Templars, Germans & a Poet

Visiting Temple Bruer Knights Templar Preceptory and Scopwick war graves. I’m not one for getting my head down and cranking out the miles. I much prefer to take in my surroundings and search out new places - while cranking out the miles. Today was one such day. We had a plan to visit the remains of the Templar Preceptory at Temple Bruer. After that there was no plan. Recognising Scopwick as the resting place of John Gillespie Magee, the 19 year old WW11 pilot who wrote the famous poem, High Flight, we stopped for a visit. While searching out his grave, we came across a small group of German graves. Four of these were the crew of a Dornier that made an audacious solo bombing raid on Lincoln. After dealing out death and destruction, they had the misfortune to meet one of the RAF’s finest, in the shape of a Mosquito. The firefight saw the Mosquito badly damaged but the crew managed to get it down with no injuries, while the four man Dornier crew were all killed by the impact of crashing near Boothby Graffoe. It was a 53 mile ride, but didn’t feel like it, mainly due to the distractions.