80 years on.

80 Year ago today, the Germans invaded Holland.

 

12th May 1940 the police in Chatham took the Austrian born helicopter pioneer Raoul Hafner into custardy as an Enemy Alien despite the fact that he had been working on a secret helicopter project for the Fleet Air Arm. Those working with him didn't want him interned and neither did the Air Ministry but his partners on the helicopter, Pobjoy/Shorts at Rochester was within a restricted area and rules are rules so all enemy aliens had to go. Despite having been in England since 1932, gaining an English wife and child along the way and requesting British nationality in 1938 he would remain interned until October 1940 and finally gaining his British nationality in 1941
This is the PD7 helicopter design he was working on at the time of his arrest.

 

80 Years ago today, the 51st Highland Division and its supporting troops were forced to surrender to Rommel at St Valery-en-Caux. They had fought on against superior numbers and weaponry for a further 8 days after the Dunkirk evacuation had finished. Many say that they were sacrificed and forgotten by Churchill. Unfortunately, (in my humble opinion) they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

80 years ago today on the 17 June 1940 the former Cunard liner, now troopship, "Lancastria" was bombed and sunk off St Nazaire. The ship was overloaded with service and civilian evacuees escaping from the German advance into France. The huge loss of life may have reached 6000 in the biggest ever British maritime disaster. The total killed certainly dwarfed the combined casualties of the "Titanic" and "Lusitania" put together but wartime censorship ensured that little has been heard of the "Lancastria" disaster.

 

First service post-lockdown held at Westminster Abbey to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Lovely to see the flypast, and to remember those who lost their lives, shame there were no veterans present. You would think that by video link or social distancing something could have been arranged, seemingly not.

Flypast marks Battle of Britain 80th anniversary

 

And only one fighter pilot still alive, Flying Officer John Hemingway, aged 101.

 

80 years since HMS Hood and Bismarck were sunk.

 

...and it catapulted the war into a new dimension of ruthlessness and criminal behaviour by the Wehrmacht. What had been practiced in Poland was taken to new extremes. Not only was the Wehrmacht waging war against the Red Army but also against the population in the areas they occupied...

 

A multi-day air-sea battle raged in the Med.

http://rommelsriposte.com/2020/04/22/sea-air-battle-in-the-mediterranean-10-13-september-1941/

All the best

Andreas

 

Remembering those who gave their lives at Pearl Harbor 80 years ago

 

The government of the United Kingdom declared war on the Empire of Japan on 8 December 1941, following the Japanese attacks on British Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong on the previous day.

United Kingdom declaration of war on Japan - Wikipedia

 

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his speech to Congress, which will become one of the most memorable in history:

Speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt, New York (Transcript)

FDR’s “Day of Infamy” Speech

 

Admiral Halsey said, "Before we're through with them, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell." on Dec 8 at Pearl Harbor.

 

The day my dad's twin brother was captured, he may have had some trepidation but little did He probably know how bad things would be for the next three and a half years.

 

I have taken loads of photographs of this memorial over the years from 1984 onwards...
Some of these are from the August 17th 2012 anniversary starting at Boughton House, Northants. Then at the Memorial for a service. The 384th BG were at Grafton Underwood from June 1943 - June 1945.

97th Bomb Group | American Air Museum in Britain

The Rouen Raid: There is a First Time For Everything- Even in War

 

I'm feeling quite emotional today with Tony's posting of the 80th anniversary of the Torch landings.
Both our fathers landed at Algiers with C squadron, 56 Recce.

56th Reconnaissance Corps

Lesley