20th Century
Desert Mysteries, Part Four
The Royal Tank Museum Amman in Jordan is home to one of the best museums of its type in the world, The Royal Tank Museum. A project of the King of Jordan, Abdullah II, the [more…]
WW II
20th Century
In The Steps of The First Army, Part Seven
“In his seventh and final article JOHN ALLDRIDGE writes of Tunis and the triumphant end of a campaign.” – Manchester Evening News, November 23 1949 Tunis, Monday I thought I saw a ghost in Tunis [more…]
20th Century
In The Steps of The First Army, Part Six
“In the sixth of his articles John Alldridge writes of Bizerta, where a song was born, an Army vindicated itself, and a gigantic building plan went awry.” – Manchester Evening News, November 22 1949 Bizerta, [more…]
20th Century
The Death Railway, Part Five
David Lean’s 1957 film depicted the bridge as a significant timber structure located in the deep jungle, spanning a narrow river featuring rocks and rapids. This is of course a work of fiction and was [more…]
20th Century
In The Steps of The First Army, Part Five
“In the fifth of his articles John Alldridge writes of the holy city of Kairouan. It was here that the First Army and the Eighth Army, all the way from El Alamein, finally linked up.” [more…]
20th Century
Honourable Members
As everyone knows, the Cold War was won by minor public school boys with bad degrees from embarrassing new universities. Sat on the banks of the Danube they sketched Czech freight trains disguised as if [more…]
20th Century
The Death Railway, Part Four
Step forward to the present day; SWMBO and I have been visiting Thailand for many years and decided it was time to head out to the Death Railway as Grandad Humbug had been in Burma [more…]
20th Century
In The Steps of The First Army, Part Four
“In the fourth of his articles John Alldridge writes of Longstop Hill as it is today — “a totally unremarkable hill” — and recalls the fighting which has made its name a legend.” – Manchester [more…]
20th Century
The Death Railway, Part Three
Railway Construction Initially, the railway construction schedule allowed reasonable working conditions to be imposed on the POWs who, at that time, formed the majority of the skilled workforce. This combined with the fact that the [more…]