20th Century
Fitzroy Maclean
When you hear the name Fitzroy Maclean, what comes to mind? For many, it’s his role as a founding member of the SAS, those daring desert raiders of World War II. Others might recall his [more…]
WW II
20th Century
The Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife: A Blade Forged in War
The Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife, often simply called the “F-S knife,” is one of the most iconic combat blades in history. Designed during World War II by two British close-combat experts, William Ewart Fairbairn and Eric [more…]
20th Century
Lands At Stake
A conversation that stuck An old conversation sticks in my mind. A decade or so later, through the synergy of passing time and the illumination provided by events, one plus one becomes three. On the [more…]
20th Century
Desert Mystery: “Letters from a Feldgrau”, Part Six
In Part 5, the relationship between Hans Coutandin and Eva Moller appeared to have changed, he was now in Africa and had narrowly missed being captured. In his next letter of the 3rd March 1943, [more…]
20th Century
Desert Mystery: “Letters from a Feldgrau”, Part Five
In Part 4, I recounted how Hans Coutandin had been recovering from his head wound in the Reserve Military Hospital in Lörrach, Germany, had been told that he was to be released and had seen [more…]
20th Century
Desert Mystery: “Letters from a Feldgrau”, Part Four
In Part 3, I recounted how Hans Coutandin, in his letters to his girlfriend Eva Möller, wrote that he had been to Wilna in Poland, then Minsk in Byelorussia, had then been wounded in the [more…]
20th Century
Desert Mystery: “Letters from a Feldgrau”, Part Three
In Part 2, I recounted how Hans Coutandin, in his letters to his girlfriend Eva Möller, wrote that he had been to Verdun in France for training, before travelling to Insterburg in East Prussia and [more…]
20th Century
Desert Mystery: “Letters from a Feldgrau” Part Two
In Part 1, I recounted what Hans Coutandin had written to his girlfriend Eva Möller in his letters of early 1941 as he transitioned from being an “Arbeitsmann” in the “RAD-Abteilung 3/250” to be in [more…]
20th Century
Desert Mystery: “Letters from a Feldgrau”, Part One
My previous series of articles (“Letters from Afrika”) was based on the “FeldPost” letters from Hans Walden, a driver in the Afrika Korps, to his pen-friend Hildegard Bronnold back in Germany. This new series of [more…]