History
Postcard From Birmingham
Myself and my wife fussed over our Kitkats and coffees and peeled off the Standard Premium antimacassars to make it look as though were travelling First Class. Little did we realise our day trip to [more…]
WW II
20th Century
Desert Diorama, Part One
As well as researching “Desert Mysteries” and the exploits of the “Desert Fox”, amongst my other hobbies is the construction of scale model dioramas. For a diorama, I design and build by hand the baseboard, [more…]
20th Century
Desert Fox: Erwin Rommel’s Photograph Collection
The Vietnam War started in 1955 and ended with the fall of Saigon in 1975 when the Americans left in a hurry. It has been described as the first televised war but a claim to [more…]
20th Century
Desert Fox: Erwin Rommel and the Deutsches Afrikakorps
The “Deutsches Afrikakorps” (DAK) were formed in 1941 after the failure of the Italian defence of their North African colonies against the British advance in Operation “Compass”. The Germans sent out the DAK, initially composed [more…]
20th Century
Desert Mysteries, Part Five
The Royal Tank Museum In Part 4, I described the vehicles that belonged to the British and Arab “Special Forces” of WW1 and WW2 that are displayed in The Royal Tank Museum in Amman, Jordan. [more…]
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…]
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…]