Bikers aim to raise £10,000

Fourteen motorcyclists. including eight from RAF Cranwell, set off for Bletchley Park on Friday to ride 580 miles to RAF Lossiemouth in Operation Mercury.

They aim to raise £10,000 for the Royal Air Forces Association by re-enacting the kind of journey a wartime despatch rider may have taken.

At the centre of the team is a genuine WWII Matchless G3L WD despatch rider bike. This machine was delivered to Allied forces Middle East in 1941 and is still going strong today. 

A variety of old and modern bikes will complete the journey, including another ex-military bike: a 1995 Harley Davidson MT350. 

“To make things just a little more challenging, the team are only allowed to ride on roads that existed in 1941 - in other words terrible ones - and will take three days to complete the journey…hopefully,” said a spokesperson.

Bletchley Park is the point of departure because it was here that intercepted enemy radio messages were decrypted before the subsequent intelligence was carried by despatch riders to headquarters around the country. 

“To add a little razzmatazz, Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, is going to entrust them with a sealed message, a ‘despatch’ in other words, to the base commander at RAF Lossiemouth.”

The team are a mixture of military and civilian riders and are ably supported by two medics in the back-up van. All admin costs for the journey are borne by the participants. Every penny donated goes to Royal Air Forces Association.