And Hi to you too Brian ! And while our newcomers are digesting some of the BBC Archives stories they could do a lot worse than read some of the excellent articles you posted on the ww2f Forum (Sister-site to this forum): Sword Beach to Bremen., A Veterans tale. Sapper - Page 29 Do keep well and keep taking the tablets Ron
Always a pleasure to hear from you Ron. I follow your posts knowing that all you write will have that essential bit of "That's what it really was like" atmosphere. While these archives are of great importance for reference, I have this suspicion that similar to the fraudulent Vets that parade with the medals they are not entitled to. There are some stories in amongst those archives that either do not "ring true" or are too similar to others to be "Right" I have seen some that are so identical that you wonder about them.... Cheers. Its a long time since we listened to the music of the "Moaning Minnie's" Nebelwerfers, or multiple Mortars for those that have not heard of them
Brian I always start off with the best of intentions (regarding sticking to the a thread title) but then someone, in this case you, says something that I feel warrants a reply. You mentioned Nebelwerfers or Moaning Minnies , as we used to call them. We first suffered the effects of these buttock clenching weapons in Sicily and I suppose it was the effect of so much local vegetation that made the noise of the mortars seem to echo for ever. Thought you might like to see a reminder of what they looked like. Ron
I had forgotten about the BBC collection, have just rediscovered my own (few) additions. Must allocate a time for a deeper exploration; thanks for the reminder. Edna
I am delighted to report that at long last and after much pressurising from myself and others, the BBC WW2 People's War Archives BBC - WW2 People's War has finally got its act together and the search facilities, at the time of writing, are actually working. There is so much here of immense value to WW2 researchers that it would have been negligible, to the point of being criminal, had the search facility not been attended to. Now that it does work, I thoroughly recommend that you see what it has to offer. Ron, There are still many stories were 'archived' to an incorrect category. Mainly, these seem to be stories that were contributed in the latter months of the lifetime of the project. Several of the stories I posted to the BBC Website are among those placed in a completely incorrect category. Consequently, anyone browsing by 'Archive List' on that site would not find them. I seem to remember that when contributions to the site were coming to a close, allocating many of the stories to a particular category was done by a computer using Bayes' Theorem. As a 'rule of thumb' I also seem to remember this would allocate stories to the correct category in about 80% of cases. The other side of the coin was that about 20% would not be in the correct category. I raised this point with the Site Moderators at the time the project wass coming to a close. The answer was basically that because the site was being archived they only had a limited time to put the backlog of stories into the relevant categories. This was the quickest and best way to do it in the time available. However, it was also mentioned that those stories which had been found to have been placed in an incorrect category might be moved when the site was updated later on (which never happened so far as I know). Here is an example of one of the stories contributed on behalf of a relative by 'Yours Truly': Memories of shooldays in 'Proud Preston', Lancashire (Article ID A6367809) BBC - WW2 People's War - Memories of schooldays in ‘Proud Preston’, Lancashire Just by reading the title, one might reasonably have expected this to be in the Archive List as: 'United Kingdom' > 'Lancashire'. Yet, the BBC computer applied Bayes' Theorem to this story and decided it should be listed in the 'London' category! London was never mentioned in this story! The photograph that was used to go with this article was from my own collection. It had originally belonged to my grandmother and dates from about 1943. This particular photograph was taken at Blackpool - which is also in 'Lancashire'. Apparently the reason for placing this story into the London category was because: (a) some of the other stories I had contributed to the project "People's War" website had been about London; and (b) there was a brief reference in this story about a couple of people who had already been placed in the 'London' category in other archived stories. One of these was the wife of the person who the story was about. I had previously posted some articles to the "People's War" about this lady's wartime memories, one of which was correctly placed in the London category. This is a link to that story: BBC - WW2 People's War - Dancing Through the War Years, by Andé Lyons The second reference in the article was about Mr RAB Butler MP and the 1944 Education Act. Apparently this had already been mentioned in some of the stories in the 'London' category. Many contributors of stories to the "People's War" archive posted their own wartime stories, or those of family members. In a lot of cases these stories might all fit neatly into a particular category. Where this was the situation Bayes' Theorem may well have done the job correctly. For volunteer story-gatherers, such as myself, one could easily be contributing separate wartime stories for a man and a wife. More than likely their wartime experiences would have taken place in different locations and been of a totally different nature. This is where Bayes' Theorem 'broke down' when applied to the "People's War" archive. Evidently, this is what happened in the above example. The 18th C philosopher Richard Price suggested that Bayes' Theorem helped prove the existence of God. It may be somewhat out of the scope of this forum to make an argument for or against this particular idea. God may be in Heaven. But 'Proud Preston' is in Lancashire, not in London - by Bayes' Theorem or otherwise - even if the BBC "People's War" indicates it is!
I must say Ron, i'm very impressed at your computer skills and knowledge...my Wife's Grandad is 2 years younger than you and doesn't even know how to turn one on!
Ron - I discovered the BBC People's War memories project when I started researching my British family's story during WWII just about two years ago It's a wonderful source, and I am really grateful to you for your work in gathering stories, entering your own, and making the site more easily searched. For a while I had access to the Mass Observation data that is another incredible source, particularly about life on the home front during WWII. I wish the BBC would open it up again and collect more stories! It's very frustrating not to have a way to contact people who contributed to the site. I wonder if WWIItalk.com could or does provide an easy way to do this. (I'll look, but I don't think I've seen anything organized - just random requests). For instance, I now know the VAD detachment to which my mother was assigned, the names of the hospitals where she worked, and roughly the times when she was there. But I haven't found a way to search for people who may have worked with her. Records for the VADs were scanty to begin with, and the British Red Cross told when they were demobilized in 1947 all records were destroyed. It would be wonderful if WWIItalk.com provided a permanent "searchers" thread. Anyhow - the BBC People's War files have been a huge help to me, and I love reading the stories. In fact, I found a batch more yesterday I printed and read more thoroughly last night. Best to you with thanks, Barbara
Barbara It has always been a pleasure to "meet-up" again with nice folk like yourself who made use of the BBC People's War before it became a sealed archive. You may or not be aware that when it did actually stop taking articles, a quartet of it's correspondents started their own Blog beautifully devised and organised by Peter Ghiringhelli at: WW2 - The Second World War Just realised that this thread will do fine as a meeting place for ex-BBC People's War contributors so any time you want to have a moan at the BBC just come back here Ron
I am sure the answer is NO but I will ask it anyway. Having found an interesting story, is there any way of sending a message\email to a specific contributor?
Peccavi See posting #14 above. Regretfully the answer is, as you guessed, NO . Your best bet is to start googling the name of the contributor. Ron
Ron, If I remember correctly the BBC were retaining the details of contributors for two years after the site was archived and then deleted. Consequently, a genuine researcher wishing to get in contact with a particular PW contributor will find it difficult, even if they contact the BBC.
Just giving this thread a bump for the benefit of anyone who hasn't used this excellent research tool. The emphasis is on stories sent in by veterans and their families and the caveat is always "we cannot guarantee the truth of what has been sent in". I have also written about this site on our "sister" forum : BBC WW2 People's War Archives Ron
Nominating someone for an honour : Directgov - Government, citizens and rights No names no pack drill --- BUT!
The People's War is an absolutely wonderful resource. I remember being amazed when I read your first post about the search tool. I can't imagine finding anything without it. Thank you again, Ron. Barbara
JThe emphasis is on stories sent in by veterans and their families and the caveat is always "we cannot guarantee the truth of what has been sent in". Ron 'Truth' and 'myth' are strange bedfellows, Ron! I would quite happily guarantee to others your own contibutions to be 'the truth', especially as many of them are based on your contemporay notes and photographs (what I would regard as a primary source).
Ron, There are still many stories 'archived' to an incorrect category. I agree. My own research has shown that there are several stories placed in the category "Conscientious objector" which have nothing whatever to do with conscientious objection and no menttion at all of the topic. Conversely, there are some stories by conscientious objectors describing themselves as such which are not placed in the category "Conscientious objector". I have attmpted to correspond with the BBC about this, but the only reply I received was to the effect that they could not care less. The result is that not only will researchers experience frustration with the search facility, but inexperienced people, such as school pupils working on projects, could derive a completely mistaken idea of what being a conscientios objector involved. Similar misunderstaandings could arise from other mistaken categorisation, such as the Lancashire one mentioned.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHH !!!!!!! :frown: I just hate the BBC !!!!! For years I have used the People's War Archives: BBC - WW2 People's War - Ron Goldstein's War I recently visited the site and found that the search box, that until recently was at the bottom left hand corner of the screen, has simply disappeared !!!! After many moons of a terrible search facility the BBC had finally provided a worthwhile search box and I applauded them at the time for their response to my cries of anguish. Now they have gone back to square one and the search box now takes you away from the site and is completely worthless !!! I have asked Peter G (who was a fellow researcher/helper on the site) to ask them to explain their actions and I now await their response. Ron
Hi Ron Strange you should mention that. I was looking the other day for something I previously found and noticed that the search facility wasn't there anymore. I had to trawl through the army section but gave up in the end!! It is so frustrating as it was so easy before with the search facility. It doesn't help at all. What are the BBC doing?!!! More importantly, is there anything we can do about it? Lesley ps I hate the BBC too-seems they are a law unto themselves
To self-build a fix, use: site:www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar in Google, and add your search terms (after a space) to that. Hopefully a direct link to a People's war site-search: site:www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar - Google Search