20th Century
The Desert War – October 1941
We reach October 80 years ago and it is still fairly quiet on the ground in North Africa but the Royal Navy is still busy. The big news this month is that there is a [more…]
Nazi Germany
20th Century
The Desert War – September 1941
Into September 80 years ago and only one piece of news from the lingering battle for East Africa where the Italian garrison at Wolchefitt Pass in Abyssinia surrendered to the King’s African Rifles. Meanwhile back [more…]
20th Century
The Desert War – August 1941
August 1941 was extraordinarily quiet in the theatres we are concentrating on. This month it is only news from Libya and precious little of it there is. But things were happening in Italy. In Tobruk [more…]
20th Century
The Desert War – July 1941
We reach July 80 years ago, it was quiet on the ground in North Africa but the navies were as busy as ever. There was no news from East Africa and precious little from Greece [more…]
20th Century
Legion Of The Damned
“For every foreign-born soldier who dies, no German mother weeps” – Gottlob Berger The Waffen SS was the military wing of the Nazi party, although it is important to note that membership of the NSDAP [more…]
20th Century
Book Review: Silent Village, Robert Pike
There have been a number of books on the disaster that overran Oradour-sur-Glane on Saturday June 10th 1944 but this is the first one that I have read that finely details the lives of the [more…]
20th Century
The Desert War – June 1941
And so to June, the first anniversary of the Desert War and it was a hot month in more ways than one in Libya and Egypt. There is also a small report on East Africa [more…]
20th Century
Enigma deception
A typical three wheeled Enigma with inspection cover open and showing the three wheels in position. When the Second World War began, three wheels became five. There is a scene in the film The Imitation [more…]
20th Century
The Desert War – May 1941
An even busier month than April, lots going on in North Africa, Crete and Abyssinia. The Germans and Italians continued to besiege Tobruk, German paratroops invaded Crete and yet more parts of Abyssinia fell to [more…]