Young person's guide to causes of World War Two and The Battle of Britain

/ Battle of Britain Bunker Hillingdon London/

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The D Day Series. "Beyond the Battlefields: Embracing the Peaceful Aura of Bayeux War Cemetery"

Completed in 1952 and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, this peaceful cemetery is the last resting place for 4144 named Commonwealth (the UK and former British Empire) soldiers and 338 unidentified ones. Added to this, are 500 graves of soldiers from other countries, the majority being German. It is a fascinating place to visit and observe all the different headstones and some of the stories they tell. The cemetery provides a solemn and peaceful atmosphere, with meticulously maintained rows of white headstones bearing the names of those who fell in the line of duty.

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The D day series. Honouring sacrifice; A Journey through the Graves of German Soldiers in Normandy's La Cambe".

The German cemetery at La Cambe is a stark contrast to the American Cemetery at Colleville and the British Cemetery at Bayeux. Both are nearby and all three are well worth a visit. It is much smaller than Colleville, being 16.5 acres compared to Colleville’s 172.5 but contains 21 222 soldiers whilst Colleville has 9380 servicemen. However, what stands out the most is that Colleville allocates one white cross per soldier, Bayeux has one quite large white/beige headstone per soldier, whereas, La Cambe has two bodies per stone. Furthermore, each stone is small, flat on the ground and is grey in colour.

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The D Day Series. Storming the cliffs; Pointe du Hoc's Legendary Raid and the Men Who Conquered It.

When planning the D Day invasion, it was imperative to take out the the six 155mm guns at the top of Pointe Du Hoc. These massive guns were 4 miles (6.5) km) from the centre of Omaha Beach and 7 miles (11km) from Utah beach . They had a range of 15 miles (25km) and so both of the American landing beaches were easily within their range. This post is about the incredible bravery of the Rangers in climbing 100 feet cliffs, whilst under attack and successfully taking out the various gun emplacements at the top. However, the expected six large guns had disappeared!

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The D day Series; Explore the daring World of the paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st Divisions at the awesome St. Mere Eglise's Airborne Museum!"

The Airborne Museum, focusing on the daring D Day Operations of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, is an exciting place to visit. To many visitors, especially young people, this museum is nothing short of awesome. It boasts being immersive and lives up to that description. Each entrant is given a Histopad, like an iPad to use to enhance their visit and to satisfy their enquiring minds. There are numerous full size dioramas as well as parachutes to wear , planes with paratroopers to walk through, imaginary jumps to make and loads of artefacts to study.

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The D day Series. Airborne heroics,John Steele's harrowing experience above St Mere Eglise"

Combine a visit to the church of St Mere Eglise with a visit to the amazing Airborne Museum next door and you will have an enjoyable day out. Anyone who goes past this church without knowing the story of John Steele will think a parachutist snagged on a church tower is very peculiar. It commemorates his terrible mishap when he was parachuting into the German held Cherbourg peninsula on D Day. Steele was meant to land just outside St Mere Eglise but his pilot was inexperienced and visibility was difficult due to extensive cloud cover. Steele was dropped right above the village and unfortunately, he was to snag his parachute on a pinnacle of the church.

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The D Day Series. Beyond the Beaches; Visit Longues Sur Mer and see how it could have played a pivotal role on D Day.

Anyone with an interest in the D Day Landings should definitely visit the gun battery at Longues Sur Mer. The shear size of the casements and their guns suggest that they were untouchable. One gets the feeling that any shell coming out of their barrels would go a long way and do an awful lot of damage. Several attempts were made to put them out of action before they finally succumbed to naval bombardment on D Day. They could have made the successful D- Day Landings into a total disaster.

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The D Day Series. The Overlord Museum, a great collection of dioramas and fascinating exhibits in a museum which is just a three minute drive from the American Cemetery at Colleville.

The Overlord Museum is particularly good when combined with the American Military Cemetery at Colleville and an excursion onto Omaha Beach. It has loads of fascinating exhibits from the Omaha landings and has some particularly impressive large dioramas. People of all ages will enjoy this museum, including children although people who have studied this period of history in depth may require a little extra information of some of the smaller exhibits.

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D Day Series:The Pegasus Bridge Museum: Where D-Day's Liberation Story Begins.

A visit to the Pegasus Bridge Memorial Museum is a must for anyone wanting to discover the major D Day events. With the D Day seaborne invasion planned for daybreak of the 6th June, there needed to be protection of both the left and right flanks and this was to be done by three airborne divisions just after midnight. Guarding the right flank in the Cotentin Peninsula (as seen from the sea) was the responsibility of the 82nd and 101st, Airborne Divisions, totalling 13,000 troops. The left flank, principally, the area around the Caen Canal and the River Dives, was to be the responsibility of the British 6th Airborne Division and Pegasus Bridge was a key target to capture.

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D Day series;"What courageous actions, sacrifices and setbacks unfolded on Gold Beach during the D-Day landings?

Gold Beach was one of five beaches in Normandy for the planned landings. This account tells you what actually happened there on June 6th 1944, D Day. It is a story of heroism and determination to rid France of Nazi tyranny. Any planned attack on Gold Beach was to be faced initially by a whole variety of obstacles and mines that would rupture any landing craft. British troops could be landed at low tide to expose the obstacles but that would mean exposing the landed men to running ashore without any protection against machine gun fire.

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D Day series;"Walking Among Heroes: Visiting the British Normandy Memorial"

Opened on 6th June 2021, the memorial contains the names of 22,442 servicemen and women under British command who died on D Day and in the weeks after D Day to break out of Normandy. It also includes service men and women of 30 other nationalities who were serving in British units. The names of those who died are listed in chronological order, placing each name with the names of others who died on each particular day from D Day until August 31st. Using the free App that accompanies the memorial reveals some fascinating stories of very courageous people.

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