France

A Bill Brown Experience: Chapter 5 D Rothery: Grenadier Guards in France 1940

Rehearsals in preparation for the Trooping of the Colour were taking place on the barrack square, where a...

“If one of those shells hits the boat we’re all finished!”

In 1944, Pat was part of the 11th Armoured Division and took part in the Normandy Landings, arriving at...

Tom's Story - Part 3

The 10th Cruiser Squadron, led by Belfast, which we realised was carrying some very high ranking Navy and...

Fire Orders Chapter 13b

As I entered, Charlie Kilminster, the wireless operator, glanced up from his letter; Ted Maher, the...

A Marine's Tale Part 5

The hospital ship sailed that same evening and docked that night in Portsmouth ,we were then taken by...

"A Definitely Unpleasant Show"

Over 150,000 troops - including my grandfather, Herbert Stokes - were still in France two weeks after...

Shot Down Over Dunkirk 28th May 1940

On Tuesday 28th May 1940, four Blenheim IVF aircraft of No, 254 Squadron ’A’ Flight based at...

A Marine's Tale Part 3

There followed a period of intensive training involving many practice landings along the South Coast and we...

The Lancaster Crash at Rebréchien - Chapter 2

The cost for 101 Squadron was 171 aircraft lost in operations. Out of the 55,000 men of RAF Bomber Command...

Blenheim Action in 1940: Battle of France

Tich Birch had never returned from a Heligoland 'recco' -Johnny Ball had been killed in action a...

My War from the Inside

Even the Germans were humane enough to grant him double food rations, such as they were, but unfortunately...

Memoirs of an Ex Infantry Man, Chapter 6

When the first bomb burst I was looking underneath the carrier, before the next I was watching the others...

Return to Normandy

It was known as Operation OVERLORD and having served in Normandy at that time I was entitled to be called a...

Story From my Father - He Called it "Bottle"

He was The Gunner in our Cromwell tank crew during the summer of 1944 in Normandy - a lively, likeable,...

Memoirs of an Ex Infantry Man, Chapter 5

The two other Brens had started firing and I shouted to the others to shout out the range, they shouted...

Douglas Smithson: Glider Pilot Part 2: Dunkirk 1940

Back in the dunes about 40/50 yards from where we had been before, we settled down again and hoped that we...

The Lancaster Crash at Rebréchien - Chapter 4

As the brochure nears completion we have articles appearing in local newspapers in Leeds, Yorkshire to try...

Memories of L/Cpl Wilfred Slater 5249747

They said that the girl and the man had told the Germans about us because they had put a reward on all...

The Lancaster Crash at Rebréchien - Chapter 3

This is Chapter 3 of 6 chapters and continues the story of the Lancaster Crash at Rebréchien with...

A Teenager at War — Part 1

We crawled toward a cornfield amid fire from enemy machine guns, when a German tank came into view. Later...

The East Riding Yeomanry in Normandy 1944

For the Normandy Landings, the East Riding Yeomanry, Royal Armoured Corps was part of 27 Armoured Brigade,...

Memoirs of an Ex Infantry Man, Chapter 4

Jeff came back and talked to the Sergeants showing them on a map what he thought was the area of...

Memoirs of an Ex Infantry Man, Chapter 1

The Sergeant evidently didn't think so, he called me a c--- and "let's hope the f---ing lions...

Memoirs of an Ex Infantry Man, Chapter 3

By now shells had begun to drop in the wood and we were all getting restless, we were all wondering if...

James Eric Wicketts Memories - Part 1

After three months they sent us back to the main stalag where they put us to work digging up graves in a...

Letter to Son

Well son I was at this Kommando from Oct until March when I move to Dresden as the Russians where near......