D Day Landings. Tetrarch Light Tanks On D Day and before, twenty Tetrarch Light Tanks were deployed by the 6th Airborne Recce Regt in Normandy. They were not very successful; several were destroyed in the transportation and landing. Those that survived were outclassed by German armour. They were mostly used for close support particularly by 8 Para in the Bois de Bavent. From Wikipedia: On 13 December 1943, the War Office decided to [...]
This D Day Tour video is a 360 degree panorama of the Pegasus Bridge, the only bridge over the Caen Canal between the sea and Caen itself. It was vital the allies captured the bridge intact. The panorama shows you the canal, the Cafe Gondree where we often stop for coffee on our D Day Tours, the new larger Pegasus Bridge, the German A/t gun, the markers showing where Major Howard's three Horsa gliders came [...]
I found this memorial quite by chance, only a few miles from our home. It was placed by the people of St. Anne in memory of Pilot Officer James Alexander Downie aged 23 yrs and Pilot Officer Victor Gwyn Ross aged 21 yrs, who were killed when their unarmed Photo-Reconaissance Mosquito (No. MM352) of 544 Squadron RAF crashed into the field behind on 9th June 1944. Downie & Ross are buried in the communal churchyard [...]
Seventy years ago today, on 31st December 1942, Allied convoy JW51B, en route to the Kola Inlet in Russia was intercepted by the German Pocket Battleship Lutzow and the Heavy Cruiser Hipper. The attack was beaten off by the convoy escorts and the timely arrival of two British Cruisers HMS Jamaica and HMS Sheffield. The battle was fought in the 2-3 hours of murky arctic half light and darkness. The sea was frozen and so [...]
