Greetings from the Heartland of the U.S. I came upon your site as I have other WWII sites over the past 6 years by one link leading to another. In this case, I was searching for additional WWII podcasts as I always enjoy those voices from the war and others from people who have been closely connected to it through family or academic studies or a general curiosity. In my case, as in yours, it's more than general curiosity. Anyway, the podcast link took me to "New Zealand at War" and another link there brought me here. My father was a U.S. Army officer called up for service in April 1941 and served through the end of the war in Europe, witnessing the German surrender in Italy. Dad's specialty was photo intelligence, being first trained by British instructors in the first 2-week intro course in Harrisburg, PA and then advanced training in Derbyshire, England in June-July 1942. I have a lot of WWII photos which I thought to share with you. The first group with outline narrative are at: http://www.thestrathallan.com/PDF/Journey_of_One_Indianapolis_Family.pdf. That's a Scottish website dedicated to the passengers of the SS Strathallan which was torpedoed off the coast of Algeria (near Oran) in December 1942. One of the real highlights for my father was serving on the staff of General Sir Harold Alexander. In Dad's opinion, there was no one like General Alexander; his character and leadership were most remarkable. Anyway, it's very late here, and I'm ready to hit the sack. That will have to do as an intro. I should add that I congratulate you on maintaining the site and the many, many contributors who share these most important historical and personal recollections. Best regards, Heydon
Welcome to the Forum Heydon. Read quite a lot of the PDF - Very interesting war your father had. Cheers Geoff
Heydon. Your pdf was absolutely fascinating. Thank you for posting. I would love to see the enlarged photo of the First Target Chart of Rome on Page 28 and all the Cassino photos on Page 30. Would you mind sharing them? For correctness, the British Mark 1 tank on Page 25 is a 7.6 ton Daimler Armoured Car used for reconnaissance. I was delighted to see that he was made an MBE. Regards Frank
..and the car next to it isn't German but an American Dodge . Looks like a WC-6 to me. Dodge WC6 WC15 WC23 1/2 ton Reconnaissance Car
Thanks, Frank. I am attaching the JPG of the chart of Rome. I believe you'll be able to enlarge that version, but let me know if you can't. I'll have to find the other photos of Cassino. The MBE was most meaningful to Dad. He was pretty modest in discussing his achievements and never really spoke about medals or awards or promotions. However, the MBE was different, and he kept that certificate hanging in his Study in later years. With a slight smile, he told me, "They didn't hand these out to everyone." Very few Americans received them. The recommendation had to go through the Foreign Secretary. As Dad continued his explanation to me with a wink and a nod, he added, "Signed by the King."
Thanks. I'm glad you saw that. That was a guess on my part. I believe the vehicle next to it is the Kübelwagen. This brings up a related issue. I have a number of photos of buildings, landscapes, vehicles, et al which are not identified on back of the photos. Is there a specific section on the site to help identify photos or can I just submit them here in this section and see if anyone recognizes them?
Hello, Heydon. Music to many of our ears, mate. Welcome aboard, and Crack on wherever you like with pictures etc., we can move stuff to the right area if it becomes relevant to a specific section. (If you want Vehicle-ish stuff perhaps more easily spotted by those that enjoy such things though, this is the area: Weapons, Technology & Equipment )
Great reading and pictures in your pdf. My father was also in North Africa and Italy. He was in the invasion of Salerno with the 900th AA/AWB and later converted to the 473rd Infantry. Welcome, by the way. You might also check out ww2f.com. That website is an American companion to this one.