WW2

  • On March 28, 1942 more than 600 men left Falmouth in Cornwall in a flotilla of three destroyers and 16 smaller boats. The special fleet included HMS Campbeltown which was packed with explosives and was to be used to ram into the gates of the docks of the French port of St Nazaire. St Nazaire was…

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  • November 11 1943 is, I understand, a well-remembered day for historians of the Resistance in Nazi-Occupied France. It was on that day that the Maquis paraded through the town of Oyonnax in an event designed as a show of strength, a morale boost for the local population. The town was chosen because there was no…

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  • For those fascinated by this week’s tributes to Sophie Scholl, her brother Hans and Christoph Probst (all executed 76 years ago) this is the spot at which their fate was sealed. Sophie threw anti-Nazi leaflets from the balcony under the clock and into the hall below at Munich university. All these years later it is…

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  • Coming soon from Dutton Caliber in the US (published April 2019):An enthralling work of popular history that vividly resurrects the web of everyday Germans who resisted Nazi rule Nazi Germany is remembered as a nation of willing fanatics. But beneath the surface, countless ordinary, everyday Germans actively resisted Hitler. Some passed industrial secrets to Allied…

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  • Sgt Major Les Spence Les Spence was a remarkable man who kept an astonishing journal. For almost four years he risked his life to keep a daily record of hardship, courage and endurance in prison camps run by the Japanese. He and his fellow prisoners faced starvation, disease and cruelty. They kept up their spirits…

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  • Lovely new review for Shadow Warriors of World War II from Mid West Book Review: “The result of an extraordinary and comprehensive research, “Shadow Warriors of World War II: The Daring Women of the OSS and SOE” is impressively informed and informative. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, Shadow Warriors of World War II is…

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  • Many thanks to Angus Wallace of WW2 Podcast

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  • Shadow Warriors: Daring Missions of World War II by Women of the OSS and SOE KIRKUS REVIEW A group biography of the fearless young women who became secret agents during World War II. Award-winning journalists Thomas (Operation Exodus: From the Nazi Death Camps to the Promised Land: A Perilous Journey That Shaped Israel’s Fate, 2010,…

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  • World War Two was the war in which old gender rules changed, as intelligence agencies created specific training and roles for women. SHADOW WARRIORS is the story of women as undercover combatants: armed with Sten guns and grenades; cutting telecommunication wires, laying mines in roadways; organizing bombing raids; preparing the way for the D-Day invasion…

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  • Update: Canadian airman Bill Robertson’s return to the crash site in Hasselt made national news in Belgium. See the full clip here: Bill Robertson

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