Home / Posts tagged 'world war two'

• Rediscovering Hampshire’s Wartime History

  In Military / By Tom / 6 April 2018

  

  Many decades after the guns fall silent and peace is negotiated, it’s intriguing to consider what echoes of war still linger amid the landscape, from ravaged combat theaters to the home front.

   

• Rediscovering Britain’s Forgotten Military Arrows

  In Military / By Tom / 9 March 2018

  

  Across rural Britain, from southern England to the west coast of Scotland, lie myriad giant concrete arrows left behind after the dark days of World War Two drew to a close.

   

• Avro Lancaster DV372 “Old Fred” (Preserved Forward Fuselage)

  In Aviation / By Tom / 19 February 2018

  

  Preserved at the Imperial War Museum Lambeth is the forward fuselage of Avro Lancaster bomber DV372/PO-F “Old Fred”, which flew 45 missions during World War Two with No. 467 Squadron RAAF.

   

• A “Hidden Pool” Near Creeton, Lincolnshire

  In Travel & Living / By Alex Williams / 6 February 2018

  

  This “hidden pool” near Creeton, Lincolnshire, doesn’t appear on Ordnance Survey maps. Could it be a remnant of World War Two, or something more prosaic?

   

• The Abandoned Target Towers of Luce Bay, Scotland

  In Military / By Tom / 31 January 2018

  

  At Luce Bay, in southwest Scotland, two clusters of unusual concrete ruins echo the location’s history as a long-serving military bombing range.

   

• Church of St Michael & All Angels, Earl Sterndale

  In Travel & Living / By Alex Williams / 18 January 2018

  

  St Michael & All Angels Church in Earl Sterndale was the only church in Derbyshire to be hit by a German bomb during World War Two.

   

• “Bomb Craters” are Chilling Reminder of Greenock Blitz

  In Military / By Tom / 11 January 2018

  

  These possible “bomb craters” – at an abandoned Starfish decoy site high on Whitelees Moor, above the River Clyde in Scotland – are a terrifying reminder of the 1941 Greenock Blitz.

   

• Ruined Fort Godwin Artillery Battery (Kilnsea, East Yorkshire)

  In Military / By Tom / 21 December 2017

  

  Fort Godwin artillery battery in East Yorkshire was built in 1915 and remained operational after WW2. Its broken ruins still haunt the beach today.

   

• The ‘Beaulieu Letters’: Echoes of Hampshire’s Great War Past

  In Military / By Tom / 30 November 2017

  

  More than 100-years-old and hidden for decades, the 15 ft tall ‘Beaulieu Letters’ allowed early pilots to identify the local aerodrome from above.

   

• Derelict Royal Observer Corps Orlit B Post (Guist, Norfolk)

  In Abandoned / By Tom / 28 November 2017

  

  This forgotten Orlit B post at Guist, Norfolk, was built during the Cold War as the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) sought to counter the threat of Soviet bombers.

   

• Visit: U-534: Preserved Wreck of a German WW2 Submarine

  In Military / By Tom / 17 November 2017

  

  Salvaged in 1993, German World War Two submarine U-534 was later restored and is now displayed at part of the the U-Boat Story on the Wirral Peninsula in Northwest England.

   

• A Forgotten V-1 Flying Bomb Launch Site in Rhineland-Palatinate

  In Military / By Tom / 30 October 2017

  

  For several months in 1944, the deadly V-1 flying bomb, aka doodlebug or buzz bomb, reigned terror down on London.

   

• Forgotten Wartime Tank Traps in Embleton Bay, Northumberland

  In Military / By Tom / 24 October 2017

  

  Embleton Bay, in Northumberland, abounds with wartime history, from ruined pillboxes to these abandoned tank traps built to stymie a German invasion of Britain.

   

• Winston Churchill’s Half-Smoked Cigar Sells for $12,000

  In History / By Alex Williams / 17 October 2017

  

  A half-finished cigar smoked by UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill at Le Bourget Airport in Paris in 1947 has sold for more than $12,000.

   

• Tornado ZA412: Special ‘Dam Busters’ Tail Fin Preserved at RAF Scampton

  In Aviation / By Tom / 29 September 2017

  

  In 2013, 617 Squadron Tornado GR4 ZA412 sported a special tail fin to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Operation Chastise, the famous Dam Busters raid. That tail fin is now displayed at RAF Scampton.