Resource Sites for Members

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Good try Dj :)

[Dj]

If you don't try you will never succeed.

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Good try Dj :)"

[happy]

Some good photos of the war on the Eastern front

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/20...

Here's the link to the whole series

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/pa...

Warning - There are some pretty gruesome photos included!

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Some great photo's Happy, thanks for the links.

[carl]

Good pics Hap, a few new ones in there.

[happy]

There were a lot I hadn't seen before

[Colin]

Photo 17 with himmler is famous. The SS general on Himmler's right (left in photo) is Obergruppenfuehrer Karl Wolff, one of the many SS officers I interviewed.

[Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces]

happy wrote: "Some good photos of the war on the Eastern front

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/20...

Here's the link to the whole series

http://www.theatlantic.c..."

Thanks for posting Happy.

[Manray9]

Here's another interesting link from RealClearHistory.com to an article from The Telegraph concerned an amusing aspect (for us) of Hitler's WW I wounds.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newst...

I read the following version of the song's lyrics in Flint Whitlock's --

If Chaos Reigns

Sung to the tune of The Colonel Bogey March:

Hitler has only got one ball,
Göebbels has two but very small,
Himmler is very sim'lar,
But poor old Goring has no balls at all.

[Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces]

Do you recall Dad's Army, the television programme, from your time in the UK? A version was sung by Private Pike when the platoon captured a German u-boat crew.

This cracking episode:http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0V3SqxUomwk

[Manray9]

Geevee wrote: "Do you recall Dad's Army, the television programme, from your time in the UK? It was sung by Private Pike when the platoon was captured by a German u-boat crew.

This cracker from the same episode..."

I am familiar with the series but didn't watch it.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

We use to sing it at school :)

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Some nice photographs of a German Elephant/Ferdinand tank destroyer:

http://www.peachmountain.com/5star/ta...

[Manray9]

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Some nice photographs of a German Elephant/Ferdinand tank destroyer:

http://www.peachmountain.com/5star/ta..."

Good pics.

[Manray9]

I just read of the death of the distinguished American historian, James MacGregor Burns. He won a Pulitzer and the National Book Award for his bio of FDR during WW II:

Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, 1940-1945

Here is Burns' obit:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politic...

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Thanks for that link Manray9.

[Steve]

The Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum has some interesting, rare, and haunting material:

http://www.ushmm.org/online/film/disp...

[Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces]

I thought this would be of interest to people. It is an excellent array of nearly 1500 photos by a chap called Andy Hebden on WWII and civil defence structures and memorials. Quite stunning in the effort in visiting the sites with many helpful descriptions.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/9858754...

One of my favourite sites showing the contemporary design and building works clashing with the challenges of global war is this of Bishopstone station with its two pill boxes on its roof: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9858754...

From Wikipedia: The present station was opened on 26 September 1938, the same day that the original Bishopstone station at Tide Mills was first closed. The Art Deco design is said to be inspired by that of Arnos Grove tube station, which was designed by Charles Holden, and was intended to be the centrepiece of a proposed residential development that never took place due to the outbreak of the Second World War.[1]
The main building of the station is symmetrical, with an octagonal central booking hall and two extended wings. One of these wings formerly contained the ticket office and parcels office, and the other contained a waiting room and toilets. As built, the station had two side platforms in a cutting, accessed by stairs from a footbridge linking to the main station building.
In 1940 a pair of pillboxes was built on the roof of the main station building, flanking its octagonal tower. Despite the times, considerable effort was made to blend these into the original structure, and they are thus well camouflaged.

Also these little reminders which you can spot still today. This is an faded painted on brick sign for an air raid shelter: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9858754...

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Thanks for that link Geevee, I will have to come back and take my time to check all the photographs out.

[Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces]

Well worth it Rick. I should think you'll find some in areas in London that are familiar to you from your days here.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

It should be a lot of fun :)

[Steve]

The site War Through the Generations has tons of book recommendations and reviews, many of them for fiction. It has lots of links all in one place:

http://warthroughthegenerations.wordp...

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Excellent resource, thanks for the link Steve.

[Tom]

Some nice color photos on invasion of Poland.


http://life.time.com/history/world-wa...

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Some great photographs there, thanks for the link Tom.

[Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces]

Thanks Tom for a good link.

[Steve]

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Excellent resource, thanks for the link Steve."

You're welcome, Aussie Rick.

Tom: great pics, thanks. That reminds me, in case it hasn't been mentioned: All vintage LIFE magazines are viewable on Google books. It's been a great resource for me doing research:

http://books.google.com/books/about/L...

[Mike, Assisting Moderator US Forces]

Tom wrote: "Some nice color photos on invasion of Poland.


http://life.time.com/history/world-wa..."

Great link, thanks!

[Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces]

Pen & Sword publishers have a Arnhem themed special offer on at present: http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Arnhem...

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

That's a good idea, thanks for the link Geevee, did you buy any books? :)

[Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces]

Not today I have bought some yesterday (the official histories I mentioned) so no, no, no...well possibly...

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Hmmm :)

[Mike, Assisting Moderator US Forces]

Geevee wrote: "Pen & Sword publishers have a Arnhem themed special offer on at present: http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Arnhem..."

Tempting, some excellent books there...but I found an Arnhem book today just in time for the anniversary:

Poles Apart: The Polish Airborne at the Battle of Arnhem

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

That looks like a good one Mike, I may have to look around for a copy as well!

[Manray9]

Here's a quiz from the CSM on D-Day. i expect most group members will ace it. I missed one.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe...

[Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces]

Good quiz - I got three wrong.

[Manray9]

Geevee wrote: "Good quiz - I got three wrong."

I didn't know how many miles of beaches were covered.

[Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces]

That one, plus the questions on the US captain and the thousands of items dropped on D-Day.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

I'm the same as you Geevee!

[Manray9]

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "I'm the same as you Geevee!"

I guessed correctly on the thousands of dropped items.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

I didn't :(

[happy]

I missed 2 - the carrier pigeon and the first guy on the beach

[carl]

I'm making my cheat sheet from everyone's comments...

[happy]

anything to help :)

[Manray9]

happy wrote: "I missed 2 - the carrier pigeon and the first guy on the beach"

I guessed correctly on the pigeons, because years ago I read an account of an isolated group of U.S. paratroopers, cut off by heavy German forces, who communicated via England after having found a coop of air-dropped carrier pigeons.

[happy]

I had never heard of the pigeon story and guessed wrong :)

[Steve]

For those into espionage, I wonder if anyone saw that Sept story on British "honey-trap" spy trainee-tester, agent FIFI:

http://intelnews.org/2014/09/22/01-1559/

http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/b...

In doing fiction research, I'm always amazed how many interesting WWII tales are still being declassified.

[Miss M]

Just finished reading a thriller set in the post-war British zone and found this blog from a PhD candidate at Kings College, in the references. Looks a bit drab but an interesting resource, I think:

http://howitreallywas.typepad.com/

Dr Christopher Knowles was awarded his PhD in February 2014, after studying the British occupation of Germany as a part-time research student at the Institute of Contemporary British History at Kings College, London. The title of his thesis is 'Winning the Peace: The British in Occupied Germany, 1945-1948.'

[Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces]

Thanks Miss M and a very interesting article. My own view is that it was a success and that early setting of organisation and rebuilding enabled the British Army to continue to live amongst the West German and later German population.. So much so that the final ending of BAOR (British Army of the Rhine) in 1994 and then the draw down over the last few years of British Forces Germany both saw services to mark the ending of these partnerships.

[Steve]

Miss M wrote: "Just finished reading a thriller set in the post-war British zone and found this blog from a PhD candidate at Kings College, in the references. Looks a bit drab but an interesting resource, I think..."

Thanks for that link, Miss M. I've done a lot of research on the US Zone but have always wanted to learn more about the British Zone. This makes things easier.