entry to IWM History festival on both days.
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If you would like to attend both days, tickets are still available, but some sessions may be sold out. You can check availability now.
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We have built in time within our sessions to allow you to move between talks, but our packed line up does include timings that sometimes overlap and clash. Please do double check your booking now to avoid disappointment on the day.
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Our staff and volunteers will be on hand to help you get to your talks on time but do please refer to your ticket booking and the printed timetable that will be available on the day, which will help you be seated in plenty of time to relax and enjoy the session. Last minute changes to the programme will be available to view on the IWM History Festival webpage.
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If you are an IWM member, you can enjoy IWM Duxford as part of your membership offer. Please ensure you bring your valid IWM membership card on the day. Your membership card will also provide discounts in the shop and within onsite catering outlets.
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For non-IWM members, if you can fit it into your timetabled programme, you can upgrade your booking to include entry to the museum. The upgrade is available for £8. These can be pre-booked now, or you can upgrade on the day.
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Parking is free on both days, but to manage traffic and arrivals, we do ask you to pre-book a parking permit if you can. There will be provision for Blue Badge holders. Please follow the road signage as you approach IWM Duxford.
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If you are experiencing problems booking your tickets online, or if you cannot find your tickets after checking out, you can check your order by entering your order reference or postcode at See Tickets.
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The car park gates will open at 8.30am.
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Please have your See ticket booking either printed out or available on your device to scan.
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The lecture venues will open at approximately 9.30am.
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The event will close at 7.00pm.
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If you are a Saturday booker and want to attend Sunday after enjoying your day, tickets will be available to book online.
Author books will be available to purchase and have signed from the IWM pop up shop as part of your IWM History Festival experience.
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Our published programme can be viewed throughout the day/ weekend on the IWM History Festival webpage.
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Alternatively, you can use the deep links below for quick access to the timetable by day:
Saturday 25 March Sunday 26 March
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However, as a live event, last minute changes can sometimes happen that impact on timings or sessions.
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Changes to the line-up or sessions will be published as far as possible before the day.
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Our staff and volunteers will keep you updated on the day should anything impact on your booking or experience.
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IWM photographers may take images at events that could be kept on file and used for publicity purposes.
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To find out more about how we use our images please ask our photographer or email [email protected].
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You are not permitted to capture images or footage at events for commercial purposes unless you have our prior permission to do so.
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The recording of lectures or the event in general for commercial purposes will also not be permitted without prior permission.
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If you have any queries on the day, our staff and volunteers are there to help.
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If you have any queries about your ticket booking, please contact See Tickets.
Seats are allocated on a first come, first served basis on the day. Our team of staff and volunteers are on hand to direct you to the lecture room in plenty of time to secure a seat. As you pre-booked your sessions, you are however guaranteed entry to the lecture you chose when securing your tickets.
The content for IWM Live was created with adult (16+) audiences in mind. Younger adults are of course welcome but there are no special ticket prices available.
Yes, tickets will be available to purchase on the day from our visitor centre on arrival, from our IWM History Festival pop up shop and via the SEE tickets website.