20th Century
The good war myth
It has long been a given that World War 2 was a “good war”. The allies were fighting against the beastly Germans and “right” was on their side. A chap called Chad Crowley has put [more…]
WW II
20th Century
The Wehrpass of Ferdinand Friedrich Karl Ruhmann
In WW2, a Wehrpass contained the personal and service information of a Wehrmacht volunteer or conscript and was used for identification and recording purposes. Issued when registered for military service, it was kept by the [more…]
20th Century
My dad and the Canadians
King Sausage Fingers opening the Canadian Parliament inspires me to write a few words about the Canucks. Charlie boy opening the Canadian Parliament as their head of state was a a powerful image and a [more…]
20th Century
Desert Mystery: Cartoons on a wall
Recently, I acquired a set of wartime photographs sourced from a militaria dealer in Munich. The photographs are of cartoons hand-drawn across the whitewashed walls of a room. The style is typical of that seen [more…]
20th Century
A View From (Brougham Hall) Quite Near The Greenhouse; Was It All Worth It?
I don’t doubt that my long suffering reader will have had a similar conversation to the one I had some days ago with Mrs. C. It went something like this; “Er, Colin, are there any [more…]
20th Century
On this day, 1945
On this day 80 years ago, the Allied powers accepted Germany’s unconditional surrender, bringing an official end to World War II in Europe. We in the U.K. celebrate 8 May as Victory in Europe Day, [more…]
20th Century
Book Review: Soldaten, ‘On fighting, killing and dying’
This book, originally published in 2012, is based on the discovery of transcripts of covert surveillance of German prisoners of war in WW2, found initially in archives in Great Britain and latterly in archives in [more…]
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…]
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…]