The Battle of Mortain : Operation Luttich. "Time spent in recconaissance is seldom wasted" In March 2024 I spent a special day walking the fields and villages of St Barthelemy, Neufbourg & Mortain to refresh and prepare for an upcoming tour of Operation Cobra and the Falaise Pocket. On 25th July 1944, The U.S. Operation Cobra finally broke through German resistance in their sector between Coutances and St Lo [...]
UNESCO World Poetry Day 21st March 2024. The poem Chanson d' Automne by Paul Verlaine is one of the best known in French Literature. It is included in Verlaine's first collection, Poemes saturniens, published in 1866. The opening lines of the poem are well known for being a coded message sent by the BBC in June 1944 on behalf of the Special Operations Executive to French resistance Groups alerting them that the invasion of France [...]
A heroic stand by 182 paratroopers of 3rd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment. 17 of whom along with 26 French civilians were murdered by 17th SS Panzergrenadiers. During the night of 5th-6th June 1944 American paratroopers jumping into Normandy were scattered about the countryside missing their intended drop zones. Over 150 of them landed in the Carentan Marshes up to 18 miles South East of their target at Amfreville. [...]
The Arctic Convoys 1941-45 A Campaign Report by Malcolm Clough (B.A. Hons War Studies) Introduction Some of the hardest fought naval actions of the Second World War took place in the northerly waters of the world – The Arctic Ocean. Thrown together as unlikely allies, between 1941 and 1945 the British and Americans sent the Soviet Union £500,000,000 worth of vital weapons, transport and ammunition.[1] The cost to the Western allies was high: 18 [...]
On Thursday 17th August I spent a special day with James Hale and his family from Seattle & California. James is a professional musician who was granted permission by the American Battle Monuments Commision to play Taps live at Normandy American Cemetery during the flag lowering ceremony at the end of the day. A goosebumps moment. Thank you Jim. The tune is a variation of an earlier bugle call known as the "Scott Tattoo", which [...]
On D-Day, as part of the Allied invasion of Normandy, a group of brave soldiers from the United States Army Rangers embarked on a daring mission. Their objective was to scale the treacherous cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, a fortified German position overlooking the beaches of Omaha and Utah. This daring assault would become one of the most iconic moments of D-Day. The Objective: Pointe du Hoc presented a [...]
1st Battalion 507th PIR, 82nd Airborne Division. 'Le Maison Timmes', Amfreville. Staff Sergeant Donald E Bosworth 1st Battalion 507th PIR, 82nd Airborne Division. I have just spent three splendid days in the company of Jeff and Kyle Bosworth from California USA as we followed in the footsteps of their father and grandfather Staff Sergeant Donald E Bosworth 1st Battalion 507th PIR, 82nd Airborne Division. S/Sgt Bosworth parachuted into Normandy during [...]
Last autumn, I had the pleasure of taking Vane Crandell in the footsteps of his father, Combat Medic Vane L Crandell (Snr) 82nd Airborne Division. Our visit culminated in a moment of remembrance at the 508th PIR Memorial Garden at Chef du Pont. The garden was established in 2018 to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the regiment's participation in the D-Day landings and the Normandy Invasion. The garden features a large stone monument [...]
Coastal erosion at the Pointe du Hoc Coastal erosion is becoming a serious threat to the future of this historic site. The speed at which the sea is bringing down the sandstone cliffs is very worrying. Whilst there have always been minor landslides, only last year the iconic stack itself split in two and collapsed. Yesterday morning before I arrived with a tour in the afternoon another section of the cliff collapsed some [...]
WW2 Beach Obstacles: the Czech Hedgehog The Czech hedgehog was a type of beach obstacle used extensively during World War II by the Axis powers, particularly Germany, to hinder the Allied amphibious landings. The obstacle was named after its origin, as it was first designed and used by the Czech military before the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. The Czech hedgehog was made up of a series of large, interlocking steel or concrete beams, each [...]
