Greg Lewis

history

  • The B-17 saved by a “miracle”

    In the summer of 1978 two former members of a B-17 crew met to discuss their escape from death in a raid on Kassel in Germany in 1943. Sitting on a porch in Tarrytown, New York, co-pilot Bohn Fawkes turned to his navigator Elmer “Benny” Bendiner and said: “You remember that we were hit with…

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  • D-Day veteran’s emotional journey into his past – with two young children

    Catch up on last night’s opening episode of #LestWeForget when you can. Next week opens on a poignant note the morning after #DDay75.https://t.co/ZJYXyOXU7z — Greg Lewis (@gregjlewis) September 19, 2019

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  • D-Day veteran interview – What was it like saying goodbye to your parents to go to war?

    Two children interview a D-Day veteran.  His name is Ted Owens. He was a commando and a sniper. He almost died on D-Day and was wounded twice more in the Netherlands. I’ll be posting some of their clips over the next fortnight. Question one: What was it like saying goodbye to your parents to go…

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  • The Black Chair and the Blackbird (Two deaths in WWI)

    Artillery Wood Two military graves lying only feet apart in a Belgian cemetery commemorate the lives of two iconic literary figures: the greatest Welsh and the greatest Irish poets of the Great War. They died on the same day (102 years ago today) in the same battle, but the paths that led them into British…

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  • “How did you go to the toilet on the battlefield?”

    If you have a tough question, ask a commando:

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  • Defying Hitler in USA Today & New York Post book lists

    Finally getting a chance to round up some of the reviews and responses to Defying Hitler. USA Today made it one of their Five Books Not To Miss, noting that Publishers Weekly says the book is “an informative counterpoint to accounts of widespread German complicity with the Holocaust.” And the New York Post marked it as one…

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  • Cross of Lorraine crushes the Swastika

    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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  • The Story of the “Real McCoy”

    The Story of the “Real McCoy”

      Writing Tom Sharkey’s biography meant we got to “meet” many of the great characters of old-time boxing. Sharkey wasn’t the only wild character among them. One of our favourites was “Kid” McCoy – real name Norman Selby – who faced Sharkey in January 1899 as a boyish-looking 26-year-old and had fast become one of…

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  • ‘Freiheit’. Tribute: the White Rose

    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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  • Defying Hitler: The Germans Who Resisted Nazi Rule

    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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