WW2
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During the liberation of Chartres a Life magazine photographer spotted Simone Segouin and snapped a photograph, turning the 19-year-old into an icon of the French Resistance and the Liberation. Photographer Robert Capa and reporter Jack Belden had driven into the embattled city in August 1944 with soldiers from General George S. Patton’s Third Army. Intrigued…
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Thinking about my friend Ted Owens who landed on Sword Beach 80 years ago today with 41 Royal Marine Commando. Over the years we made a number of trips to Normandy with Ted eager to talk to everyone who wished to speak to him. These are from D-Day70 (2014) when he was spotted by a…
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This week Prague marks the 82nd anniversary of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich and the massacres which followed. I took these photos on a visit to the site a couple of years ago. On May 27, 1942, Heydrich’s car joined this road turning sharply to follow the main route towards the city centre. But the…
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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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Some war movies are adventure films – and we all love them. The Great Escape, Where Eagles Dare, Von Ryan’s Express. Others astound us with the techniques of modern film-making, rendering elements of war viscerally realistic, but remain within the conventions of adventure war films (Saving Private Ryan) or introduce unnecessary parameters apparently to heighten…
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As time passes we have to grab every opportunity to meet veterans of World War 2. Now, even those who only came of age towards the end of the conflict – from D-Day to VE day – are at least 98 years old. This week I went to a special event with almost a dozen…
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D-Day veteran Ted Owens is celebrating winning a Gold award at the New York Festival of TV and Film. The series LEST WE FORGET in which two schoolchildren travelled to France, the Netherlands and Germany with Ted was given the special prize in a documentary category. The Royal Marine Commando was hit by a shell on…
Greg Lewis 