Germany bombs London 7-15 September 1940 On 7 September 1940, the Luftwaffe unleashed a merciless bombing campaign against London and Britain's major cities. Instead of breaking morale, however, the raids only galvanised the will of the British people for the rest of the war. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/germany_bombs_london
Thursday 1st October 1942 The long awaited buff envelope had arrived on our doormat a fortnight before informing me that I had been called up into His Majesty's Army and that I was to report to the Beds and Herts Infantry Training Regiment at Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk. The Army had thoughtfully provided a railway ticket (ominously a single, one way only) and on arriving at Bury St.Edmunds we were met at the station by a three ton lorry, our first acquaintance with this favoured form of military transport. We got to the barrack gates, dismounted and formed up into ragged ranks for identification against a master roll on a clipboard held by a very important looking sergeant. Allocated to various platoon numbers we then marched through the barracks to a series of catcalls coming from young men in denim uniform lining our route. "Go home while you can you stupid b******s!" was but a mild example of what we were subjected to and it was only weeks later that we realised the troops who 'gave us the bird' on our entry into camp had only themselves been in the army for two weeks and that this was a favourite pastime every Thursday lunch time when the new intake arrived at the Depot. On this Thursday however I was not to know about such things and found myself looking around me and absorbing like a piece of blotting paper all the atmosphere of an army camp in wartime. We were marched around the perimeter of a large parade ground getting various items of kit on the way and were eventually broken into squads of about twenty strong and allocated to squad leaders. My particular squad leader was a sergeant, looking as tough as old nails. He marched us to our barrack hut and then gave us a short lecture based roughly on the "You play ball with me and I'll play ball with you" syndrome. He then told us to fall out and get our gear into the hut. As luck would have it, I was the last person to file into the hut, and found my way impeded by what looked like a pair of size ten army boots worn by this imposing sergeant. "Your name's Goldstein, isn't it?" he demanded. "Jewish, aren't you?" he continued. Everything I had ever imagined concerning anti-Semitism immediately came to mind and with much misgivings I promptly replied "So what!" "Don't be a bloody idiot," he replied, "My name's Kusevitsky!" (or some such equally Jewish sounding name). Within seconds he had established the fact that my new comrades would soon find out that their Platoon Commander was Jewish, and therefore in order to avoid complaints of favoritism he would have to be extra tough with me during training, but that I should understand the motives behind it and ignore the harassing. When the course eventually finished we had a drink together and had some fun out of the situation. The six weeks primary training passed in a flash, my main memories of this period being those of inoculations, usually performed three at a time and the strange diet.My new found friends soon discovered that I couldn't eat bacon and used to arrange to sit next to me in the dining hall. Once we'd had our jabs and had learnt how to look reasonably presentable in uniform we were allowed to go into town in the evening and we used to swagger there in groups of about six strong. We learnt very quickly that the cheapest place to get a meal off duty was at the Y.M.C.A or the Salvation Army, affectionately known as the Sally Ann and we all became heavy smokers, lung cancer not having even been heard of in those heady days. Whilst at Bury St. Edmunds we were given various psychological tests and apparently it was discovered that I had an aptitude for reading Morse code for when the course finished and the 'postings' were put up on the camp notice board I found that I had been transferred to a Royal Artillery Driver/Wireless Operator training unit in Whitby, in Yorkshire. © Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Thursday 1st October 2015 ? Blimey ! 73 years since I was first called up !!!! Ron
Wednesday 4th. October 1944 Reveille 1.15 am, on the main road by 4 am. Bloody cold but improved as we drove. Beautiful scenery all the way. Destination turned out to be Assisi, famous for St. Francis. Made an early night. Ron
Thursday 5th. October 1944 Maintenance in the morning then on Nobby Clarke's bike into the village to find some chaps. Really quaint & quite clean. P.T.M. (Prepare to move) was at 7.45 pm. and the trip lasted till 4.15 am. Fell asleep on the wheel. Through Perugia to Figlini. Friday 6th. October 1944 Beds down in morning & did I sleep ! Maintainance was pretty hard work & I checked everything. Cleaned up by 6 pm & into bed again to write letter. On stag 10.30 pm.
My Dad, Edmund, vividly remembered the early morning of 6th October 1943 as he came ashore in the sleepy (!) seaside resort of Termoli: "...We embarked into landing craft in battle order and were carried around the Cape formed by Mount Gargano to Termoli. Here, we were dumped on an inhospitable quay with 205mm shells exploding around us. The reception was so warm, the navy did not bother to unload a medical unit complete with stretchers. They just backed out and left. We ran quickly up the cobbled streets carrying everything. The platoons were hurriedly deployed and we dashed into a large hotel building which was occupied by the remains of a commando troop that had taken the port a few hours before. Our trucks had caught us up. My staff joined me and were delighted with the luxurious accommodation we had in Termoli. As soon as I was given the location of the farm where the company was, I made my way in a TCV with a hot meal inside six gallon containers. I could not go across country but followed the roundabout route by road. On the way, I was shelled and shot at. At the farm, I started to feed the men when we became the target of shellfire from some heavy guns. In a lull, I packed my stuff to return to my cooks and storeman. The return journey was even more fraught and I dashed into the hotel out of harm’s way. I was greeted with: ‘What was it like?’ I replied with a vivid description in violent army language. A gentle voice from the back of the room said chidingly: ‘Rosie.’ It was Father Hayes, our padre. I had served Mass for him on many occasions. I stammered an apology and he never mentioned my verbosity ever..." best
8/9 October 1943 The last raid carried out by the Wellington by Bomber Command. The attached file gives the total bombs dropped by the Wellington re Bomber Command WW2
On this day 15/16 October 1940. The last operations were carried out by the Fairy Battle with Bomber Command with which it carried out 237 day/night bombing raids. Attachment - Recognition Silhouette for the Fairy Battle.
Monday 16th. October 1944 Arrived Florence about 9.30 am. Visited Jewish club & Synagogue which Jerry had mined before leaving. Show in afternoon. Drinks in evening.
Had a look at my diaries to see what I was doing on this day 71 years ago I know I was in the North of Italy and we were waiting to be disbanded. Monday 6th. November 1944 Very busy morning on set. In afternoon 90 Bty. wireless truck personell came back. Truck fairly mobile. Played cards & packed up when I'd lost a pound. Route card issued. Frost precautions. Ron
Remembering too many wartime Xmases but eternally grateful to have reached this current year's celebrations. A very merry Xmas to all forum members ! Ron
30 December 1941, Ottawa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6JxSHmVB5g http://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotations/499-famous-quotations-and-stories
New Year's Day 1st Jan 1944 Memories of 72 years ago: http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/18863-new-years-eve-in-ww2/ Ron
On this day 17th January 1943 - Mediterranean Sea. The Submarine United (P.44) (Lieutenant J. C. Y. Roxburgh) left Malta on the 4th January 1943 for an area north-west of Marittimo. This was uneventful until the 17th, when an escorted merchant ship was attacked and missed, but one of the escorting Italian destroyers, the Bombardiere (1,650 tons) was hit and sank in a few minutes. United was not able to confirm this at the time but reported that the destroyer had been hit. United then left patrol arriving in Malta on 20th January. Attachment HM Submarine United
Apparently Winston was quite pissed at Karsh during the photo session for plucking the cigar from his mouth and his angry glare was captured perfectly. I've seen the original framed photo. Iconic! it hangs in a salon at the Chateau Laurier Hotel, next to the parliament buildings.
The loss of the type VIIC Submarine U 623 on 21st February 1943 Liberator III FK223 T/120 Sqn. on patrol 0929 - 0333 hrs. S/L, D, Isted DFC Pilot. F/O. R. Crumpton 2nd. Pilot. W/O. W. Ferris Navigator. Sgt. H. Richardson Engineer. F/S. R. Bedford WOp/AG. Sgt. A. Allwood WOp/AG. F/S. R. Timoney WOp/AG. F/L. M. Thompson Gunnery Officer. (passenger) "Flying from Aldergrove, to escort ON 166, duly met the 46 M/Vs and six E/Vs, then patrolled on SNO’s orders. Over a calm sea a U-boat was sighted at nine miles in position 4808/2937, 15 miles from the convoy. Isted climbed into cloud, breaking out at four to five miles from the sub, only to sight a second U-boat two to three miles to port. Isted continued with his planned attack on the first boat dived to 50 feet and released six D/Cs. As he did so, the second boat began to dive. The whole stick exploded opposite the conning tower and six men could be seen in the tower but the sub had made no move to dive. As Isted circled, the boat was seen to go down but slowly, and some 45 seconds later the gun platform was still visible. The boat seemed to be having difficulty in diving and as Isted flew over his rear gunner fired 150 rounds at it. Some moments later the boat finally went below the waves and the SNO, having been informed, sent a destroyer and a corvette to investigate. They only found two large oil patches near the aircraft's burning marine marker." (Franks, 1995) The escort ships which went to the scene continued the depth-charge attacks. (120 Sqn. Ops. Record Book) Isted's attack was witnessed and reported to U-boat HQ by U 91 (Kapitanieutnant Walkerling). (Cheek, 1999 & Sharpe, 1998) U 623 joined "Bitter" group formed to attack the expected convoy HX226. On the night of 18th. February, HX226 passed to the N. of the group in the course of a long detour. It was then learned that convoys ON 166 and ONS167 were being routed S. of "Ritter" and the group moved SE. to join "Neptune" group. ONS166 was sighted by U 604 on 20th. February but she was driven off by the U.S. Coast Guard cutter SPENCER before the "Ritter" boats arrived. The Type VIIC boat U-623 - German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net Attachment entry 120 Squadron ORB 21 February 1943
On this day 24/25 February 1941 First operation by the Avro Manchester - an attack on Brest. Along with other aircraft of RAF Bomber Command 6 Manchester's of 207 Squadron were involved in this raid. One Manchester crashed on its return to England.
On this day 3/4 March 1942 The first operation was carried out by the Avro Lancaster - Four Lancasters sea mining off the north-west German coast. (posted a day early)
On this day 14 March 1945. The first 22,000 - LB MC bombs (Grand Slams) dropped - Bielefeld Viaduct by 617 Squadron.
On this day, March 13/14 1941, the Luftwaffe kill 528 people during raids on Clydebank. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-35802112 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12759391
