Sir Tom Finney was probably more well known for his exploits on the football pitch as opposed to the battlefield but during WW2 he served in the Royal Armoured Corps, in this fascinating interview by James Holland we learn about his WW2 experiences. Sadly Sir Tom Finney passed away in February 2014 in Preston, … Continue reading Sir Tom Finney [Royal Armoured Corps]
John Gardiner [12th (Airborne) Battalion, the Devonshire Regiment]
John Gardiner was recently interviewed by Ben Fox for the Moorlander publication. He has given us his permission to kindly repost the interview here to be saved in the WarGen archives. On June 6, it’ll be 74 years since Allied troops began one of the most audacious and daring operations of the Second World War: … Continue reading John Gardiner [12th (Airborne) Battalion, the Devonshire Regiment]
Sergeant Cliff Martin [2nd Battalion, the East Surrey Regiment]
The following are clips provided by Geoff Martin, the son of Sgt Cliff Martin who left some of his memories of his time in WW2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORGDIv0hfww Why did you choose the Regiment? Well I'll tell you the story. I joined in 1937 in the height of the depression. I had been out of work for … Continue reading Sergeant Cliff Martin [2nd Battalion, the East Surrey Regiment]
Hajo Herrmann [Luftwaffe KG 4, KG 30 & JG 300]
INTERVIEW WITH HAJO HERRMANN BY JAMES HOLLAND (@James1940 on Twitter) 4/6/2008 Thank you for letting me see you. What is your dialect – the Midlands? I come from Salisbury – Wiltshire – in the Southwest We can start now. The way I write my books is that there is a general narrative history and woven … Continue reading Hajo Herrmann [Luftwaffe KG 4, KG 30 & JG 300]
WW2 Memories of Irene Bell
I was born in 1935 in Bootle, Liverpool, my father was Harold Southward a fireman and my mother was Elizabeth (nee Toy) and she was a fire watcher. Ours was a modern house with electricity, gas, hot & cold water, no telephone. To help with the war effort they both collected scrap metal which could … Continue reading WW2 Memories of Irene Bell
WW2 Memories of Derek Hugh Rigby
WW2 MEMORIES OF DEREK HUGH RIGBY I was born in 1937, the year of the Coronation of George VI, our Queen’s father, in Chorley (a small mill town in Lancashire). When war was declared I was 2½ and not aware of the ‘phoney war’, Battle of Britain, or Dunkirk. By the time I was able … Continue reading WW2 Memories of Derek Hugh Rigby
Major-General John Michael Watson Badcock, MBE [Royal Corps of Signals]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNg_A-_NscI My full name is John Michael Watson Badcock. I was born 10th November 1922 in Nazareth in Palestine, which is slightly unusual. How did you come to be out there? Right, my father was a gunner in the first world war and he fought in A..(?) army from Egypt up to Syria up to … Continue reading Major-General John Michael Watson Badcock, MBE [Royal Corps of Signals]
Wartime Memories of Sheila Nichols
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8R8p3fiBdw I'm Rob Nichols for WarGen and the date today is 21st April 2018. We are in Stroud and we will be discussing the experience of Sheila Nichols whose maiden name was Darby and lived in Bristol during the War and was also evacuated for a short spell. A short spell. Two years! Ok, Sheila … Continue reading Wartime Memories of Sheila Nichols
Hugh Glanffrwd “Jimmy” James AFC & Bar, DFM [Royal Air Force]
Interviewed by James Holland @James1940 Hugh Glanffrwd "Jimmy" James AFC & Bar, DFM (3 October 1922 – 7 January 2015) I was sure that all of us, as young pilots… The Squadron had been in the Middle East for… Well, since 1915, 16, I think, because the (Elite) Transport Squadron in the Middle East, to be involved in … Continue reading Hugh Glanffrwd “Jimmy” James AFC & Bar, DFM [Royal Air Force]
Harry Rawling [Royal Corps of Signals]
Dining near to four Japanese recently and briefly noting their easy use of knives and forks compared with my hopeless and once only attempt at chop-sticks, my thoughts turned to Harry Rawling whose funeral I had attended on September 24th 1999. As many people fly off on exotic holidays all over the world, worrying about … Continue reading Harry Rawling [Royal Corps of Signals]