In the Polsich city Gdansk is a cemetery in honour of the victims of concentration camp Stutthof. Concentrations Camp Stutthof lies about 35 kilometres to the east of Gdansk near the town of Sztutowo ‘Polish’ or Stutthof in German.

National Filling Factory No.1, also known as Barnbow, was a First World War munitions factory located at Cross Gates in Leeds. The site covered over 400 acres. When war was declared, shells were being filled and armed at Leeds Forge Company, in Armley.

73 years ago to this very day on the 14th of November 1944. Halifax bomber LK844 part of the 51 squadron of the R.A.F took off from Snaith airfield near Goole. The bomber was taking part in a night training exercise. It wasn’t carrying any bombs, but did have ammunition on board for it’s 9 machine guns.

On the main square in Bastogne is a bust of General Mc Auliffe. He and his American troops withstood the brunt of the German attack on Bastogne during the Battle of Bastogne in December 1945.

In the photograph, I am wearing my much-vaunted black Landmark Scout t-shirt, standing at location 30.327396, -86.166762, or rather, Grayton Beach, Florida, looking seaward 225 miles away toward location 28.616667, -90.75, the scene of a short naval engagement which occurred between the Kriegsmarine and the United States Navy in July, 1942.

Geldern was bombed several times during World War Two, it was a target for bombing raids during the last months in 1944 and bombed on 14 February in 1945. The city centre was totally destroyed and left in rubble; only 18 percent of the buildings survived the attacks.

After the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force it was used by the German Kriegsmarine and was now part of the Atlantic Wall.

Near the town of Hazebrouck in France is a World War One cemetery called La Kreule. La Creule was once a small town on its own but today Hazebrouck has grown to the extent that Creule is now a district of Hazebrouck. This WW1 commonwealth Cemetery lies 2 kilometres from city centre.

To write an article about a museum which can’t be visited any longer seems odd but the museum had a great and huge cellar dedicated to the Battle for the Bulge.

The Cenotaph was erected in 1924, before World War Two, and was designed by Vernon March to commemorate the South African fallen soldiers in World War One.

During the liberation of Valkenburg in the southern tip of the Netherlands, street fighting caused a Sherman M4 tank to fire its gun in close quarter combat.

Like many bigger towns in Russia the Second World War or Great Patriotic War as they revere to it, are Victory Parks where you find memorials, probably some guns or armoured vehicles and the names of the fallen.

A German PaK 40 Anti Tank Gun in front of the Municipal Hall in the town of Valkenburg. It is a remembrance to the liberation of the town during World War Two on the early morning of 17 September 1944 by the 119th regiment of the US 30th Infantry Division named ‘Old Hickory’. This same regiment took out this Anti Tank gun in September 1944 and it was left behind in a garden were it stayed until 1989. In 1989 the German gun was moved to its current location were a plaque to the 119th regiment, the ‘Old Hickory’, was added in honour of the men who fought for their freedom.

The PaK 40 is a German 75mm Anti Tank Gun. A modified version of the gun was used in various German Panzers like the Panzer IV, Sturmgeschuts and Marder and … Read More »

From May the 26th until the 4th of June in 1940 the British fought fiercely to evacuate their Expeditionary Force together with French, Belgium, Dutch, Poles, Czechs and other troops from the onslaught of the German Blitzkrieg which was released upon them on the Dunkirk beaches in World War Two.

There are many Nationalities to be found on this Commonwealth Cemetery for both WW1 and WW2, like British, Norwegian, Czech, New Zealand, Canadian and Polish,  all from different regiments like the Coldstream Guards and The Welsh Guards, The Buffs and so on.