Research & pet projects - what are you doing; how's it progressing?

Discussion in 'General' started by dbf, Oct 5, 2016.

  1. archivist

    archivist Well-Known Member

    I started to write a local history story on a Polish Bomber that crashed near the house where I was born (in fighter country!). Ten years later, I have written a short history of the 304 Squadron and about 300 mini-biographies of the men who were in it. Hundreds more to go and it has become a never ending story!

    I have made a lot of friends along the way - especially in the families of the airmen. It is up on the Internet but will probably never be published as a book. My 2,000 word article has reached well over 180,000 words and the project has taken over my life!
     
  2. Roddy1011

    Roddy1011 Senior Member


    Hi there -
    Might be able to help with the Stalag XI B...I researched the place - alongside Stalag 357 - for years.

    Roddy
     
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  3. Roddy1011

    Roddy1011 Senior Member

    Hi to all...

    Currently writing a short monograph covering Cornwall and D-Day for a local publisher. Some excellent material coming out of the USA although I am finding it most difficult to obtain pre-D-Day reports for the US units in Cornwall.

    Roddy
     
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  4. Roddy1011

    Roddy1011 Senior Member

    Hi there -

    If you pick up anything covering Infantry Regiment 950 on coast duty, do let me know. 950 were the Indians recruited by Bose to fight for the Germans before he went off to the Far East.

    Roddy
     
  5. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    That's very good of you to offer Roddy. Fire away!
     
  6. TriciaF

    TriciaF Junior Member

    Roddy - Much as I would like to help, we're not near the coast. SW France is a large area and we're near the middle of the country.
     
  7. archivist

    archivist Well-Known Member

    In response to your question. The project is flying! I have recently discovered one of my airmen lived out his life in the next village to me and I have just completed his life story. (Mini-biography) I made contact with his family and they provided me with photos and documents and the story had 1,000 hits in three days!
     
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  8. archivist

    archivist Well-Known Member

    The last post was in response to contacts from Reid, Charley Fortnum and dbf
     
  9. LondonNik

    LondonNik Senior Member

    Deleted
     
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2017
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  10. nicolaw

    nicolaw Active Member

    Im interviewing as part of this project: War Generation
    Im thoroughly enjoyed myself!
     
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  11. Shiny 9th

    Shiny 9th Member

    On going and neverending research about 9th Royal Sussex, with ambitions to make a database of all who served but became side tracked in the best possible way by starting a Facebook Page for said 9th, which provides a supply of new material but also the need to deal with queries and enjoyment of contact with others whose relatives who served.!
     
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  12. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    I'm using the Find My Past newspaper archives to search out photographs of my King's Regiment casualties from Chindit 1. I am up to men with surnames beginning M. Probably found 50-60 images, plus the bonus of family details and some very poignant epitaphs. Quite fortunate that the local Liverpool papers made such an effort in this regard.
     
  13. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Had a superb break over the weekend.

    I found an old hotmail address on a now defunct website about the Malayan Emergency (I could only access it through the waybackmachine archive). The address was a citation/acknowlegement of a correction of battery numbers and locations in Hong Kong & Malaya in 1950-52.

    I sent an email introducing myself with very little hope of a response, but within 24 hrs received a single line with a London phone number, suggesting that I get in touch.

    I called the next day (middle of the night, my time) and found myself speaking to an 85-year old former Bombadier from my grandfather's unit (25 Fd Regt) who was a sharp as tack and able to recite dates, locations and names from sixty-five years back (invaluable stuff: ship names, airfield locations, nearby units, weather conditions etc.) We had a 45-min conversation as I scribbled notes, and he's even agreed to answer a questionnaire for me and consult another old soldier from the unit.

    Fantastic luck and a very kind gentleman.
     
    Last edited: May 31, 2017
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  14. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    wow
     
  15. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Brilliant! How difficult is it to take notes on these occasions, when listening to such fascinating stories and trying to think of good questions to ask at the same time.
     
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  16. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    In the continuing saga of finding out about my great granddad and his wartime experiences I got some good news this week from the MOD. I filed a request to check his medal entitlement playing a hunch that, like a lot of former POWs he never bothered to claim them. My mum send me a message on Friday to tell me that two campaign medals had been sent to her.
    [​IMG]Great Granddad John's medals by Bill Robertson, on Flickr
     
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  17. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    Also, thanks to this forum I was recently contacted by the son of one of the 7th Argyll & Sutherland's officers who was captured at the same time as my great granddad. He lives in France now and sent me some pictures taken on his recent visit to the site of the battle of Franleu as well as his late father's account of the battle and his subsequent escape from the Germans.
     
  18. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Managed to get my Fathers service records/medals and war diaries via Andy so have got most of that covered.Unfortunately due to the regiment he was in in when he joined up (most were 29 and older) there isn't anyone out there to contact/share info with.
    So I have a rough idea of his time in UK and NWE. A mass of support from here re that and other parts of my family history.
    Stuck on his accident in late 1945 in NWE and returned to Ronkswood hospital,Worcs but I shall leave that for now.

    Still visiting as many cemeteries and war memorials as possible to take photos.
    Informing CWGC of the quite poor state of a number of headstones both CWGC and private in the UK and based on what I have sent over to them this will never end.
    Also taking headstones of civilian casualties at the cemeteries which as we know they are listed on the CWGC database but the cemeteries are not logged.
    Some are in good condition but others are not and it is down to the families (if any survive) to renew them.I shall keep taking when I see them.

    I get a few family members contact me after seeing a headstone posted on here plus Geoffs Search engine Remembering Today gets a number of family hits.

    So the never ending story continues.


    regards
    Clive
     
  19. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    You've hit the nail on the head there. I hadn't prepared at all and, as you say, missed key points and made a mess all over the paper. Fortunately, the chap said that he hoped that I'd keep in touch, so I get--I hope--a second chance next time around.
     
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  20. Shiny 9th

    Shiny 9th Member

     

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