As I travelled to the Junction theatre in Goole with a friend, I had a great deal of trepidation about seeing the play Bomb Happy. Written by Helena Fox, it is based on the experiences of a number of Second World War veterans from York. But not just any veterans, a group of men who […]
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Today is 6th June: the anniversary of D-Day, when Allied forces landed on the Normandy coastline. D-Day and Normandy has prompted thousands of books, and during the campaign many thousands of photos were taken on both sides of the battlefield. These are a small selection of rarely seen images. 1. Rommel’s Asparagus, Utah Beach This […]
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He took the defining photo of the U.S.S.R.’s victory over Nazi Germany, although many of his photographs were heavily doctored or staged for Soviet propaganda purposes. But instead of accolades from communist authorities, Yevgeny Khaldei — born 100 years ago in 1917 — struggled to remain employed as anti-Semitism swept through the Soviet Union. Yevgeny Khaldei […]
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I enlisted in the Army in 1938. During World War 2 I served in North Africa, Italy, and India. I landed in North Africa as part of ‘Operation Torch’ After the fighting in Tunisia and Algeria I received extra training in the desert at a French outpost Chateau Dun. This covered driving and maintenance of […]
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The four battles of Monte Cassino between January and May 1944 saw men from many Allied nations come to fight their way up the road to Rome, dominated by the massif of Monte Cassino with the monastery which looked down like the eyes of the enemy on the battlefields below. Much of the fighting was […]
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The Battle for Arnhem in September 1944 is an action closely associated with the British 1st Airborne Division and their heroic struggle for Arnhem Bridge and fighting in the Oosterbeek Perimeter. The units within this Airborne formation were all from the British Army and at the time Operation Market Garden was taking place the Canadian Forces […]
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Immortalised in the film A Bridge Too Far, Operation Market Garden was General Bernard Montgomery‘s bold plan in September 1944 to advance more than 80 miles into enemy held territory in the Netherlands, by moving up a narrow corridor of roads using ground troops, and then drop Allied Airborne forces at key points along the way […]
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Omaha Beach was one of five Normandy beaches where Allied troops landed on D-Day, 6th June 1944. It was also the deadliest with more than 2,000 American troops killed in action here with many thousands more wounded: and as such, it became known as ‘Bloody Omaha’. In fact, more Allied soldiers died on Omaha Beach […]
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