Suzy Henderson

The evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force took place between May 26th and June 4th, 1940. It was a miracle that around 338,000 men were rescued and brought back to Britain. It is a miracle they made it off the beach at all, given the fact that they were cornered, and stuck with nowhere to go, right in the midst of hell. While Hitler had ordered the elite Panzers to stand down, the Germans continued to shell the men on the beach and the Luftwaffe bombed and strafed from the air. It was chaos, everywhere you looked. A sea of khaki engulfed the beach as tens of thousands of soldiers milled around with nowhere to go. All just waiting amidst the confusion, amidst the bombs, while friends and comrades fell all around them, either dead or wounded. Commanding officers had no idea what was happening and struggled to find out. For the rest of the men, it seemed hopeless. They could almost see England, lying across the Channel - home.  One eyewitness recalls the sig...

The long-awaited movie, Dunkirk , by Christopher Nolan, which tells the story of Operation Dynamo, will be released in July 2017. Today, May 26th 2017, marks the 77th anniversary of Dunkirk, the daring rescue mission Britain launched to bring as many of the British Expeditionary Troops home as possible. Why? Well, the German army had them cornered in a small pocket of northern France and to leave them was not an option. Not only was it a humanitarian mission, but equally a military one, as without those men, Britain would be severely depleted of ground forces, leaving Britain wide open to a German invasion, her military might severely depleted. I n early May 1940, the German army swept across northern France and Belgium, heralding a brutal end to the "Phoney War". They had the upper hand, moving with such a might that pushed the British Expeditionary Force back into a retreat towards the coast of northern France. Alongside the British, the French army fought fiercel...

Today heralds 75 years since the Dambusters Squadron (617) embarked upon their daring raid of the Ruhr dams in Germany. The mission, codenamed Operation Chastise, took off from RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire on the evening of the 16th May 1943, with Wing Commander, Guy Gibson as the leader. The Air Ministry had identified the dams in the Ruhr Valley as potential targets as early as 1937. Operation Chastise had its origins in a meeting of the RAF Bombing Committee way back in 1938 when potential weak spots were identified in Germany's industry. The reservoirs were key - they provided water and power to industry and to sever the supply would slow up German's war machine. It was decided that by destroying the Mohne dam, enormous volumes of water would be lost, water which was necessary for the industries in the Ruhr Valley. By destroying the smaller dams, there would be a loss of electrical power and much disruption, not to mention the destruction caused by the subsequent flood...

I'm so sad to hear the news that veteran and Guinea Pig Club member, Des O'Connell has passed away at the age of 97. Des O'Connell On April 27th, 1941, Flying Officer Desmond O'Connell was an observer on a bombing mission to sink the Bismarck. His aircraft, an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bomber took off overladen with fuel and bombs, struggled to gain height and crashed into a hillside where it burst into flames. From his position at the rear of the aircraft, Des crawled out through the damaged fuselage and was doused in aviation fuel. Unfortunately, the grass outside was already blazing and he became engulfed in flames. Des O'Connell before the accident Des suffered 50% burns. He once said in an interview that he recalled looking down and thinking how his gloves had melted when it fact it was the skin shredding from his hands. He was taken to the nearest cottage hospital where staff feared the worst. Des was so badly burned that his commanding officer...