Hello, I am looking for British newspapers published after the D-Day and dealing with the Battle of Normandy. I am looking for articles about the relationships between the British soldiers and the French civilian in Normandy (like the Rex North's article in the Sunday Pictorial, June 28th 1944). Do you know if it exist a website for the newspapers or something else ?
Here are two online sites, both of which require payment. British Newspapers 1710-1963 | findmypast.co.uk Subscribe | British Newspaper Archive
British Newspaper Archive is free if accessed from your local library (it is here in Scotland anyway) I just spent yesterday downloading a ton of articles about St Valery and the 51st Highland Division.
Yeah but I doubt anyone would go to all that effort and expense - digitise, index and host - out of the goodness of their hearts. From time to time (like Ancestry) Findmypast offer free access to some of their catalogue. For info, Paddle's intro post:
Ok, so not likely they will be in the UK to make use of free library access then! If I remember next time I’m in I might try having a look for related articles.
Another source would be the Trove service at the National Library of Australia (www.nla.gov.au) - they always carried stories provided by the British wire service as filler to let people over here know what was going on around the world. The service is online and free - just try a couple of obvious search words (normandy civilian) and then drill down to decade / year / month for the period you are interested in. You can screenprint the pages or download the text as a word file (assuming it has been tidied up as the scanning process and word recognition is only around 90% accurate).
dbf : Yes I understand that. Incredibledisc : Thank you for this information. If you can remember it it will be great. DaveB : Thank you, I will try that right now.
I think you can search the British Newspaper Archive for free - you just can’t read the articles you find (although you do get 3 free articles once you register) Here’s a screenshot of what I got with the search “Normandy Civillians” for the year 1944.
There might be some relevant information regarding relationships between the British Army and French civilians contained in the BBC series WW2 People'War. BBC - WW2 People's War Might be worth trawling through what's there.From what I gather,but not from the BBC WW2 People's War that some events were not cordial. Good luck Paddle with your project.
For another (free) online source, you could also search the oral histories on the IWM website - recorded interviews of veterans. Search objects | Imperial War Museums (use filters - sound, second world war try searching keywords like - French civilians, etc.)