Victory 75 – Marking the 75th Anniversary of Allied Victory in World War II by Integrative Media

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We’ll Meet Again

M A R K I N G T H E 7 5 T H A N N I V E R S A RY O F A L L I E D V I C TO RY I N WO R L D WA R I I

1945-2020 For Anthony Bond 1951 - 2020

Co-Publisher and Editor: Alan Spence – alan.spence@integrativemedia.co.uk Co-Publisher and Commercial: Julien Wildman – julien.wildman@integrativemedia.co.uk Design and Production: Paul Cunningham – paul@sprucecreative.com Printer: Pensord – www.pensord.co.uk Published on behalf of SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity by Integrative Media Ltd, 152-160 City Road, London EC1V 2NX +44 (0)7402 319888 Disclaimer: any views expressed in Victory75, whether in editorial content, advertisements or sponsored features or by interviewees, are entirely those of the writers or interviewees and in no way reflect those of SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity or Integrative Media Ltd. Moreover neither SSAFA nor Integrative Media Ltd. endorse any products or services which appear in this publication. © 2020 The entire contents of this publication are protected by copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

For every Victory75 publication sold, £3 will be paid in support of SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity. Registered charity in England and Wales (210760), Scotland (SC038056) and the Republic of Ireland (20202001).

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VICTORY75 CONTENTS

CONTENTS HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN .......................... 8 SIR ANDREW GREGORY ................................ 9 THE PRIME MINISTER ....................................... 11 FIRST SEA LORD ............................................... 12 SEA CADETS ....................................................... 14

CHIEF OF THE GENERAL STAFF ............... 16 ROYAL ARMY CADETS ................................... 18 CHIEF OF THE AIR STAFF ........................... 20 THIS IS YOUR VICTORY ................................ 22 THE ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM AMERICAN FOUNDATION ............................ 24

THE ROYAL NAVAL ASSOCIATION .......... 28 TIMELINE TO WAR .......................................... 32 TIMELINE OF WAR .......................................... 36 VERA LYNN ........................................................ 52 WHEREVER YOU SERVE, WE SERVE ..... 54

MEET THE EDITOR Victory75 is edited by Alan Spence, writer and historian whose business interests span publishing, events and strategic venture consultancy. His many military publications have covered all aspects of today’s UK Armed Forces, NATO, international defence issues and many major military commemorations, including the 65th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. A former director of the Atlantic Council in Washington DC, he also chaired the Royal Air Force Museum American Foundation, where he remains a director emeritus, and served for 10 years as a trustee of the Royal Air Force Museum. He is author of T. E. Lawrence – Cats and Landladies Husbands published in a collectors’ limited edition by Fleece Press, UK.

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REGULARS | RESERVES | VETERANS | FAMILIES

DONATE

TO OUR FORCES, VETERANS AND THEIR FAMILIES Established in 1885, SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, is the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oldest tri-service military charity and is still supporting serving personnel, veterans and their families today.

TO DONATE VISIT ssafa.org.uk/donate

Registered as a charity in England and Wales Number 210760 in Scotland Number SC038056 and in Republic of Ireland Number 20202001. Established 1885.

CONTENTS VICTORY75

CONTENTS THE ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM ........... 60 ABF THE SOLDIERS’ CHARITY .................. 63 WOMEN IN WAR .............................................. 66 BARNARD CASTLE SCHOOL ....................... 71 SOUTH CENTRAL AMBULANCE SERVICE TRUST ................... 74

ROYAL NAVY AND ROYAL MARINES CHARITY ......................... 77 EAST OF ENGLAND AMBULANCE SERVICE TRUST .................. 82 THE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION ................... 88

CHURCHILL – THE LION THAT ROARED BRITAIN TO VICTORY ................ 92 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS ............................. 102 BROKING A GOOD DEAL .............................. 111 SUPPORTING THOSE WHO SERVE ......... 114 SSAFA WORLD WAR II ARCHIVE ............. 117

QARNNS – 170 YEARS OF NAVAL NURSING ...................................... 124 NORTHERN IRELAND IN WWII ................. 129 SERVING AND SAVING ................................ 132 WARTIME RAILWAYS .................................... 134 THE OPEN UNIVERSITY ............................... 136

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VICTORY75 HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth SSAFA’s Patron for more than 60 years

As Patron of SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, I am pleased to send my best wishes to the Beneficiaries, Volunteers, Employees and all those concerned with the Charity on the occasion of the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of VE Day. At this increasingly challenging time, I know that you have continued to provide support to members of the Armed Forces and Veterans, together with their families. As you reflect on the Charity’s One Hundred and Thirty-Five year history, my thoughts and prayers remain with you all for your continued safety and the future success of your important work.

8th May, 2020

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SIR ANDREW GREGORY VICTORY75

LIEUTENANT GENERAL SIR ANDREW GREGORY KBE CB CEO, SSAFA, THE ARMED FORCES CHARITY

SAFA, the Armed Forces charity is delighted to be in partnership with ‘Victory75: We’ll Meet Again’, commemorating and celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the end of World War II, incorporating both VE Day and VJ Day. Part of the proceeds from the book will bring in much needed funds to support the Armed Forces community. It is wholly appropriate that we keep the events of the past alive, both to celebrate the service and sacrifice of so many people which have allowed us to enjoy today’s freedoms and also to try and ensure that a conflict on the scale of World War II never happens again. The VE Day anniversary comes during the Coronavirus lockdown when we are again seeking to overcome an existential threat, albeit very different to that posed by Nazi Germany and Japan in the 1940s.

While a large number of fundraising events have had to be cancelled or delayed, putting our ability to sustain services under pressure, the requests for help are growing and will continue to do so. While marking this anniversary during lockdown brings with it more challenges than we originally envisaged, much is still happening. While VE Day was a day of celebration, VJ Day, some three months later, recognised some of the terrible atrocities that had occurred in the Far East and was a more sombre, reflective event. Victory 75 covers both anniversaries sensitively and with the appropriate empathy. Please support this impressive publication which celebrates the individuals who put the nation before themselves seventy-five years ago, just as people are doing today. And, as well as supporting SSAFA – for which I am most grateful, if you know of veterans or military families in need, please tell them to seek our help, for often they are too proud to ask themselves.

We should take inspiration from the stoic resilience of the British people during a war in which this Nation came extremely close to defeat and when families suffered loss and great deprivation; communities pulled together then, just as they are doing now. The full social and economic implications of the Coronavirus pandemic will not be understood for many years to come. SSAFA, as it has been for over 135 years, remains on the frontline and supporting the Armed Forces community whenever and wherever assistance is required.

Lieutenant General Sir Andrew Gregory KBE CB CEO SSAFA, the Armed Forces Charity

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THE RT HON BORIS JOHNSON MP VICTORY75

THE RT HON BORIS JOHNSON MP PRIME MINISTER, FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY, MINISTER FOR THE CIVIL SERVICE, AND MINISTER FOR THE UNION This catastrophe was avoided, but at a grievous price. Britain mobilised virtually the entire population for total war. Across the world, our armed services fought on land, sea and in the air. On the home front, women broke the Nazi codes, worked the factories, ran the hospitals and made the weapons. Pensioners served as air raid wardens. Children were evacuated from their homes. Everyone endured years of food rationing and shortages. Meanwhile, night after night, the enemy bombed London and other cities, killing over 40,000 civilians.

Today, we know that this supreme ordeal ended in victory. But at the time, nothing was inevitable. The pivotal episodes of the war – from Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain to the Normandy landings and the Battle of the Atlantic – could have ended tragically. Without the courage and ingenuity of remarkable people, they would have done. In Churchill’s words: “The odds were great, our margins small; the stakes infinite.” Yet the greatest generation never flinched at the stakes. This anniversary is our opportunity to commemorate their sacrifice and celebrate their fortitude and achievement. As we honour this anniversary, we should remind ourselves of the fragility of peace – and of our abiding duty to defend our way of life and our freedoms for generations to come.

t the stroke of 11am on 8 May 1945, church bells rang out across Britain. In the worst days of the Second World War, when Hitler’s armies were poised across the Channel, the bells would have rung only to warn the nation of invasion. Yet, 75 years ago, they resounded in joyful celebration of victory over Nazi aggression. Our debt to those who were present at that moment – surely the greatest generation of Britons who ever lived – can be simply expressed. Without their valour and sacrifice, all that is good and right would have perished from the earth. This was the generation who fought on alone in 1940 even after the rest of Europe had fallen into Hitler’s orbit. If, at that moment, Britain had sought negotiation or compromise – or persevered but gone down to defeat – then the consequences hardly bear thinking about. Europe would not have been liberated, America would not have joined the struggle, there could have been no D-Day. Millions would have been abandoned to a wicked regime.

Above all, this is a chance for those of us who were born in more recent decades to offer the greatest generation our heartfelt thanks. They came from every background and every walk of life. They faced the greatest ordeal in our history. And they won through to hear the bells of victory. To them we owe our peace and freedom.

The Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union

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VICTORY75 FIRST SEA LORD AND CHIEF OF NAVAL STAFF

ADMIRAL ANTHONY DAVID RADAKIN CB ADC FIRST SEA LORD AND CHIEF OF NAVAL STAFF

he Second World War was a global conflict that lasted almost six years, from Britain’s declaration of war on Germany on 3 September 1939 to Japan’s surrender on 15 August 1945. And every hour of every day of every week of those six years, the Royal Navy was doing its duty on behalf of the nation: patrolling; guarding; escorting; transporting; and fighting. The longest continuous campaign of the entire Allied war effort was the Battle of the Atlantic, enduring throughout the war against Germany. This was led by the Royal Navy, although it involved every service of every allied nation, together with the merchant navies. And even after VE-Day, the Royal Navy still had almost four months of hard fighting ahead in the Far East against Japan. Early in the conflict the tireless and courageous actions of the Royal Navy leading the Dunkirk evacuation in late May and early June 1940 resulted in almost 340,000 troops reaching the safety of Britain – roughly two-thirds of them members of the British Expeditionary Force. Winston Churchill called it a “miracle” and the spirit of Dunkirk, including the unprecedented civilian assistance from the “Little Ships”, came to exemplify British resistance to the Nazis. Throughout the war the Royal Navy and its Allies combated an unrestricted Nazi U-Boat campaign and the deadly threat of surface vessel attacks by the Kriegsmarine, to keep the country’s vital supply routes open. And it was not just supplies. Trans-Atlantic troop ship movements increased throughout the war; first Canadians and then from 1941 vast numbers of Americans. And the Royal Navy and its Allies defended these personnel and their equipment from attack, ensuring they reached British shores in preparation for the Normandy Landings. Elsewhere, the Royal Navy ensured military and other crucial supplies reached British and Allied Forces in the Mediterranean, and through the Suez Canal to India and

beyond, including taking heavy casualties in the Malta convoys. But perhaps the most famous feats of Naval endurance against the most atrocious conditions were those of the Arctic Convoys. Here, Royal Navy ships contended not only with the threat of German U-Boats but also with some of the worst weather on the planet, battling subzero temperatures and ferocious seas to protect merchant shipping. This endeavour was vital to helping the Soviet Union maintain its war effort against Hitler’s invading forces. By D-Day, the Royal Navy and its allies had successfully diminished the threat from Germany’s Kriegsmarine, and the main effort turned to shelling Hitler’s Atlantic Wall prior to the troop landings. This was a vital element in the success of the D-Day landings. And the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines played a key part in the landings themselves, delivering troops and equipment ashore and maintaining the supply lines to sustain the push inland. In all, over 50,000 members of the Royal Navy died serving their country in the Second World War and many more were injured, their lives often physically and mentally shattered forever. The 75th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War is a most fitting occasion to reflect on the courage and sacrifice of all those who served in the Royal Navy and helped preserve our freedom. The events of 75 years ago may seem remote and distant, but the legacy of that war lives on. And in today’s peace just as during that conflict, the Royal Navy remains at sea around the world every hour of every day of every week, working with our allies, promoting our prosperity, and protecting our nation’s global interests.

Admiral Anthony David Radakin CB ADC First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff

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VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – SEA CADETS

SEA CADETS

SALUTING THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE US

he events of the Second World War had a lasting impact on Sea Cadets, just as it did on the rest of society.

As war clouds gathered, Sea Cadets felt it should play its part in the war effort and embarked on major expansion. With financial support from Lord Nuffield, over 50 new units were founded between 1937-39 and at the outbreak of the war there were around 10,000 cadets across the country. Early in the war, the Navy League trained cadets on communications drills for Royal Navy service. Winston Churchill, already looking ahead to the invasion of Europe, realised that large numbers of communications ratings would be a key factor in the invasion fleet. By 1942, the role was too much for the charity to manage alone and the Admiralty came to its assistance. A massive expansion programme took place during 1942, taking the number of Sea Cadets to 50,000, spread across 400 locations throughout the UK. Most new units were formed as part of “Warship Week” and adopted a warship name.

The skills and ethos cadets gained at that time led to the creation of the Sea Cadets values – Commitment, Loyalty, Discipline, Respect, Integrity and Courage. These have since shaped the lives of thousands of young people, and will do for generations to come. One of the many strengths upon which Sea Cadets is founded is the relationship maintained with the Royal Navy. Though both are very different today compared to 75 years ago, our bond is as important and relevant today as it was then. Though not facing the same challenges, Sea Cadets and the Royal Navy play a significant role in supporting local communities together, changing young lives for the better and opening horizons for many in directions they previously would not have thought possible. Sea Cadets remembers the sacrifices made by their forebears. We proudly salute those who came before us.

Captain Phil Russell RN Captain Sea Cadets

Through the war, thousands of cadets and instructors joined the Royal Navy or Royal Marines, as well as the Merchant Navy and other front-line services. Serving with distinction across the globe in support of peace. - 14 -

VICTORY75 CHIEF OF THE GENERAL STAFF

GENERAL SIR MARK CARLETON-SMITH KCB CBE ADC GEN CHIEF OF THE GENERAL STAFF

eventy-five years after the end of the largest and bloodiest war in history we remember with great pride and gratitude the inestimable courage and sacrifice of all those, both at home and overseas, drawn into a global conflict to defend and preserve Freedom.

The cost in life and suffering was enormous. The British Army experienced hundreds of thousands of casualties including the deaths of over 300,000 men and women. The Fallen can be found in every corner of the world from the military cemeteries of Europe, to those of North Africa, the Middle and Far East – from Normandy to Tripoli, Cairo, Singapore and Burma – and many of the names of those locations are Battle Honours evocatively stitched into the Regimental Colours, Guidons and Standards – the very fabric of our Army.

The victory in 1945 was a titanic shared endeavour and the freedom so hard won has subsequently been defended and fought for by generations of soldiers over the last 75 years. As the nation tackles the Coronavirus pandemic those same qualities that ensured victory in 1945 are once more the currency of our Armed Forces. I am grateful to SSAFA for the hard work and dedication in supporting the person behind the uniform, and the invaluable contribution to the fabric of our Army, recognising the unique contribution our soldiers make every day in the defence of our country and in preparing to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith KCB CBE ADC GEN Chief of the General Staff

The 75th Anniversaries of VE-Day and VJ-Day are especially poignant as this is likely to be the last major national commemoration in the lifetime of most of those who witnessed the ravages of that war. Those witnesses remind us of a time when the Nation’s freedom – and that of our friends and allies – faced mortal threat; and those veterans speak of what preserving that freedom cost in terms of the sacrifice by not just those serving in the Armed Forces, but also by civilians on the Home Front.

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VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – THE ARMY CADET FORCE

INSPIRING A GENERATION The Army Cadets is determined to move with the times, with a progressive, military-themed training syllabus and broader developmental activities, all designed to be challenging, adventurous and above all fun.

he big four words for us are fun, friendship, action and adventure,” says Army Cadet Volunteer Dr Richard Crawford. “The Army Cadets represent an opportunity for young people to step outside their comfort zone and try something new”. The organisation was formed in 1859, albeit initially with less emphasis on the fun. The country was under threat of invasion by France and it was felt that internal volunteer militias might be needed to counter that possibility. Even in its infancy, though, the Army Cadets was motivated by an earnest sense of social mission.

In 1889, the social reformer Octavia Hill formed London’s first battalion in the hope of socialising deprived urban youngsters searching for direction. “If such ideals can be brought before the young lad before he gets in with a gang of loafers,” she said, “it may make all the difference to his life.” Hill’s language might sound archaic to modern ears (and girls are welcomed into the Cadets now too), but her principles remain intact and the Army Cadets has adapted to changes in society without ever losing sight of its foundational purpose.

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SPONSORED FEATURE – THE ARMY CADET FORCE VICTORY75

Now with around 69,000 young people actively involved in the organisation across 2,000 UK locations, the Army Cadets (Army Cadet Force and Combined Cadet Force Army) have a clear direction.

“This activity is underpinned by the Army’s core values and standards – courage, discipline, respect for others, integrity, loyalty and selfless commitment.”

Deputy Commander Cadets, Brigadier Mark Christie OBE explains: “Our vision is to inspire young people to achieve success in life through a spirit of service to our Queen, their country and their local community and to develop in them the qualities of good citizens. “This activity is underpinned by the Army’s core values and standards – courage, discipline, respect for others, integrity, loyalty and selfless commitment. “There’s also a values-based inclusive leadership code, which provides a blueprint for life, regardless of whether the individual cadet ultimately decides to apply to join the Army”. In 2019, a Census-wide poll found that children below the age of 14 were spending an average of 23 hours a week using smartphones and other screen devices – twice as long as they spent conversing with their parents. “I once saw two new cadets texting each other while sat next to each other,” says Dr Crawford. “They had no confidence to have face-to-face conversations. But within six months, these two were at our annual camp, shouting instructions across a valley to each other without a mobile phone in sight. Once they’ve got their uniforms on, they’re part of one team and there’s no looking down on anyone because they haven’t got the latest gadget. Cadets is great for social mobility”. Senior Volunteer Leader Colonel Clinton Riley, one of many adult volunteers who keep the organisation running, describes a cycle that nurtures those involved on an ongoing basis. “I was a cadet myself before I volunteered so I’ve seen it from both sides,” he says. “We provide key skills for life, and watching our cadets flourish reinforces our motto – inspire to achieve”. Colonel Riley and Dr Crawford are not alone in their enthusiasm. Around 11,000 others have been inspired to become Adult Volunteers, with the desire to support young people, enabling the Army Cadets to function and continue to be one of the leading youth organisations in the country.

FIND OUT MORE AT

ARMYCADETS.COM facebook.com/Armycadetforce @ArmyCadetsUK cadetsarmy

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VICTORY75 CHIEF OF THE AIR STAFF

AIR CHIEF MARSHAL MIKE WIGSTON CBE ADC CHIEF OF THE AIR STAFF

lthough the Royal Air Force was just over 20 years old when WWII broke out, the United Kingdom’s newest military service played a transformational role in the conflict. Not only does 2020 mark the 75th Anniversary of the end of the WWII, but also the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain, which saw Nazi Germany sustain its first military defeat – in the late summer of 1940. This victory, spearheaded by the pilots of Fighter Command immortalised as “The Few” by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and brilliantly supported by ground crew of every trade and description, was a turning point in the conflict. Weeks earlier German Blitzkrieg had quickly crushed the Low Countries and France, and the British Expeditionary Force, cut-off and surrounded, retreated to Dunkirk. The RAF played a key role in the successful evacuation from Dunkirk of almost 340,000 British and Allied troops by intercepting German bomber and fighter aircraft heading for the beaches, saving lives and protecting naval and other vessels engaged in Operation Dynamo. After Dunkirk, Hitler immediately put Operation Sea Lion into motion – his plan for the invasion of Britain. To achieve this he needed air superiority, ultimately denied him by the RAF’s Spitfires and Hurricanes in weeks of desperate conflict over the Channel, the North Sea and Britain itself.

In addition to waging its own air campaign, the RAF also operated in close support of the Army and Navy in all theatres of war – Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Far East – and when operationally feasible over seas and oceans in pursuit of U-Boats and providing air cover for convoys, amongst other tasks. In the run-up to D-Day the RAF and its Allies increasingly focussed on France’s rail and road transport links leading to the Normandy landing grounds to diminish the ability of the Germans to call up reserves of men and equipment. And on D-Day itself wave after wave of RAF and Allied bombers attacked the Nazis coastal defences, whilst other aircraft patrolled the Channel to help protect the invading Allied armada from attacks by sea and air. After D-Day, the Allied air forces played a key role in support of liberating ground forces as they pushed the German army back across western Europe over the Rhine and beyond to ultimate surrender. A national tapestry of monuments and memorials to the courage and sacrifice of RAF personnel during World War II links Britain’s cities, towns, villages, hamlets – and fields where crops now grow but 75 years ago aircraft engines roared. Over 70,000 RAF personnel died fighting for freedom – and many more suffered the effects of life-changing injuries for their rest of their days. We owe all of them – and their colleagues lucky enough to come through unscathed – our unlimited gratitude and respect for keeping freedom alive.

In the four years from Dunkirk through to D-Day, the RAF was the only means by which Britain and subsequently the Allies could hit back at the Nazis in Occupied Europe and Germany itself, notwithstanding, of course, the brilliant disruptive work of Special Operations Executive which it had a hand in facilitating. Initially alone and then operating with the US air force, the RAF’s Bomber Offensive steadily degraded German industry and basic infrastructure from ports and power supplies to roads and railways. And crucially it also increasingly bore down on the armaments and munitions industries, diverted huge human and other resources to clearance and reconstruction work, and increasingly eroded morale.

Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston CBE ADC Chief of the Air Staff

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VICTORY THIS IS YOUR VICTORY

VE DAY - 8 MAY 1945 VICTORY IN EUROPE Prime Minister Winston Churchill

King George VI

Broadcast from Buckingham Palace

Broadcast from Downing Street

esterday morning at 2:41am at General Eisenhower’s Headquarters, General Jodl, the representative of the German High Command, and Grand Admiral Doenitz, the designated head of the German State, signed the act of unconditional surrender of all German land, sea, and air forces in Europe to the Allied Expeditionary Force, and simultaneously to the Soviet High Command. “The German war is therefore at an end…. “We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing; but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead. Japan, with all her treachery and greed, remains unsubdued… “Advance, Britannia! Long live the cause of freedom! God save the King!”

Balcony of the Ministry of Health

od bless you all. This is your victory! It is the victory of the cause of freedom in every land. In all our long history we have never seen a greater day than this. Everyone, man or woman, has done their best. Everyone has tried. Neither the long years, nor the dangers, nor the fierce attacks of the enemy, have in any way weakened the unbending resolve of the British nation. God bless you all.”

oday we give thanks to Almighty God for a great deliverance. Speaking from our Empire’s oldest capital city, war-battered but never for one moment daunted or dismayed – speaking from London, I ask you to join with me in that act of thanksgiving. “Germany, the enemy who drove all Europe into war, has been finally overcome. “Let us remember those who will not come back, their constancy and courage in battle, their sacrifice and endurance in the face of a merciless enemy: let us remember the men in all the Services and the women in all the Services who have laid down their lives. We have come to the end of our tribulation, and they are not with us at the moment of our rejoicing. “Then let us salute in proud gratitude the great host of the living who have brought us to victory. I cannot praise them to the measure of each one’s service, for in a total war the efforts of all rise to the same noble height and all are devoted to the common purpose. Armed or unarmed, men and women, you have fought, striven, and endured to your utmost.”

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THIS IS YOUR VICTORY VICTORY75

VJ DAY - 15 AUGUST 1945 VICTORY AGAINST JAPAN Prime Minister Clement Attlee

King George VI

Broadcast from Downing Street

Broadcast from Buckingham Palace

apan has today surrendered. The last of our enemies is laid low. Here at home you have a short rest from the unceasing exertions which you’ve all borne without flinching or complaint for so many dark years. “We also think at this time especially of the prisoners in Japanese hands; of our friends in the Dominions of Australia and New Zealand, in India; in Burma; in those colonial territories on whom the brunt of the Japanese attack fell. “We rejoice that their sufferings will soon be at an end and that these territories will soon be purged of the Japanese invader. Peace has once again come to the world.

apan has surrendered, so let us join in thanking Almighty God that war has ended throughout the world, and that in every country men may now turn their industry, skill, and science to repairing its frightful devastation and to building prosperity and happiness. “Our sense of deliverance is overpowering, and with it all, we have a right to feel that we have done our duty. “I ask you again at this solemn hour to remember all who have laid down their lives, and all who have endured the loss of those they love. “Remember, too, the sufferings of those who fell into the hands of the enemy, whether as prisoners of war or because their homes had been overrun. They have been in our thoughts all through these dark years and let us pray that one result of the defeat of Japan may be many happy reunions of those who have been long separated from each other.

“Let us Thank God for this Great Deliverance and His Mercies. “Long Live the King”.

House of Commons

he long, grievous war is at an end, and peace on earth has been restored. To each of us at this time there will come many memories and thoughts; to each of us at this time there will also come the wish to pay our tributes to those who have, in a lesser or greater degree, contributed to this final and complete victory. “I beg to move, that this House do now attend at the Church of St. Margaret, Westminster, to give humble and reverent thanks to Almighty God on the victorious conclusion of the war.”

“The campaigns in the Far East will be famous in history for many reasons. There is one feature of them which is a special source of pride to me, and also to you, the citizens of our British Commonwealth and Empire to whom I speak. In those campaigns there have fought, side by side with our allies, representatives of almost every unit in our great community – men from the Old Country, men from the Dominions, from India, and the Colonies. They fought in brotherhood; through their courage and endurance they conquered. “To all of them and to the women who shared with them the hardships and dangers of war I send my proud and grateful thanks. “The war is over. “From the bottom of my heart I thank my Peoples for all they have done, not only for themselves, but for mankind”.

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VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM AMERICAN FOUNDATION

SPIRIT OF THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN LIVES ON IN THE US Angela Coleman, Executive Director of the Royal Air Force Museum American Foundation (RAFMAF), charts the role of RAFMAF as a source of US support for the RAF Museum in Hendon and Cosford, whilst promoting close ties between the RAF and the air forces of the United States.

n 28 October 2009 former astronaut and one of the first men to walk on the moon, Colonel Buzz Aldrin began a tradition which has become a centerpiece of one of Washington DC’s must-attend social events at the heart of UK-US relations – the annual “Spirit of the Battle of Britain” Banquet hosted by the Royal Air Force Museum American Foundation or RAFMAF.

After the presentation, guests, including the Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton and senior USAF officers, received Aldrin’s latest take on his ideas for a manned flight to Mars – words very much in keeping with the inspirational and aspirational spirit of that first Banquet!

Aldrin was RAFMAF’s Guest of Honor at its first-ever Banquet at the British Embassy, and took to the platform to present RAFMAF’s Sword of Honor to RAF officer Flight Lieutenant Atila Batu then serving in the US under the USUK Exchange Officers’ Program and who, in the opinion of his peers, had made the greatest contribution over the previous year to relations between the two countries’ air forces.

In 2012 a second replica Sword of Honor was added to the presentation ceremony at the 4 October “Spirit of the Battle of Britain” Banquet in Washington DC to similarly recognize the outstanding contribution over the previous year to relations between the US and UK air forces by a US officer serving on exchange in the UK. The RAF sword hangs in the British Embassy and the replica presented to an American officer resides in the Pentagon – with the annual winners receiving a miniature replica.

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SPONSORED FEATURE – ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM AMERICAN FOUNDATION VICTORY75

“RAFMAF exists to ensure the shared aviation heritage of the US and the UK is kept alive in the memories of the two nations.” Angela Coleman, Executive Director of the Royal Air Force Museum American Foundation (RAFMAF)

RAFMAF was originally founded in 2002 on the shared values of Respect, Integrity, Service and Excellence which have always joined together the fighting airmen and air women of the two nations – and will continue to do so in the future.

“Spirit of the Battle of Britain” Banquet heads into space!

Specifically, it exists to ensure the shared aviation heritage of the US and the UK is kept alive in the memories of the two nations, and works to secure funds, and other means, to underpin the RAF Museum’s programs of acquisition, conservation, interpretation, education and training.

RAFMAF’s annual “Spirit of the Battle of Britain” Banquet will be held on October 6, 2021 to celebrate achievements in space coinciding with the formation of the US Space Force and the UK Space Command.

Through museum partnering RAFMAF also aims to build Anglo-American bridges of opportunity through youth and education initiatives to encourage future generations toward lively understandings of aerospace disciplines, and an appreciation of science and social history expressed through technology. Since its inception RAFMAF has supported the RAF Museum through a number of initiatives from telling the story of the American Pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain in 601 Squadron to facilitating the loan of a USAF Predator Remote Piloted Aircraft now on display at the Museum.

The Guests of Honour will be Brigadier General (Ret.) Charles (Charlie) Duke Jr, USAF – the Apollo 16 lunar module pilot and the youngest and tenth man to walk on the moon. His distinctive Southern drawl became familiar to many when he served as CAPCOM for Apollo 11 who, following a long delay after the landing of Apollo 11 on the Moon said ‘You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again”. Charlie Duke will be joined by Dr Nicholas Patrick, a British-born NASA astronaut and mission specialist on International Space Station Construction flights. Dr Patrick currently works for private space company Blue Origin. Together they mirror the modern day innovative sustainable programs of space exploration by commercial and international partnerships which may be different from those thoughts of Buzz Aldrin all those years ago, but still take man a step further on the journey from the Moon to Mars.

Above : General David Goldfein, Chief USAF (left) and ACM Mike Wigston, CAS RAF (right) present the Swords of Honour to the 2019 recipients. Opposite : Annual Spirit of the Battle of Britain Banquet, the Mayflower Hotel, Washington DC.

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For more information please check out

www.rafmaf.com

VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM AMERICAN FOUNDATION

Meet RAFMAF’s Chairman The Chairman of RAFMAF is Major-General (USAF, Ret) Frederick F. Roggero who, earlier in his career as a USAF pilot, served on exchange with the Royal Air Force flying tanker aircraft.

Above : MQ-1B Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) on loan from the USAF on display at RAF Museum Hendon.

In 2018 the Foundation introduced an Education Learning Fund which annually funds Museum projects and programs that are accomplished by many levels of age/scholarship/ individuals or groups in a variety of formats ranging from scholarly research papers, articles, oral history collections and art. In the midst of all this activity sits the annual Banquet as a fund-raising platform, a celebration of close and enduring ties and place to salute those who serve today and honor those who did so in decades gone by – including in the Battle of Britain, Bomber Command, D-Day, the Berlin Airlift and the women pilots from the UK’s Air Transport Auxiliary and the USA’s Women Air Service Pilots.

During a long and distinguished career with USAF, he ultimately served as Chief of Safety, and Commander, Air Force Safety Center, prior to which he was Director and Deputy Director, Air, Space and Information Operations. He is Chairman and CEO of risk management consultancy Resilient Solutions in McLean, Virginia which specialises in operational and safety expertise in military and commercial aviation, especially unmanned aircraft. Major General (Ret.) Frederick F. Roggero USAF President and CEO, Resilient Solutions Ltd

Message from the Chief of the Air Staff The Royal Air Force Museum American Foundation celebrates the shared heritage and values of the RAF and USAF. Working tirelessly to support veterans and those still serving, the Foundation reflects the historic and deep relationship between our two great Air Forces. I am extremely grateful for its continued support. ir Chief Marshal Mike Wigston A CBE ADC RAF, Chief of the Air Staff

Above : USA’s Women Air Service Pilots (WASP). Members of WASP became trained pilots who tested aircraft, ferried aircraft, and trained other pilots.

Funding RAF Museum educational efforts through Covid-19 During the Covid-19 crisis RAFMAF, backed by its supporters and partners, has been aiding the RAF Museum’s educational efforts by funding educational learning through its online platforms and via printed information and lessons placed in food parcels distributed to the local community from a food bank on the site of the Museum’s London site in Hendon. The Foundation is also supporting the National Museum of the US Air Force in their work to digitise a forthcoming exhibition about Women in Aviation thereby making it available for all.

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VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – THE ROYAL NAVAL ASSOCIATION

THE ROYAL NAVAL ASSOCIATION PAYING TRIBUTE TO THE GREAT DEEDS AND SACRIFICES OF THE 1939-45 NAVAL GENERATION Captain Bill Oliphant, General Secretary of the Royal Naval Association (RNA)

lanes open for vital supplies of food, strategic commodities, military supplies and, as the war progressed, the build up of troops for the D-Day Landings.

he 75th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War is, indeed, a poignant moment to pay tribute to surviving Royal Navy veterans of the most destructive war in history, along with all their departed colleagues and shipmates – particularly those who never lived to see the first VE-Day and the first VJ-Day in 1945. The Royal Navy was in action from the minute Britain went to war on 3 September 1939 to Victory Against Japan Day on 15th August 1945. During that time it fought the longest single campaign of any Allied military service in the Second World War – the Battle of the Atlantic to keep Britain’s international sea

Had the German U-boat offensive against merchant shipping been successful, Britain would not have survived. Indeed, Prime Minister Winston Churchill said later that it was the only thing during the entire conflict that caused him real fear. The Battle of the Atlantic moved through several different phases as the war progressed and, of course, became an Allied campaign after the United States’ commenced hostilities against Germany in December 1941.

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SPONSORED FEATURE – THE ROYAL NAVAL ASSOCIATION VICTORY75

Above : Her Majesty the Queen and world leaders at the D-Day commemoration ceremony in Southsea.

Above : Veterans watching the official D-Day commemoration ceremony in Southsea.

This is all described in some detail elsewhere in this publication. My main concern in this tribute to the naval generation of that remarkable era in our history is to remind readers of the enormous human cost and sacrifice, both then and afterwards, of the Royal Navy’s great wartime achievements. Even the most graphic of war movies don’t come close to portraying what it was really like to be in action. The scenes can be pretty disturbing in some films these days, but viewers don’t smell the stench of battle, experience the white heat and light of explosions, and are not blown off their feet by debris-laced blasts.

“As RNA General Secretary I urge you to remember Royal Navy veterans, their families and all their comrades no longer with us”.

Indeed, over sixty RNA members were involved in the official ceremonies in Southsea led by Her Majesty the Queen and attended by world leaders – and some subsequently boarded the cruise ship Boudicca to return to the landing grounds. This year the Nation will celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Victory in Europe and against Japan providing many opportunities around the country for people to express their gratitude and pay their respects to all those – whether on the home front or the battle front – who played their different roles which, together, brought about the preservation of our freedom. And as a former member of the Armed Forces and a grateful British citizen I also urge you to remember them all – wherever and however they served our Nation in that terrible conflict.

They don’t roll back and forth in mountainous seas whilst – in the case of the Arctic Convoy escorts – chopping ice off a ship’s superstructure in sub-zero temperatures; dive off a torpedoed ship in to a sea of blazing oil; slam closed water-tight doors to a flooding engine room knowing that its occupants will soon drown.

FIND OUT MORE

I’ve met veterans over the years who have experienced conditions like this – and much more besides – which in some cases mentally or physically scarred them for the rest of their lives. And, of course, they were the ones that survived – over 50,000 did not.

If you would like to continue your association with our naval heritage, whether as a member of the Royal Naval Association or financially in support of our continuing work , please apply to join or find out more about what we do from our website:

Last year the National Commemorations marking the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings provided an iconic opportunity for us to pay tribute to all service veterans and their former comrades involved in the largest amphibious invasion the world has ever seen.

www.royal-naval-association.co.uk/join-us

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Once Navy, Always Navy

The Royal Naval Association is proud to be associated with the Victory 75 commemorations

With over 11,000 members across 300+ branches in the UK and overseas, we are a family of current and former Naval Service personnel, relatives and supporters of our country’s Royal Navy.

Whether we are catching up with friends at our regular social events, fundraising, advising on welfare and employment matters, or just providing an arm around the shoulder, our natural willingness to help others stems from the tradition and camaraderie that only Naval Service life can instil.

Everything we do is inextricably linked to our core values: Unity

Comradeship

Loyalty

Patriotism

Shared backgrounds and equality in rank. We share the same bonds, the same mindset, and even the same language (Jackspeak!). We are all equal. We are the heart and soul of the RNA.

To each other and our dependants. We will always support and look out for each other. Our loyalty is to all our shipmates, our local communities, the personnel and dependants of the Naval Service, along with other charities or organisations with naval connections.

Friends in fun, fellowship and need. Your shipmates will always be here for you, whether it’s about a job, ideas for a fun day out or just an arm around the shoulder. We will never leave you or your dependants in despair.

We are proud to serve and proud to represent our country and the Naval Service. Our pride in serving our country never leaves us. Nor do we forget those who have fallen for our country or who fight now. We are deeply honoured to represent them on both a national and international level.

Our Full Members come from all walks of life, but have their shared time in the Naval Service as well as a desire to carry forward the traditions and values that the Royal Navy and Royal Marines embeds, bonding us together. The Association reflects the wider Naval family with wives, husbands, and proud parents joining as Associate Members as well as those who care about Britain’s Naval Heritage and all it embodies. If you want to join as a member of the Association, please do so online at our webpage below.

visit www.royal-naval-association.co.uk

RNA Central Office, Room 209, Semaphore Tower, HM Naval Base, Portsmouth, PO1 3LT

SPONSORED FEATURE – THE ROYAL NAVAL ASSOCIATION VICTORY75

ONCE NAVY, ALWAYS NAVY Alan Spence talks with Bill Oliphant, General Secretary of the Royal Naval Association (RNA), about the RNA’s role at the heart of the Naval Service Family which spans the generations from Sea Cadets and new navy recruits to serving personnel, veterans and their families.

As a family RNA members also keep a watchful eye on each other, particularly veterans whose needs may well increase as the years go by ... and, of course, there’s the family and dependents of serving RNA members who reach out to each other if loved ones are at sea and problems occur at home.

hese are exciting times for the Royal Navy with the arrival of the two Queen Elizabeth-Class Aircraft Carriers not only adding greatly to the strength and flexibility of the Navy’s power projection, but generating significant new interest from potential naval recruits impressed by their state-of-the art design, frontier technology and sheer size.

RNA’s current core projects include: Culture, ethos and values mentoring – part of the Royal Navy’s Operation Inspire programme – whereby new recruits and junior sailors imbibe the history and core values of the Senior Service (including discipline, integrity, courage, commitment respect and loyalty) with visits to historic naval locations and talks on life and experiences in the Navy from former senior naval personnel.

With his HQ in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyards, Bill Oliphant, General Secretary of the Royal Naval Association (RNA), and his colleagues and visitors see quite a bit of HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales – the largest Royal Navy vessels ever built in the United Kingdom and a great source of pride right across the naval family.

The Shipmates and Oppos Programme – which was a service leavers support project previously funded by the Royal Hospital Greenwich and supported by the Royal Navy, is being redeveloped as a buddy-support programme for veterans to benefit their welfare, battling loneliness and social isolation. Through a ‘buddy-up’ system between volunteers and older veterans the RNA will be able to better identify vulnerable members and areas of required welfare support within its network. The ‘Shipmates & Oppos’ buddy system will be part of a tiered structure to support the work of The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity and SSAFA in their case officer outreach programme. Many members of that family come together under the umbrella of the RNA with its 300-plus branches around the United Kingdom. It first received its Royal Charter in 1954, but its origins date back to the inter-war Old Comrades Associations. “The arrival of the carriers has obviously been a big boost for the Royal Navy, but it’s also good for spirits around the entire naval family after some difficult years of capacity reductions”, says Oliphant, previously Captain of Portsmouth Naval Base. “It’s also not surprising that people feel this way – the RNA motto is Once Navy, Always Navy – so whether still serving, VETS or working in civilian employment, the naval family tends to be close – and thinks and behaves like a family ... and is proud of the way the Navy’s heading right now ...”

Project Semaphore – has completed its active phase of providing iPads to veterans, free of charge, and has proved an incredibly positive and well-received project. Not only does possession of an iPad prevent veterans missing out on on-line shopping, banking, travel insurance and other services which can save them – according to BT Openreach – up to £1000 a year, it creates for many a new opportunity for social interaction. The iPads, funded by Aged Veterans Fund, Greenwich Hospital and the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity, came with training delivered by RNA volunteers and supporters, including Sea Cadets and serving personnel or members of their families. Although we are not providing new iPads anymore, the second phase of the project will support veterans with the ongoing maintenance and admin for their devices.

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VICTORY75 TIMELINE TO WAR

Adolf Hitler waving to crowds from his car at the head of a parade. The streets are decorated with various swastika banners.

TIMELINE TO WAR How was it possible that just 20 years after the end of the First World War Europe was set ablaze again in 1939 followed by the Far East and the Pacific, making the Second World War the deadliest conflict in history? Victory75 editor Alan Spence explains.

any of the veterans of Flanders, Jutland, Gallipoli and elsewhere thought that they had fought the “war to end all wars”, and there was a general consensus amongst the people and politicians that it should never happen again.

Germany ignored the warning and on Sunday 3 September 1939, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain solemnly announced to the British people in a radio broadcast that “consequently we are at war with Germany”.

The ultimate reason why war broke out, of course, was that on 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland and was told by Britain and France to withdraw immediately otherwise a state of war would exist with Berlin.

But whilst Hitler’s actions in Poland triggered the war, its fundamental causes ran much deeper.

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TIMELINE TO WAR The Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919, formally branded Germany the guilty party in the First World War and sought to reduce its economic power to a point where it would be unable to wage future wars. Left Council of Four at the WWI Paris peace conference, May 27, 1919. (L - R) British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Italian Premier Vittorio Orlando, French Premier Georges Clemenceau and American President Woodrow Wilson.

Amongst Germany’s losses at Versailles, were its colonies in Africa and elsewhere, the return to France of Alsace Lorraine (occupied 50 years earlier by Germany) with its important iron and steel industry, as well as the transfer of territory to other countries, including Czechoslovakia, Belgium and Poland. Right : The Treaty took Alsace and Lorraine away from Germany, reducing German coal production by 40%

These open wounds were more than compounded by a vast, unpayable bill of billions of dollars in reparations as the guilty party. Left : American contemporary view of unreasonable German World War I war reparations. Political cartoon 1921.

This all added to Germany’s postwar economic, social and political instability, including two occasions, in 1923 and 1929, when the German currency, became practically worthless with the country gripped in feverous hyperinflation and this, in turn, helped foster the rise of Hitler’s Nazi Party. Right : German women buying vegetables with baskets full of money.

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VICTORY75 TIMELINE TO WAR

TIMELINE TO WAR Meanwhile, due to the power of the US isolationist lobby, which represented the view of many Americans who did not want to be involved in any future wars in Europe, US President Woodrow Wilson was unable to get the support of the US Congress for the Versailles Treaty and a plan for a League of Nations to help prevent future conflicts. Left President Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Wilson suffered a severe stroke in October 1919 and was incapacitated for the remainder of his presidency. He retired from public office in 1921 and died in 1924.

Without the participation of the US in the League of Nations the latter was to prove ineffective in restraining Japan’s invasion of China and Italy’s invasions of Ethiopia and Albania, as well as preventing the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936– and this impotence boded ill for European peace when Hitler turned acquisitive aggressor in March 1936 with the re-occupation of the Rhineland. Right : German troops march across the Hohenzollern Bridge to re-occupy Cologne and the Rhineland. March 7, 1936.

So, overall, by the early 1930s the winds were set fair for the rise of the Nazi Party and the evil genius of its leader Adolf Hitler in mobilizing a nation by persuasion and fear to create a new German empire, the Third Reich, at the expense of freedom, democracy, multiple scapegoats – most horrifically the country’s Jewish population – and any country that stood in its way, especially those that had authored the Treaty of Versailles. Left : A man raises his hand in the traditional Nazi salute in front of Adolf Hitler, circa 1930s.

Finally, the response of Britain and others to Hitler’s rise – the policy of so-called appeasement – played its role in the run-up to war which came back to the understandable visceral hatred shared by so many people of the slightest prospect of any repetition of the First World’s War’s slaughterhouse. Right : From left to right: Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Ciano pictured before signing the Munich Agreement, which gave the Czechoslovak border areas to Germany.

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On returning to Heston Airport from Munich, Chamberlain waved a piece of paper signed by both himself and Hitler which referred to the desire of both countries “never to go to war again”.

And thus it began to happen. In 1936 Hitler gambled that he could re-occupy the Rhineland unopposed – and he was right. In 1938, he gambled again that he could unite Germany and Austria (the so-called Anschluss) unopposed – and he was right. Later in 1938 he demanded that Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland – a region mostly occupied by ethnic Germans – should become part of the Third Reich.

Only a month after the Munich Agreement Hitler announced his intention of bringing the free city of Danzig in the so-called Polish corridor between East Prussia and Germany into the Reich. Poland was now clearly his next target and, to avoid any problems with the Soviet Union which that might cause, he moved to shore up his position with Stalin by pursuing the conclusion of a Non-Aggression Pact which was finally signed in August 1939. He didn’t act immediately against Poland, preferring instead in March 1939 to concentrate on annexing all of the Czech lands of Czechoslovakia and making Slovakia a separate entity dependent on Germany – as a follow up to the Sudetenland awarded him in the Munich Agreement, which he had now breached.

This time Britain and France intervened with Chamberlain flying to meet Hitler at Bechtesgarten, his lair in the Bavarian Alps –– and then in Bad Godesberg by the Rhine and finally – and infamously – in Munich. There, after multiple assurances by Hitler that this was the last of his demands to right historical wrongs and that he had no desire for a war with Britain and France, Chamberlain and the French Prime Minister Deladier gave in. And Hitler took the Sudetenland unopposed. On returning to Heston Airport from Munich, Chamberlain waved a piece of paper signed by both himself and Hitler which referred to the desire of both countries “never to go to war again”. Later that day outside 10 Downing Street he declared “I believe it is peace in our time”.

But this time there were to be no Chamberlain summits with Hitler. With demands for the return of Danzig increasing, the British and French decided instead to guarantee Poland’s sovereignty which, if breached, would trigger war. It was and it did – on 3 September 1939.

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VICTORY75 TIMELINE OF WAR

Â© EVERETT HISTORICAL / SHUTTERSTOCK

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Above : Neville Chamberlain giving a live broadcast from the Cabinet Room of 10 Downing Street on 3rd September 1939.

Above : Aircraft spotter searches the sky over London with binoculars, St. Paul’s Cathedral is in the background.

carcely had Neville Chamberlain finished speaking on the morning of Sunday 3 September, 1939 than air raid sirens commenced their eerie wailing around the country.

And the Royal Navy began to see some significant action in other ways with a daring German U-boat commander sinking HMS Royal Oak at anchor in the Scapa Flow in October and in December a dramatic chase by a Royal Naval squadron off the east coast of South America to corner the German high seas raider Admiral Graf Spee in the mouth of the River Plate off Montevideo, where the damaged vessel was scuttled.

One school of thought had been that immediately on the outbreak of war the sky would be darkened by wave after wave of German bombers heading for Britain’s cities, ports and factories. In the event, nothing happened and people put their gas masks back in the cupboard and civil defence volunteers heaved a sigh of relief. False alarm? The powers-that-be testing ARP measures? Whatever, Britons got their first wartime experience of the “ buzzers” – as millions came to call them in popular parlance.. And so began the so-called “Phoney War” which was to last through to the following Spring of 1940 – “phoney” because, in the main, little happened in western Europe, more specifically the anticipated mass bombing of Britain didn’t occur as many thought. Much effort was expended by RAF Bomber Command dropping huge quantities of leaflets over German towns and cities explaining why Britain was at war with Germany and how the Nazis were letting down the German people with their expansionist aggression – not to mention by hiding away some of the country’s gold and treasures outside Germany. Many British children were evacuated from the cities to the countryside, but with little or no sign of air-raids, they began to drift back again. That said, looking back, it wasn’t perhaps all that “phoney”. There were some limited air attacks with the RAF bombing for real Wilhelmshaven, Cuxhaven and other Kriegsmarine targets in September 1939, and the Luftwaffe attacking the Royal Navy bases at Scapa Flow and Rosyth in October.

Above : German heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee scuttled in Montevideo harbour following the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939.

Meanwhile, out in the North Atlantic the Royal Navy was increasingly targeting the German U-boat threat to merchant shipping convoys bound for Britain as the Battle of Atlantic, which ran the entire length of the European war, gained in intensity. As far as eastern Europe was concerned there was no “Phoney War” with Germany consolidating its hold on the areas of Poland it occupied in September and, as agreed with Moscow, the Soviet Union taking its share of Polish spoils, and then invading Finland in what became the “Winter War” of 1939/1940.

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“Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few”

Winston Churchill 20 August 1940

he so-called “Phoney War” persisted in to the early months of 1940, but with the German U-boat attacks on merchant shipping continuing to rise, food rationing was introduced in Britain.

rapidly across northern France towards the coast threatening to cut-off Lord Gort’s British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and French forces looking to counter German forces attacking down through Belgium.

The Soviet Union concluded its “Winter War” with Finland in March which silenced the guns in eastern Europe for the time being.

The BEF fell rapidly back on the French Channel Port of Dunkirk from where, against the odds and the most optimistic of expectations, between May 26 and June 4

The following month Germany made its first move in western Europe with the invasion of Denmark and Norway. Denmark surrendered immediately on 9 April, but Norway resisted German forces with the assistance of British, French and Polish troops, but after the latter pulled out the country was forced to surrender on 10 June. On 10 May Neville Chamberlain was replaced as Prime Minister by Winston Churchill. On the same day Germany unleashed fast-moving Blitzkrieg (literally “lightning war”) against the Low Countries and France, utilising closely coordinated rolling attacks by aircraft, including the fearsome Stuka bomber, panzer divisions and airborne troops, as well as conventional infantry and artillery. General Heinz Guderian’s X1X Panzer Division’s broke through on France’s eastern frontier with Germany at the northern end of the Maginot Line around Sedan and headed - 38 -

Above : Winston Churchill became Britains Prine Minister in May 1940 Top : The first mass German air raid on London, Tower Bridge stands out against a background of smoke and fires. Sept. 7, 1940.

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226,000 British troops and 112,000 French troops were lifted off the beaches by British and French naval vessels and a motley armada of pleasure craft, motor cruisers, fishing boats and yachts – “the so-called little ships of Dunkirk”. And soon afterwards on 22 June France surrendered.

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OPERATION DYNAMO MAY 26 - JUNE 4, 1940

Operation Dynamo was the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and Allied forces from Dunkirk. Churchill dismissed all suggestions – principally led by Foreign Minister Lord Halifax – to talk terms with Hitler and Britain and its Empire stood alone. Unleashing the full power of his inspirational oratory Churchill told the world Britain would “fight on the beaches, fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender”. Hitler began to put together his plans for the invasion of Britain – Operation Sea Lion – but before he could take the risk of setting them in motion he needed to establish air superiority. Thus, in July the Battle of Britain commenced in earnest between the RAF and the Luftwaffe for control over Britain’s skies. The Battle raged for many weeks especially over London and the Home Counties, culminating in midSeptember as both sides threw virtually everything they possessed in pilots and machines at each other. Although tested to the limit and out-numbered, the RAF finally prevailed – and Fighter Command’s pilots were immortalised in words by Churchill: “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few”. Skill, courage, bravery and technology, particularly radar, all played huge roles in inflicting Hitler’s first defeat of the war – along with a rapid ramping up of aircraft production, and RAF pilots enjoying “home advantage”. Those that had to bail-out and were uninjured could be rapidly returned to their units, whereas German pilots became POWs.

Top : Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay who was in charge of the naval evacuation at Dunkirk.

Additionally, during the battle Hitler increasingly focussed on bombing London and Britain’s cities. Had the Luftwaffe thrown all its bombing resources in to attacking Fighter Command stations it may have been a different outcome.

Above : Ship leaving Dunkirk carrying defeated British and French soldiers to England. In the background the French port of Dunkirk burns under the German advance. Above : Soldiers from the British Expeditionary Force fire at low flying German aircraft during the Dunkirk evacuation.

From daylight bombing the Luftwaffe turned to intense night-time bombing – the Blitz – which brought great destruction and death to London and cities around the United Kingdom. - 39 -

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Above : Burning buildings in Sheffield, England, Dec. 1941. Left : A bombed out London women carrying a few belongings talks with an Air Raids Precautions worker. Below : OKH commander Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch and Hitler study maps during the early days of Hitler’s Russian Campaign

he Blitz continued through the winter of 1940/41 killing 43,000 civilians with almost another 140,000 injured in, ultimately, a failed attempt to destroy the British economy and the morale of its people. The main target was London where 375,000 people were left homeless, but other cities were badly hit. The secondmost bombed city was the port of Hull where 90 per cent of the housing stock was either destroyed or damaged.

It was an ideological offensive designed to carve out huge Germanised areas in the East to provide the Third Reich with Lebensraum (“Living Room) and slave labour, albeit once it had been cleared of large numbers of indigenous members of the population, including Soviet Jews and Slavs. It was a campaign of atrocities and scorched earth policies by both German and Soviet forces. The Axis powers – dominated by Germany, but also including a grouping of other countries, including Finland, Italy, Croatia, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary – amassed three million troops and attacked on a front of 1800 kilometres: the biggest invasion force in history.

Other port cities, including Plymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, Liverpool and Belfast, were repeatedly targeted. In Coventry the city’s historic Cathedral was destroyed. In early May the Blitz suddenly ceased. Having failed to gain air superiority over Britain and subsequently bring the country to its knees, any remaining hopes for launching Operation Sea Lion in the foreseeable future were buried, and Hitler turned his attention to Operation Barbarossa – the invasion of the Soviet Union – re-deploying his airpower accordingly. On 22 June Hitler unleashed Barbarossa on the Soviet Union in the expectation that, like in the West a year earlier, the enemy would quickly fold and the Third Reich would possess a vast area to the East comprising many valuable resources from the oil fields of the Caucasus to the rich agricultural, grain-growing lands of the Ukraine, Kazakhstan and elsewhere.

The Germans planned for a quick victory and initially made strong progress into a country which over the previous two years had relied for its safety on a non-aggression pact with Berlin. Shocked and disorganised the Soviet armies fell back before stubborn resistance and counterattacks slowed down German progress.

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Although by later 1941 German artillery was shelling the suburbs of Moscow, and big gains had been made elsewhere, especially in the Ukraine, it had all taken longer than expected and the German armed forces were not attuned to waging wars of attrition, especially in the snow, ice and subzero temperatures of the Soviet winter.

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Meanwhile, through 1941 Churchill continued Britains campaign to bring the United States in to the war by its side, though opposition from isolationists persisted. Between 9 to 12 August, Churchill and President Roosevelt secretly rendezvoused on battle ships in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. It was still too early for Roosevelt to commit to joining the fight against the Nazis, but the two leaders were able to agree the terms of the Atlantic Charter. This spoke of freedom and self-determination for oppressed countries and global co-operation to protect future world peace and would become the eventual basis of their joint war aims and a platform for the creation of the United Nations. However, late in the year the tide turned. On 7 December without declaring war and without any warning, Japan attacked the US fleet in Pearl Harbour, causing huge damage and the loss of 2400 lives, mostly amongst the military, and in the week that followed occupied Hong Kong, Philippines and Burma.

Above : Soviet anti-aircraft gunners on the roof of the hotel “Moskva” during the Battle of Moscow, August 1941.

The weather grounded the Luftwaffe and ice made it difficult to shift heavy army equipment. Moreover, as the Soviet Union headed into the depths of winter its army locked with the German invaders in a battle that condemned the objective of rapid occupation to failure – the Battle of Moscow. Elsewhere throughout 1941, the Battle of the Atlantic waged against the German U-boat campaign continued to threaten Britain’s all-important supplies of goods and strategic materials. Meanwhile in North Africa earlier British and Empire army successes against Italian troops in late 1940 continued in the opening months of 1941 leading to the fall of Tobruk on the Libyan coast on 21 January and Benghazi on 6 February.

“Through 1941 Churchill continued Britain’s campaign to bring the United States in to the war by its side, though opposition from isolationists persisted.” But with Erwin Rommel, one of Hitler’s top generals, now in North Africa and Benghazi was re-taken by the Afrika Korps on 4 April. The battle between the British Eighth Army (“The Desert Rats”) and the Afrika Korps see-sawed back and forth across the Western Desert.

Above : A US navy photographer snapped this photograph of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, just as the USS Shaw exploded. The stern of the USS Nevada can be seen in the foreground.

On 8 December the United States’ Congress declared War on Japan, as did Britain, and Germany declared war on the United States on 11 December with the Unites States reciprocating without delay. The world had now come to the point of global war. Churchill immediately made plans to cross the Atlantic to the United States, where, in Washington DC on 26 December, he addressed Congress expressing the hope “that in the days to come the British and American peoples will, for their own safety and for the good of all, walk together in majesty, in justice and in peace”.

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“Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.” Winston Churchill

y January 1942, the first US troops were arriving in the United Kingdom as part of the build-up for subsequent campaigns in both North Africa and Europe. But news worsened in the Far East with the Japanese invasion of Java, Sumatra and Borneo, and the disastrous fall of Singapore, Britain’s fortress colony and naval base, believed to be unassailable, on 15 February.

Meanwhile, on the British side General Bernard Montgomery took charge of the Eighth Army and began to build up both its strength and morale as equipment and other vital supplies were convoyed in to Egypt. In late October and early November came one of the great turning points in the Second World War – the Second Battle of El Alamein – a resounding victory over Rommel, who was ordered back to North Africa from sick leave early in the battle.

Singapore’s collapse signalled the end of British military power in the Far East until much later in the war and many thousands of British troops and other personnel were destined to spend the rest of the war in horrific Japanese POW camps.

In North Africa, Rommel went on the offensive and in June Tobruk again changed hands – and the road to Cairo and the Suez Canal seemed to be opening up. However, as Rommel pressed on he was stopped in the First Battle of El Alamein in July, just 60 miles from Alexandria where he ran in to a prepared defensive line from the coast south to the cliffs dropping into the impassable Qatarra Depression some 28 miles south. Both armies by this point were exhausted and the Afrika Korps in particular was facing major shortages of fuel as well as munitions and equipment. Rommel himself, ill and fatigued, eventually had to fly home to Germany to recuperate.

Above : Field Marshal Erwin Rommel confers with his staff on the Libyan front, July 1942. Top : General Bernard L. Montgomery watches his tanks move up. North Africa, November 1942.

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OPERATION TORCH NOVEMBER 1942

For the first time since the War started Churchill ordered church bells to be rung around Britain and later concluded that “after Alamein we never had a defeat”.

Back in the North Atlantic, the struggle against Hitler’s U-Boats continued throughout 1942 with the US now increasingly and directly involved in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Even as the Battle of El Alamein still raged in the early days of November, Anglo-American forces were landing in Morocco and Algeria, French colonies controlled by the Vichy Government. Known as Operation Torch, the landings were part of a huge pincer movement from west and east which would finally defeat the Axis powers in North Africa in the months to come. And for Germany there was a second portentous coincidence – the commencement of the Soviet Union’s counter-attack at Stalingrad as the battle with the invading Nazis again descended in to freezing ice and snow. Elsewhere in 1942, in June Japan experienced a major defeat against the Americans at the Battle of Midway – a tiny atoll, the last in the chain that leads out west from Hawaii. The Japanese lost four aircraft carriers and a heavy cruiser, the Mikuma – and Japan had reached the apex of its expansion in the Pacific Region and its ambitions to create a defensive arc from the Aleutian Islands between the Soviet Union and Alaska in the north, down through the Pacific Ocean and curling round up the east coast of Australia were now undermined.

This had now taken on greater strategic significance still as the U-boat threat had to be contained and defeated not only to keep Britain supplied with food and equipment, but to facilitate the arrival in the country of vast numbers of American troops ahead of a prospective invasion of North Africa, and ultimately continental Europe – D-Day. The Royal Air Force, meanwhile, remained the only way by which Britain could directly hit back against the German homeland, its industries, munitions factories and morale. In February 1942, Bomber Command gained a new chief, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris or “Bomber” Harris, and shortly afterwards a new bomber – which would become the iconic Lancaster. And soon it was operating a new policy – area bombing of cities in an attempt to crush morale and the availability of workers for the munitions and other factories. June witnessed the first of the RAF’s 1000 Bomber Raids targeted against Cologne – a portend of things to come, especially when the RAF linked up with the US Air Force to deliver the Combined Bomber Offensive in 1943.

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Meanwhile, in May German forces finally surrendered in North Africa after the Allied armies squeezed the remains of the Afrika Korps into an enclave in Tunisia with few able to make their escape across to Italy and elsewhere by sea which, along with the air, was by then mainly controlled by the Allies.

n some respects 1943 was an “in-between” year in the Second World War when the Allies built on the gains they had made in 1942 and planned for the biggest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare. However, Germany and Japan nevertheless remained very dangerous enemies, and the Allies were in no doubt that they would still take some beating.

Rommel had departed North Africa in March and the job of surrendering was left to his successor ColonelGeneral Hans-Jürgen von Arnim. The Allies took 250,000 Axis prisoners.

In the Atlantic, 1943 commenced with German U-boats still mounting a massive threat to trans-Atlantic convoys with one four-day period in March alone witnessing the destruction of 27 merchant vessels.

In July, the Allies invaded Sicily and by the end of that month Mussolini had been deposed and arrested.

However, by May the combined impact of greater intelligence from Bletchley intercepts, longer range U-boat hunting aircraft closing the air-gap and a general increase in Allied superiority, forced the Kriegsmarine to effectively withdraw their U-boats from the Atlantic.

In July, the Allies invaded Sicily and by the end of that month Mussolini had been deposed and arrested. On 8 September an armistice was announced between the new government and the Allies.

Later in the year they re-emerged in September, but their kill to loss ratio was crippling and they again retired to their bases or other waters.

September also witnessed Allied landings around Italy’s southern coast, including at Bari, Taranto and Salerno, where they were met with especially fierce opposition from Panzer units.

Meanwhile, the counter-offensive that the Soviet army had launched in the late months of the previous year at Stalingrad finally forced German forces to surrender on 2 February with the dead and wounded on both sides amounting to as many as 2 million.

By the beginning of October, the Allies were in control of southern Italy and preparing for the long-hard slog up the Peninsula towards Rome and beyond which would take them most of the rest of the war.

The Battle of Stalingrad lasted just over five months and was the longest ground battle of the entire war. It turned the course of the war on the Russian front and weakened Germany on the western front from where troops and equipment now had to be diverted in an attempt to shore up Germany’s defence against the Soviet Union’s anticipated march towards the Third Reich’s homeland.

Meanwhile on 12 September Mussolini was rescued by German paratroopers and flown to Germany to meet with Hitler, afterwards returning to northern Italy to set up a puppet state – the Italian Social Republic

Above : RAF bomber and trails of light from incendiary bombs, during bombing of the shipbuilding yards in Hamburg, Jan. 12, 1943.

Above : Explosion of a depth charge launched from U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Spencer. German submarine U-175 was sunk and prevented from breaking into center of a North American convoy. April 17, 1943.

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In the Pacific US troops successfully would up their months’ long campaign against the Japanese at Guadalcanal in early February and continued to make progress in a number of other locations including the Aleutian Islands and New Guinea. In Burma, British guerrilla action was commenced against the north-south railway by the so-called Long-range Penetration Group or Chindits led by Brigadier Orde Wingate. Meanwhile, the RAF carried out ever more destructive raids including the Dambusters Raid in May against the Moehne and Eder Dams in the Ruhr and in July the most devastating attack in the history of aerial warfare to that point – the bombing of Hamburg.

The Germans decided their best chance of stopping the Allies eventually attacking their homeland from the south would be to set up a series of defensive lines south of Rome running the width of the country and , wherever possible, maximising the use of difficult mountainous terrain.

Finally, in late 1943, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met in Tehran to discuss and progress the Allies’ war strategy. It was agreed that Britain and the US would open a second front in Europe with a massive amphibious landings by mid-1944, and simultaneously Stalin would launch a major offensive in the east as a distraction. Plans for D-Day were underway.

By the end of 1943, up against these defences and freezing conditions, the drive north stumbled. Meanwhile, Soviet forces continued to build on their great victory at Stalingrad, liberating Kiev in the Ukraine in a battle which lasted from 2 November to 22 December and commencing the Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive on 24 December which within a few days drove the Germans back to the 1939 Polish border.

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Top : Liberty Ship SS Rowan explodes after being hit by a German bomb, near Gela, Sicily on July 11, 1943. Above, left: Hitler and Mussolini in Munich, Germany.

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OPERATION OVERLORD JUNE 1944

n January the Allies landed at Anzio half way up the Italian Peninsula to try to get around German resilient lines of defence south of Rome, but failed to take advantage of an unopposed landing by digging in against a possible counter-attack rather than heading towards German defensive positions from the north.

By early June the Allies, under Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, were finally ready to unleash D-Day – the Normandy Landings. The set date was 5 June, but they had to be postponed 24 hours to 6 June due to bad weather in the Channel. Rommel, in charge of the defences of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, told his wife in a letter prior to the invasion that D-Day would be “the longest day” – and indeed it was.

The Allies became seriously bogged down and it took four long months for them to effectively break out during which time German troops’ rugged resistance sixty miles east at Monte Casino, a Medieval Monastery, came to epitomise the difficulties the Allies would continue to encounter.

Rome fell in early June, but progress north remained slow. In August the last major line of resistance – the so-called Gothic line – was eventually pierced but with experienced Allied troops withdrawn to participate in the invasion of southern France and others later diverted to Greece, coupled with continuing stiff German resistance, momentum was checked. As harsh winter weather began to set in the Allies were unable to exploit overwhelming air power and manoeuvring heavy armour became problematic. Meanwhile, during the opening months of the year the Strategic Air Offensive by the Americans, bombing by day, and the British, bombing by night, continued to hit German cities and infrastructure such as railways and ports.

Above : Commandos are seen here wading ashore from landing craft, onto the beaches of Normandy, June 6th 1944. Top : British troops are seen here landing on the beaches of Normandy, June 6th 1944.

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With the Allies enjoying domination of the air, as well as the North Sea and the Channel, they landed 156,000 troops on the beaches of Normandy along with the light and heavy equipment, including tanks in an operation which involved 6000 ships and 12,000 aircraft. Allied casualties were around 10,000 dead and wounded: British casualties were around 2,700, American 6,600 and Canadian 950.

Although large, the Allies did not encounter the massive casualty levels which some had forecast, although they were very heavy for the Americans on Omaha Beach where troops met with especially strong German resistance. The Allies had deployed every trick they could think of – including the creation of a “phantom army” in Kent – not only to make the Germans believe the invading fleet would take the shortest Channel crossing to the Calais region but to continue to make them believe that remained the plan even after the “distraction” of the Normandy landings.

With the Allies enjoying domination of the air, as well as the North Sea and the Channel, they landed 156,000 troops on the beaches of Normandy.

Above : V-1 bomb drops over southern England. June 22, 1944

Vergeltungswaffe, or Vengeance Weapon – for a pilotless missile timed to run out of fuel over its target and dive to the ground exploding with great force on impact.

This was doubly important as it meant that the Normandy Landings took the Germans by surprise, whilst the view – held by Hitler himself – that Normandy was a feint meant that heavy German armour which could have been deployed against the Allies remained in the Calais area for many weeks after D-Day. The Allies sought to push in land as quickly as possible in Normandy, but despite air superiority, it was heavy going due to stiff German resistance in the narrow roads and hedgerows of Normandy which slowed progress. Even so by the end of June, Cherbourg was liberated and within two months so was Paris.

Back on Germany’s western front, the Allies attempted to shorten the war by a daring plan in late September to seize bridges in the Rhine delta area, including at Arnhem, and open the door to Germany’s industrial heartland by by-passing the Siegfried Line which ran north-south down Germany’s western frontier zone. Known as Operation Market Garden it involved airborne forces dropping behind enemy lines to secure and hold the bridges until Allied armoured columns broke through the German lines and relieve them.

As agreed at the Tehran Summit the Allies’ attack in the west coincided with a large Soviet attack on the eastern front which was driven back around 300 miles to Warsaw resulting in the capture of some 350,000 German troops. The Soviet advance continued, taking Bucharest in late August, driving into the Baltics and laying siege to Budapest towards the end of the year. The D-Day Landings triggered the unleashing of the first of Hitler’s new terror weapons on 13 June the V1 – V for

Its successor, the V2, a rocket capable of travelling beyond the speed of sound, was first used against Paris on 6 September and two days later the first of 1,100 V2s to hit Britain during the remainder of the war came down in Chiswick, west London.

Conceptually clever, it nevertheless fell victim to a number of problems including inaccurate dropping of troops farther away from bridges than planned; stiffer than anticipated German resistance, including SS Panzer Divisions and delays in the arrival of Allied armour and troops due to blockages and flanking attacks on the narrow route north – which earned the title “Hell’s Highway”.

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German losses including dead, wounded, missing and captured were estimated at around 100,000 which coupled with losses of equipment, including tanks and artillery, was a major blow to its subsequent defences on the Siegfried Line. Meanwhile, in March 1944 Japan commenced an attack on India’s north-east frontier in attempt to counter an expected Allied attack into Burma as well as disrupt supplies to China. The battle became focused around the hilltop town of Kohima where 1500 troops held off ten-times that number of Japanese soldiers until reinforcements arrived – and when they did it still took until June for the Japanese assault to be finally rebuffed when the Japanese, starved of food and supplies, withdrew having lost 60,000 troops. Kohima was a defensive action but provided the basis for the British offensive to take Burma.

Above : American tank destroyers move forward during heavy fog to stem German spearhead near Werbomont, Belgium, 20 Dec 1944.

Elsewhere, the Allies continued to hit back against Japan in offensive actions around the Pacific. Significantly, American and Australian forces moved to secure New Guinea, New Britain and the Solomons – vital stepping-stones on the way to enabling the US’s invasion of the Philippines.

Although crossings of the River Maas and River Waal were secured the small British force which reached the northern end of the bridge at Arnhem and bravely held out for nine days against German Panzer units finally surrendered. Late in the year Hitler rolled his dice for the last time with a counter-attack through the Ardennes Forest in Belgian Wallonia, north-east France and Luxembourg in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. Seeking to take the enemy by complete surprise in thickly wooded terrain and freezing mist and fog, which prevented the Allies taking advantage of their air superiority, the German objective was to break through the Allied Lines, dash to the port of Antwerp to cut off new supplies of equipment and men, and encircle the Allied armies on the western front, thus forcing an armistice. Surprise was definitely achieved, and the Allied front was pushed back – bulged – in one place almost as far as Dinant in southern Belgium. But the densely forested region which helped facilitate surprise also favoured the defenders. The scale of the attack and the contorted routes caused logjams in the German advance – as did fierce resistance from the mainly American troops desperately trying to hold it back. The Allies rushed reinforcements from all directions and with mist and fog eventually lifting just before Christmas Day, Allied air forces were able to attack both German positions and supply lines. The “Bulge” was stopped and then pushed back but at enormous cost on both sides. The Americans suffered 89,000 casualties, including 19,000 killed – the single bloodiest engagement by the US military in the entire war.

Above : Gen. Douglas MacArthur wades ashore during initial landings at Leyte, Philippine Islands. October 1944.

This commenced in October 1944 with the attack on the island of Leyte, resulting in the Battle of Leyte Gulf – for the Japanese a crippling naval engagement considered to be the largest of World War ll and the last occasion on which battleships faced each other in conflict. Japan was never able to recover from its losses, which included four aircraft carriers and three battleships and its ability to confront the Allies as they steadily moved the Pacific front towards Japan itself.

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The Soviet Army had discovered the first major death camp in Majdanek in occupied Poland the previous July, but the liberation of Auschwitz followed by a series of others tore the veil away from the total obscenity and inhumanity of the Holocaust against the Jewish people and the murder of other groups which the Nazis regarded as “Untermenschen” – racially or socially inferior – amongst them including Slavs, Roma, Soviet POWs and civilians, the physically or mentally disabled and homosexuals. After Auschwitz came, amongst others, Buchenwald, liberated by the Americans on 11 April, Bergen Belsen by the British on 15 April, Dachau by the Americans on 29 April and Ravensbrück, also on 29 April, by the Soviet Army. Six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, as well as a further 11 million regarded as “Untermenschen”. As the full horrific depravity of the Holocaust unravelled, the Allied armies accelerated their drive into Germany with Berlin the final objective. The Allied Air Forces continued to attack by day and night in a campaign which saw the destruction of Dresden, whilst Hitler’s V1s and V2s continued to fall on the UK – the last on London on 29 March.

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Six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, as well as a further 11 million regarded as “Untermenschen”.

he year 1945 began with the appalling discovery of Auschwitz, the Nazis’ death camp in occupied Poland.

Liberated by the Soviet Army on 27 January, around 1.1 million prisoners were murdered in Auschwitz – almost a million of whom were Jewish. Of the remainder, the majority were non-Jewish Poles.

1943

In the West, the Rhine was crossed at Remagen and other points in March as the American and British Armies plunged deeper into Germany, taking control of the Ruhr industrial region as they did so. In the East, the Soviet Army began shelling Berlin from the outskirts of the city on 20 April. On 29 April German forces in Italy signed a document of surrender with the Allies at Caserta which was enacted on 2 May with over 1 million men in Italy and Austria unconditionally laying down their arms – their surrender received by Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander. With Soviet troops finally a few hundred metres from his bunker, Hitler committed suicide on 30 April – and on that day a young Kazakh officer Rakhimzhan Qoshqarbaev raised the flag of the Soviet Union on the roof of the Reichstag for the first time. Two days after Hitler’s suicide, the Germans remaining in Berlin surrendered to the Soviet Army on 2 May – the capital of the Third Reich had fallen. Meanwhile, on 4 May on Lüneberg Heath, south of Hamburg, Field Marshal Montgomery took the unconditional surrender of all German forces in Holland, North-West Germany and nearby islands, and Denmark as well as all naval vessels in those areas.

Above : Child survivors of Auschwitz, wearing adult-size prisoner jackets, stand behind a barbed wire fence, January 1945.

Above : A pile of eyeglasses belonging to the victms of Auschwitz, January 1945.

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Finally on 7 May General Alfred Jődl, chief of operations staff of Germany’s Military High Command, signed the act of unconditional surrender to all the Allies on behalf of Admiral Dőenitz, Hitler’s short-lived successor, at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force Europe in Reims, France.

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The US lost around 20,000 killed and the Japanese roughly five-times that number. However, although billed as a potential invasion platform from which to invade Japan, it was never to be used.

It was signed for the Allies by General Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff General Walter Bedell Smith. On 8 May a similar document was signed in Berlin by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Commander of the German Army, in Berlin in the presence of the Soviet Union’s Marshal Georgy Zhukov.

By now Allied, mainly American, losses in the war to defeat Japan were already massive and estimates of casualties in an assault on the Japanese homeland potentially gigantic. Military leaders who had witnessed the tenacity with which Japan had fought to repel attacks in territories it had occupied reflected pessimistically on Japan’s likely response to invasion of its homeland, especially in view of its willingness to deploy kamikaze suicide attacks and allied with the Japanese belief that surrender was fundamentally dishonourable. Against this background, the new US President Harry Truman, who succeeded to the White House after the death of Franklin Roosevelt on 12 April, agreed to the use of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (6 August) and Nagasaki (9 August) killing approximately 250,000 people, mainly civilians.

Above : Field Marshall Keitel signs German surrender terms, in Berlin

The war against Germany was over and 8 May was declared Victory-in-Europe Day by the western Allies and 9 May was declared Victory Day by the Soviet Union following the German surrender in Berlin. Meanwhile, whilst these momentous events unfolded in Europe the war against Japan continued to rage in the Far East and the Pacific.

Above : Left picture : Atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The primary target was Hiroshima, the secondary was Kokura, and the tertiary was Nagasaki. Right picture : Atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

In the earlier months of the year British forces continued their advance through Burma, taking Mandalay in March and the capital and principal port of Rangoon on 1 May. In the Pacific, American forces invaded and eventually capture the Japanese-held Island of Iwo Jima after five weeks of fighting considered to be amongst the fiercest of the war. Pushing further into the Philippines American forces continued to experience very strong resistance as they sought to take the capital Manila. In a bid to establish a platform for the invasion of the Japanese homeland US Forces, partly supported by sea and air by the British Commonwealth Pacific Fleet, turned their attention to Okinawa to the south-west finally occupying it after almost three months of fighting to 22 June.

For Japan it was impossible to effectively intercept or withstand such attacks, and the country had no choice but to surrender. Which it did on 13 August, thereby bringing the Second World World to an end. 15 August was declared Victory-against-Japan Day – VJDay and a global conflict which had raged for nearly six years was finally at an end – at a cost in lives estimated at around 85 million, but in all probability substantially higher.

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“ God bless you all. This is your victory! It is the victory of the cause of freedom in every land. In all our long history we have never seen a greater day than this.” Winston Churchill VE Day 8 May 1945

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VICTORY75 VERA LYNN

VERA LYNN

A MESSAGE FROM THE FORCES’ SWEETHEART

was singing in the Ambrose Band at the Hammersmith Palais on 29th September 1938 when the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was negotiating with Adolf Hitler in Munich, trying to keep Germany and Britain, indeed the world, at peace.

I was already aware of the suffering that the Nazis were capable of inflicting. In the summer of 1938 I joined an all-star cast at the Gaumont State Cinema in Kilburn to support singer, songwriter, performer Eddie Cantor’s appeal on behalf of Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria.

The next day he flew home to proclaim “Peace in Our Time” and amidst national relief and rejoicing, war fever lessened – though only temporarily. Things were just not the same again.

It wasn’t too long before those of us who supported Eddie Kantor’s efforts – including Gracie Fields, Max Miller, George Formby and Flanagan and Allen – would be marshalling our talents on behalf of Britain’s war effort.

The Munich Agreement increasingly proved to be a wake-up call for the country to quicken the pace of re-armament and introduce civil defence measures including the enrolment of a million recruits in the Civil Defence Service by mid-1939 and the endless issue of gas masks.

And it was on a provincial tour in 1939 before the war had started that I sang “We’ll Meet Again” for the very first time – words which came to mean so much to so many, and still do – me amongst them.

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VERA LYNN VICTORY75

The Second World War steadily pushed us all into the front line. After the Dunkirk evacuation, we saw the Battle of Britain unfold in the skies above us, and soon after the Spitfires and Hurricanes had denied Hitler the air superiority Germany needed to invade Britain we faced the Nazis attempts to bomb us in to submission – the Blitz. Far from destroying us, Hitler brought us closer together. The bombing blew away a lot of traditional British reserve, and class differences didn’t count for a great deal when people were crowded together in an air raid shelter or searching desperately through the bombed rubble of a row of houses looking for survivors. The Blitz brought a spirit of camaraderie between people of all classes and backgrounds because they depended on each other to get through such a dreadful time in our history. Also, I strongly believe that music played a big part in binding the nation together – music sentimental and simple that heartened the forces wherever they were based, workers in the factories, people in their homes by their own firesides. The songs I sang were about all the things that war brings: sad goodbyes, great yearnings for safe returns and new beginnings in longed-for peace. Some of those running the war effort felt we should be using music in a more martial way to rally and drive the Armed Forces and the Nation forward. But it was songs that brought loved ones closer together across hundreds or thousands of miles that counted most to them and, in the end, for the country as a whole because they reminded everyone what they were fighting for. Through the war years I witnessed sadness and suffering, courage and bravery, on the home and the battlefront.

I sang for families who lost everything in the Blitz, those waiting anxiously for news from loved ones overseas, women who worked tirelessly in factories to keep things going… I sang for the girls and women of the Land Army, and Dad’s Army… I sang for them as they set sail for war, as they gathered ahead of battle, as they crowded into hangars on lonely air bases between missions. I sang for them at home and overseas – in Egypt, India and Burma. And in my heart, I still sing for them…. Vera Lynn

We’ll Meet Again Lyrics written by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles

We’ll meet again, Don’t know where, Don’t know when But I know we’ll meet again some sunny day Keep smiling through, Just like you always do ‘Til the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away - 53 -

VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – HOLTS MILITARY BANKING

GOING FOR GOLD

THE ARMED FORCES COVENANT Julian McElhinney, Business Development Director and Senior Army Reservist at Holts Military Banking, urges organisations throughout the UK to sign the Armed Forces Covenant and advises how they could best “Go for Gold”, the highest accolade under the MOD’s Employer Recognition Scheme.

he Armed Forces Covenant is taken seriously by the military and, whilst signatories are under no legal obligation to deliver what they promise, there is a firm expectation that pledges will be met. There are varying levels of commitments that organisations can make from simply showing support for the military to actively making a difference to the wider armed forces community. My first piece of advice is – as an initial bare minimum – engage with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to sign-up to the Armed Forces Covenant, thereby acknowledging that those who serve or who have served in the Armed Forces, and their families, should be treated with fairness and respect in the communities, economy and society they serve with their lives.

Those wishing to “Go for Gold”, the highest award available under the MOD’s Employer Recognition Scheme, should do so as an organisation, pledging to achieve a set of objectives in the organisation’s relationship with the wider Armed Forces’ community specifically in relation to the services or products they provide. These could be bespoke military products. Alternatively it could mean providing easier access to your products for those who serve and their families, and veterans; actively recruiting early service leavers, partners and veterans; and outreach into local military communities – including fund raising and education. However, it is not just about formally pledging your organisational support for the Covenant’s moral imperatives as they translate into your organisation. - 54 -

SPONSORED FEATURE – HOLTS MILITARY BANKING VICTORY75

“I would recommend that organisations speak to a Gold Award holder in their sector. These can be contacted through the Gold Alumni Associations already established in England and Scotland – part of whose role is to advise on best practice to achieve the Gold Award.” The Armed Forces Covenant should be used as an opportunity to formally document your relationship that already exists with the military to form the basis of closer alignment. This should be thought of as a partnership, in which both sides engage and benefit from each other’s personal and professional experiences, develop mutual trust, explore common challenges and share best practice.

ARMED FORCES DAY

SATURDAY 27 JUNE 2020

lthough ultimately subject to COVID 19 response measures, NatWest Group and Holt’s plans to attend the main 2020 Armed Forces Day Event in Scarborough were developed to include our local NatWest Branch, in partnership with our own Armed Forces network (AFn) and Holt’s Military Banking leading the way.

If you do not have an existing tie through your business then this is the opportunity to consider developing such a relationship with the MOD. The best starting point is to identify those amongst your employees who have already served or have a partner who is serving, or who are members of the Reserve Forces.

To all who work in our organisation, Armed Forces Day (AFD) is the one opportunity in the year when we can demonstrate our support to our Armed Forces.

Sometimes these people do not openly admit to their connection to the Armed Forces, but if you actively engage and commit to the Armed Forces Covenant correctly and honestly, you will be amazed at how many people will come forward, as they will recognise the benefits for those still serving – and for themselves.

It is not just limited to the main AFD Event location, but includes activities by members of the AFn and Holt’s taking part in AFD activities in Farnborough, Camberley, London, York and Edinburgh, with many colleagues taking part in local AFD activities across the country.

Furthermore, a huge learning curve for Holt’s and NatWest was the many people who had not served in the Armed Forces and had no immediate connection with them but who, nevertheless, came forward to offer support. These were people who subliminally recognised what the Covenant stood for, albeit they were not aware of its existence. Once you have gauged and defined your pledge in Your Armed Forces Commitment, your organisation needs to educate, implement and embed your commitment made in your Armed Forces Covenant.

ARMED FORCES COVENANT AND THE CORONAVIRUS

And, of course, amidst all other activities taking place in your organisation, this is the biggest challenge. There will be initial interest, as this will be new to many, and therefore the key activity at the outset will be maintaining momentum. Leaders need to shout from the roof-tops about what the Armed Forces Covenant is and what it means to them on a personal and organisational level. My advice would be to create a champion, whether an Executive Sponsor, an Armed Forces Champion or network; consider establishing a committee and, most of all, make your Covenant accessible to all employees. - 55 -

ith the UK’s Armed Forces – both regulars and reservists – a vital component of the country’s battle force against the coronavirus, organisations throughout the United Kingdom should consider signing the Armed Forces Covenant as an act of solidarity and appreciation for the military’s contribution during this national emergency – the worst in peace time since Spanish Flu a century ago. Find out more at

www.armedforcescovenant.gov.uk

VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – HOLTS MILITARY BANKING

75 YEARS ON

A Tribute To The Greatest Generation As I write this tribute to all those who suffered and sacrificed so much to bring about victory 75 years ago, Britain’s Armed Forces are deployed in every way possible in the battle against the coronavirus which has generated a global crisis not seen since the dark days of World War II. Moreover, in a tragic twist of fate they are playing their role in a national struggle to protect our nation and its people, including those remaining members of the Greatest Generation to whom the virus poses the greatest threat – and to whom we all owe so much. As a former serving soldier and a reservist and, moreover, as a representative of a bank which has served and supported the military community for over 200 years, I express my, and my colleagues’, unending thanks to all World War II veterans still with us – and remember with great gratitude those with us no longer, in particular those who never survived to enjoy the freedom they helped preserve. Finally, as the Armed Forces continue to give their all at this time it is a reminder of how we needed them “then” and how we need them “now”. And of the country’s continuing duty to support and care for them and their families in the spirit and word of the Armed Forces Covenant.

Lieutenant Colonel Julian McElhinney

The most senior reservist employed by Holts, he was commissioned in to the Black Watch in 1997 and served in Northern Ireland, the Balkans and Iraq. In 2007 he took up his commission in the Army Reserves where he has occupied a series of senior positions, most recently as Commanding Officer of the 6th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland.

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SPONSORED FEATURE – HOLTS MILITARY BANKING VICTORY75

WHEREVER YOU SERVE, WE SERVE Holts Military Banking is the only UK bank entirely dedicated to serving the Armed Forces, their Families and Veterans, offering customised banking and financial solutions to meet their specific needs and requirements, explains Julian McElhinney, Head of Business Development.

olt’s Military Banking is part of the NatWest/ RBS Group Premier Banking and therefore all our products are managed through RBS and Natwest. However, as a Brand in our own right – we are the only UK Military Bank and, therefore, we do have the ability to do things differently to serve our military customers, wherever they serve – in line with our mantra: Wherever You Serve, We Serve. To that end we have all the normal products that customers expect: current packaged accounts, savings accounts and ISAs, and online investments to personal loans, overdrafts, credit cards, and mortgages – as well as personal, home, car and pet insurance.

Holt’s & Natwest Farnborough Branch

FINANCIAL EDUCATION

However, the Holt’s Brand also offers products that are bespoke to the Armed Forces. For example:

Meanwhile, as part of Holt’s commitment to the signing of the Armed Forces Covenant, and to demonstrate that the Holt’s and the NatWest Group are Living Our Covenant and upholding our Gold Alumni Status, Holt’s has enhanced its Financial Education offer across the Military estate to all our customers – service personnel (Regular and Reserve), their Families and Veterans.

The Armed Forces Terminal Grant Lending Scheme allows us to lend you up to 50 per cent of lump sums early with full access to this amount, and we will review the scheme every three years up until you leave the Armed Forces. When you leave and receive the lump sum, we simply transfer the amount to pay the scheme off. Military Customers’ Base Rate Related Loans Scheme with interest rates which may be less than those of personal loan and provides you with flexibility to overpay or pay off without incurring a charge or early settlement fee. This provides more flexibility than a personal loan, but with the element of risk being linked to base rate, which could save you money.

Our new FINCAP (Financial Education Programme) is designed to help build the financial capability and confidence of the military to enable them to make better financial decisions.

Personal Loan Rate Appeal Scheme which bases a decision on you as an individual and doesn’t solely rely on a systembased outcome. If the system produces an interest rate on application that seems inflated, Holt’s, have the ability to appeal this to try to get you the best possible rate for your needs. Full digital online and mobile banking to access your funds without having to go into a branch. You can use this anywhere and, on any device, providing you know your security details. Plus, we now have the ability to conduct video banking calls (Facetime for Holts) which allows us to speak securely with all our customers.

In a further enhancement of FINCAP all our Holt’s Relationship Managed Customers now have access to all Premier Products that can make their money work better for them. The Holt’s Premier Black Packaged Account is one such example that helps to save customers’ money, whilst providing them benefits such as mobile phone insurance, travel insurance for the family, breakdown cover, no foreign transaction charges, access to travel lounges and a global concierge service. In summary, we are a specialist military banking operation with a very special customer base which we know, understand and serve “wherever you serve”.

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VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – HOLTS MILITARY BANKING

A PROUD HISTORY OF MILITARY EXPERIENCE WHICH INFORMS OUR BANKING PRACTISES

olt’s Military Banking is proud of its history in having been one of the few Military Agents to have served our Armed Forces since before the Battle of Waterloo, through the Great Wars to the modern-day Operations in Helmand and Iraq. It is enshrined within our history and forms the fabric from which our modern banking practices evolved from lessons learnt on the battlefield of those who served and returned. However, many did not and to this current day We Remember Them. Remembrance Day last year saw our Armed Forces Network deliver three Flagship Events across three key bank locations in Edinburgh, Manchester and London with the tribute to the Fallen led by our CEO Alison Rose. Associated with AFD is Reserves Day. Last year our employees who are Holt’s Reservists joined their NatWest group colleagues at RBS Gogarburn which opened its doors to 15 Reserve Units and Holt’s Military Banking.

Approximately 30 of our Reservists attended representing all three Services along with Navy, Army and Sea Cadets, demonstrating the width and depth of the NatWest group commitment to the military and that we are all Living Our Covenant. Latest available estimates suggest there are around 2.5 million veterans residing in the United Kingdom – and Holt’s recognises that we are duty-bound to assist as many of them as possible by providing financial banking services and financial education or by assisting with fund raising activities. Examples of this commitment have included setting up a bank account as soon as possible for a veteran leaving prison; assisting veterans in need of medical treatment and engagement in fund-raising events from charity runs to Armed Forces Day events. Holt’s is also proud to provide banking services to over 400 military charities and associations.

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SPONSORED FEATURE – HOLTS MILITARY BANKING VICTORY75

Wherever You Serve, We Serve. Holt’s has been serving the British Armed Forces for over

200

years, originally established in 1809. Over time Holt’s has expanded its business providing banking facilities to the Armed Forces and their families – both Regulars and Reserves, and ﬁnancial services expertise to Royal Navy Ships and Bases, British Army Regiments and Royal Air Force Stations. To make life simpler, Wherever you serve, We serve; Holt’s offers direct

access to your

Relationship Manager for expert help and advice as well as having access to online and mobile banking services. We participate in the Forces Help to Buy Scheme, offer a Mortgage Advisor service and ﬁnancial health checks at a time of your convenience to help you manage your ﬁnances throughout your diverse career.

Holt’s is proud of its long association and connection with the British Military, with dedicated teams supporting

We serve over 25,000 military personnel

across the world, all Ranks. providing a service that understands the needs of junior ranks to the most senior ofﬁcers and veterans.

From helping junior ranks open their ﬁrst current and savings account, to providing a specialist overdraft

geared towards your terminal grant for senior non-commissioned officers and officers at the end of their military career, Holt’s provides a specific and personalised service which is adaptable to

meet the ever changing circumstances of military life.

Holt’s prides itself on understanding the complexities of serving in the military, the financial pressures this places on families; such as the flexibility to rent out your home whilst away on postings, the need to fit banking around diverse working patterns and how having a barracks and BFPO address can put individuals at a disadvantage when it comes to applying for credit.

Armed Forces Covenant in 2015 and were awarded the Ministry of Defence Employer Recognition Scheme Gold Award in 2016 for the work completed in supporting the wider Armed Forces community. The RBS Group, including Holt’s Military Banking signed the

Wherever You Serve, We Serve – For further information or more detailed enquiries please contact us on 01252 765622 or visit the Holt’s Website for more information on www.holtsmilitarybanking.co.uk

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VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – THE ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM

HOW TECHNOLOGY SHAPED THE AIR WAR The Second World War, explains the RAF Museum’s Kris Hendrix, was shaped by the air war, which, in turn, was shaped by major advances in technology and the million or so men and women of all nationalities and backgrounds who by 1945 were wearing air force blue.

he road to victory was long and hard – from a close call during the Battle of Britain, which ultimately saved Britain from invasion and changed the course of the war, to total air control and numerical superiority by 1945. At the latter stage the RAF had over 26,000 aircraft of which 9,000 were front-line combat aircraft.

Their machine guns had been replaced by machine cannons, carrying explosive grenades. Although the easy handling of the early Spitfires had given way to the brute power provided by the new Rolls Royce Griffon, the Spitfire was still very much a top fighter aircraft capable of taking on any opponent.

The RAF Museum has several aircraft on display which were in use during this final push of the Second World War. Very few of these would have been in service during the Battle of Britain, five years earlier.

Well, almost any opponent. The last months of the war showed what the future of aviation was going to be: the jet aircraft. The Germans fielded the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket propelled and Me 262 turbojet powered fighter aircraft.

This shows the great technical advantages the world of aviation had seen over this short period. The Supermarine Spitfire was still the main fighter aircraft, but the final versions had doubled their weight, engine power and climb rate.

The Me 163 was the fastest aircraft in the world, but its rocket engine burnt fuel at an extraordinary rate. A fully fuelled Me 163 ‘Komet’ would become an unpowered glider after only 7.5 minutes, restricting its use to point-defence. - 60 -

SPONSORED FEATURE – THE ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM VICTORY75

A more practical weapon was the Me 262, a remarkable aircraft due to its combination of jet engines mounted under swept wings, a first for a combat aircraft. This gave the Me 262 a great speed of 885 km/h (550 mph), a full 160 km/h (100 mph) faster than the fastest Allied piston-engined fighter aircraft. The Me 262 was so superior the Allied fighter aircraft could only intercept it when diving down from great heights, or when circling over the airfields known to operate Me 262s. The RAF had its own jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor. Compared to the Me 262, it was a more conventional design with straight wings. The centrifugal flow engines, designed by Frank Whittle, had a greater cross-section and thus, air resistance, compared to the axial flow of German engines. But they were simpler to build which, combined with unrestricted access to metal alloys, meant the British engine was much more reliable than the problematic German engines. Improved versions of the Meteor served worldwide until the late 1950s. The Meteor entered service with No. 616 Squadron in July 1944. It was initially used to counter the V-1 flying bomb threat. The ‘doodlebug’ as it was often called, was one of the first examples of a cruise missile, albeit unguided. Powered by a simple pulsejet engine, they were launched from ramps in France pointed in the direction of their target, usually London. Only the Meteor jets and the fastest propeller fighter aircraft, such as the North American Mustang or Hawker Tempest, could intercept this unmanned robot. Shooting at a bomb posed obvious dangers to the RAF pilots until it was discovered that flying close to the wing of the V1 disrupted its airflow, thereby overpowering the gyroscopic autopilot, and bringing the V1 crashing down. In 1945, the Meteor was stationed in the liberated Low Countries to bring the fight to Germany. By this time, the Luftwaffe was already defeated, and no air combat took place. Bomber Command also progressed through great technological changes, dramatically improving its capabilities. The early Avro Lancasters and Handley Page Halifax heavy bombers, forced to fly over Germany under cover of night, had great difficulty finding their targets, let alone bombing them accurately. With a bomber force unable to significantly erode German armaments factories in the early years of the war, the decision was taken to defeat Germany by attacking its civilian work force through an area bombing strategy. City after city was bombed and reduced to rubble with half a million German civilians, including women, children, and the elderly perishing.

Top : Messerschmitt Me 262B-1a night fighter with RAF men. Above : Gloster Meteor, circa 1944.

As with the German raids on Britain – principally the Blitz in 1940/41 and the V1 and V2 raids of the last years of the war – the Allied Raids on Germany tended, on balance, not to fundamentally erode morale. It was also not until later in war that the disruptive effect of bombing Germany directly impacted industry, and Germany’s economy as a whole. That said, throughout the conflict the threat posed by aerial bombing meant that Germany had to retain massive resources of air defence equipment and personnel on the home front – which could otherwise have been used on the battle front. Also, from Dunkirk to D-Day, the RAF was the only medium by which Britain could directly strike back against the enemy. It was only through technical advances, particularly in navigation technology, that more frequent accurate attacks on specific targets could be eventually achieved. The best bomber crews were selected to serve in ‘pathfinder’ units, which would find and mark the target with coloured flares, prior to the arrival of the main bomber force. The Pathfinder Force’s most important aircraft was the remarkable de Havilland Mosquito, equipped with the ‘Oboe’ blind-bombing system and the ‘H2S’ navigation and bombing radar. Aiding the bombers was an elaborate system of deception. Bombers of No. 100 Group carried various jamming equipment, capable of disrupting German radar and radio communications. - 61 -

VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – THE ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM

“It was only through technical advances, particularly in navigation technology, that more frequent accurate attacks on specific targets could be eventually achieved.”

Above : Radar image around Politz. Left : Cologne cathedral on 10 May 1945.

The best-known device was called Window, which was nothing more than thousands of thin aluminium strips. When dropped, they would overload the German radar readings. A less-known tactic was Operation Corona involving German-speaking RAF personnel impersonating German ground control officers. They would tune to the German radio frequency and countermand Luftwaffe instructions, confusing the German night fighter crews who sometimes heard German and RAF operators arguing on air who were the real Luftwaffe operators. In agreement with the US Army Air Force, the war strategy shifted to attacks on the Nazis’ chemical industry, which produced most of Germany’s oil and explosives. These attacks were, unlike the area bombing, tremendously successful. German production of fuel and explosives plummeted and never recovered. German tanks were abandoned with empty fuel tanks, and artillery batteries fired shells filled with inert rock salt. The Luftwaffe, starved of aviation fuel, could neither train new pilots, nor conduct large-scale operations. With the Luftwaffe all but neutralised, the RAF and other Allied air forces could dominate the battle space. Short Sunderland flying boats and Consolidated Liberator longrange bombers played a core role in driving the German submarines out of the seas.

Without fear of interception, Douglas Dakotas dropped thousands of paratroopers behind enemy lines. Tactical bombers like the Hawker Typhoon patrolled the battlefields waiting to unleash their weaponry on anything daring to move. North American Mitchells played havoc on German infrastructure by bombing railway yards, bridges, and other tactical targets. German Messerschmitt Bf 110 and Junkers Ju 88 night fighters, built to shoot down RAF bombers at night, had become the prey to the versatile Mosquito night fighters. But above all, the decisive weapon of the RAF was, without a shred of doubt, its people. Men and women, of different nationalities and ethnic groups came together to ‘do their bit’. They transformed Britain’s newest military service – and the world’s first independent air force – into an integrated, warwinning fighting force, ultimately capable of seeing off the Luftwaffe and bringing the fight to the Germany’s heartland. This came, though, came at great cost, particularly for the 120,000 who served in Bomber Command – 55,573 of whom perished. In total almost 80,000 RAF personnel were killed preserving freedom.

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SPONSORED FEATURE – ABF THE SOLDIERS’ CHARITY VICTORY75

ABF THE SOLDIERS’ CHARITY

FROM VAUXHALL TO BOCHUM: LES’S STORY On 8th May 1945, Les Fryatt’s regiment halted its advance on Berlin to hear Prime Minister Winston Churchill break the news of Germany’s unconditional surrender. 75 years after his Army service, Lizzie Stephens shares his story. Shortly afterwards, the regiment began preparations for D-Day. “We weren’t really told anything; we just started doing intensive training, waterproofing the vehicles and going out to sea. When we left, we were on the troop lorries and people were shouting: ‘Give them hell, lads’ – and we thought ‘something must really be happening.’”

es Fryatt was born one of 16 children in Vauxhall, London, in 1924. The family home was near the South Lambeth Road, close to where his forebearers had sold fruit and vegetables from a barrow. His grandfather kept horses and used the clippers to trim the children’s hair. “You could always tell the Fryatts,” Les says. “Because we all had blonde hair.” War was declared in 1939. In 1942, shortly after his 18th birthday, Les was conscripted into the Army with his two friends, Dennis Coleman and Freddie Ellis. The trio had been in the same class at school and did everything together.

On D-Day, Les departed the London docks aboard the MV Empire General, landing near Caen on D-Day +1. As they approached land, Les and his comrades shinnied down a rope ladder laid against the side of the ship onto the landing craft, weighted down with packs, pouches, ammunition and rifles. As Les stepped off the ladder, the landing craft shifted suddenly in the current and he was left with one foot dangling above the water. His recalls his friends shouting: “Jump, Fryatt. Jump!” A wave brought the craft back towards the ladder and Les was able to scramble aboard. He remembers: “The chaps were laughing – couldn’t stop laughing!”

“It was funny really. I was a bit bored at the time, so when I got my papers I was quite pleased. I felt for my mum though – out of 16 children, eight of us boys joined the Army, my sisters volunteered for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAFs) and the three youngest were evacuated, so it was very hard on her.” Les bade farewell to his friends and reported for duty in Naughton Barracks in Worcestershire before being selected for gunnery training. From there he joined the Royal Artillery in St Albans. Then, while the regiment was based in Scunthorpe, Les joined some friends at a viewing of an American film. “There were paratroopers sitting in front of us, wearing these berets. And me being smaller, I couldn’t see anything, so they moved along and took off their berets.” One of the men turned around, and Les found himself face-to-face with his childhood friend, Dennis Coleman. “That was the last time I ever saw him,” Les says. “Him or Freddie Ellis.” - 63 -

Top : Les (back row, third from left), pictured with members of the Fryatt family, Vauxhall. Above : Les (back right), pictured with members of his regiment.

VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – ABF THE SOLDIERS’ CHARITY

“I didn’t know how to survive. It was difficult because you couldn’t go back to the old way of life. All my mates had disappeared.” In Normandy, enough ground had been gained to bring the guns ashore. As part of a five-man gun detachment, Les operated 5.5 Howitzer guns supporting the infantry down on the beaches. He witnessed the destruction of Caen and later played a crucial role destroying German positions inland. He was subsequently awarded the Légion d’honneur for the part he played in the liberation of France. Les was part of the advance in Europe spending time in Belgium and Holland before crossing the Rhine. He was in Germany for VE-Day, and recalls listening to Winston Churchill’s broadcast over a tannoy.

British troops rushed to assist German rescue squads, who worked all through the night to bring survivors to the surface. 417 men lost their lives in what remains Germany’s worst mining disaster. Les was finally demobbed in 1947 and returned home to find a dramatically altered London. He recalls: “I didn’t know how to survive. It was difficult because you couldn’t go back to the old way of life. All my mates had disappeared. There was no Dennis Coleman or Freddie Ellis.” Les struggled to find permanent employment, and for a while life was very tough. “Things slowly became more stable, but building a future was a real concern. You had to stand on your own two feet.” Les finally found work with British Telecom and joined the Territorial Army, where he served for 16 years. He married his wife Jeanette shortly after the war and they had two children.

ecades later, Les needed the support of ABF The Soldiers’ Charity. Following surgery for knee and hip replacements, he struggled to get in and out of the bath safely. Without the installation of a walk-in shower, Les feared that he and Jeanette would have to leave their home of 30 years.

“There were speakers on the guns, and that’s where we heard the special announcement that the Germans had surrendered. Oh Lord, I was choked. But I felt confused about what was going to happen. And we didn’t get a drink to celebrate or anything like that!” Les narrowly avoided redeployment to Japan and remained in Germany for two more years as part of Britain’s occupation force. His regiment moved to the town of Bochum in Germany’s Ruhr valley and then to the Harz Mountains where they worked felling trees for export back to Britain. In 1946, Les was witness to the MonopolGrimberg mining disaster, when fire and underground explosions trapped 550 people.

After an initial contribution by local authorities, The Soldiers’ Charity stepped in with a grant to cover the shortfall. The couple said: “We think it’s wonderful how the British people will open up their purses and put a pound in, we appreciate it so much.”

In loving memory of Les Fryatt (1924-2020) and his wife Jeanette (1934-2019), treasured friends of ABF The Soldiers’ Charity.

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SPONSORED FEATURE – ABF THE SOLDIERS’ CHARITY VICTORY75

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VICTORY75 WARTIME WOMEN 1939-1945

WARTIME WOMEN 1939-1945 Lizzie Stephens explores the role of women in the Second World War, and how their contribution paved the way for greater female emancipation and empowerment in the latter half of the twentieth century.

n 8th May 1945, Prime Minister Winston Churchill stood on the balcony outside the Ministry of Health and broke the news of Germany’s unconditional surrender. His triumphal ‘V for Victory’ to the dancing, weeping crowds in London’s Whitehall captured a perfect moment of national celebration, but for many in Britain VE Day was attended by intense and contradictory emotions. It had been a long and bitter war, and in the Pacific the conflict against Japan raged on. As the Daily Telegraph observed on 9th May: “At the moment when the guns have fallen silent, hundreds of thousands of British fighting men are in the full blaze of battle in the Far East.” In Britain, there loomed the prospect of dramatic economic and social change, shrinking geopolitical significance, austerity and looming crises in India and Palestine. There was a sense

that the country’s social, economic and political fabric had been irrevocably altered and that its future role and identity were yet to be defined. Nowhere was this truer than in the situation of women. During the Second World War, the British government had mobilised its civilians more effectively than any other fighting nation. Early indicators had shown that Britain would need to dramatically increase its workforce to meet the required levels of productivity and support for its fighting forces. A new organisation, the Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS) was created in 1938 to coordinate the recruitment of women into civil defence. The WVS played a crucial role in the evacuation efforts of September 1939, and later during the Blitz when it provided food, shelter and sanitation for victims of bombing.

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WARTIME WOMEN 1939-1945 VICTORY75

Conscription for women began in December 1941, and by 1944 over seven million British women were involved in war work. Many opted to join one of the three auxiliary services: the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) and the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). The future Queen Elizabeth joined the ATS as an 18-yearold princess in January 1945. Known as Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor, she donned a pair of overalls and worked as a vehicle mechanic and driver until the end of the war. In fact, Princess Elizabeth may have been part of the same crowd which heard Winston Churchill’s address from the Ministry of Health on VE Day, having obtained permission from her parents to mingle anonymously with the crowds.

NOOR INAYAT KHAN

oor Inayat Khan was born in Moscow in 1914. Her father, Inayat Khan, came from a noble Indian family and raised his family under Sufism.

From working in anti-aircraft batteries and on airfields to planning and organising naval operations, the women of the auxiliary services performed roles of national importance which presented a challenge to traditional notions of gender roles. But unlike the Soviet Union which integrated women directly into its Armed Forces, British women were not permitted to take frontline roles or to bear arms. The notable exception was the Special Operations Executive (SOE); the secret organisation tasked by Winston Churchill to “set Europe ablaze.” Specialising in espionage, reconnaissance and sabotage, SOE agents received combat training prior to deployment behind enemy lines. In occupied Europe, they risked torture, imprisonment and death at the hands of the Nazis. Of the 42 female agents serving in F Section (France), 13 would be killed or executed in Nazi concentration camps. Among them was Noor Inayat Khan, the first female wireless operator to be infiltrated into occupied France. Subject to interrogation and torture by the Gestapo, she was later deported to Dachau and executed upon arrival.

In 1940, Noor volunteered for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and trained as a wireless operator before joining the Special Operations Executive (SOE). She was not considered a promising candidate by her instructors, who noted her youth and inexperience, but in 1943 became the first female wireless operator to be dropped into occupied France. The weeks following Noor’s arrival were marked by waves of mass arrests. She refused to abandon her post, declaring her intention to keep communications open and rebuild her section. At one point, she was the only SOE wireless operator in Paris. Noor was betrayed to the Nazis and taken to their headquarters on Avenue Foch. Her spirit remained unbroken, and following two escape attempts she was moved to a German prison in Pforzheim where she was tortured, shackled and starved. She remained uncooperative, and in 1944 was taken with four female SOE agents to Dachau concentration camp where she was shot on arrival. Her reported last word was “Liberté”. She was posthumously awarded the George Cross and the Croix de Guerre. Above : Noor Inayat Khan, 1943.

Opposite : A WAAF armourer, based at Coningsby in Lincolnshire, belting up ammunition for a Lancaster, February 1944. Above : A group of Air Transport Auxiliary women pilots photographed in their flying kit at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, on 10 January 1940.

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Right : Memorial bust of Inayat Khan in Gordon Square Gardens, London.

VICTORY75 WARTIME WOMEN 1939-1945

A similar fate awaited 23-year-old Violette Szabo, who was captured near Limoges following a gun-battle and sent to Ravensbrück. Both Noor and Violette were posthumously awarded the George Cross for their service to the nation.

“From working in anti-aircraft batteries and on airfields to planning and organising naval operations, the women of the auxiliary services performed roles of national importance.”

Back on the Home Front, farms and factories relied upon female workers to meet the demands of wartime production. The ‘Land Girls’ of the Women’s Land Army assumed the responsibilities of male agricultural workers to provide a new rural workforce and keep the nation fed. A sister organisation, the Timber Corps was established in 1942 to support forestry. Indeed, Bletchley Park, the nerve centre of British codebreaking, depended on the heft of a predominantly female workforce. By 1944, three quarters of its 8,743 staff were women. Although the majority were employed in supporting roles, there were some notable exceptions. Top Left : Violette Szabo Above : A Colossus Mark 2 computer being operated by Dorothy Du Boisson (left) and Elsie Booker (right), 1943 Below : WAAF plotters pictured at work in the underground Operations Room at HQ Fighter Command, Bentley Priory, in north-west London.

Mavis Batey (née Lever) was recruited into intelligence from University College London and worked under Dilly Knox, who operated an all-female Research Section in Cottage 3. According to the Daily Telegraph, Mavis became so familiar with the styles of individual enemy operators that she could determine that two of them had a girlfriend called Rosa.

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WARTIME WOMEN 1939-1945 VICTORY75

In 1941, she and colleague Margaret Rock played a crucial role in unravelling the Abwehr (German Military Intelligence) Enigma machine. This allowed Britain to control the German spy network in Britain and spread misinformation in the run-up to D-Day. The irony was that the trauma and upheaval of World War II brought with it a degree of personal fulfilment for British women; affording them the opportunity to become protagonists in their own history. As one noted: “Demob was a big disappointment to a lot of us. It was an awful and wonderful war. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything”. Despite their contribution to the wartime economy, the consensus remained that a woman’s proper place was in the home, and post-1945 the majority were demobilised to make way for returning servicemen. Top : Members of the British Women’s Land Army harvesting beets. A woman is driving the Fordson tractor in the foreground, while three others with pitchforks are loading the beetroot’s, 1943. Above : Women’s Land Army recruitment poster,

And yet, the women who heard the nation’s call in 1939 would lend their voices to those of later generations, vastly expanding the opportunities open to women and ensuring they could define and pursue their individual destinies. - 69 -

VICTORY75 WARTIME WOMEN 1939-1945

THE WOMEN PILOTS WHO HELPED WIN THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN

The mixed emotions amongst the women pilots that day were caught by Alison Hill in the following poem from her collection Sisters in Spitfires dedicated to all those who flew in ATA.

A RAPID DISPERSAL We knew it was almost over; a few of us posed to lay up the flag at White Waltham, November ’45, many had already gone.

We smiled into the distance, still young but perhaps wondering if the most exciting part of our lives was behind us. We knew not.

uring World War II one in eight of Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) pilots were women, including amongst them aviation pioneers Mary Wilkins Ellis and Amy Johnson – the latter disappearing over the Thames Estuary in 1941.

Some of us were more than ready to hang up our uniforms, take down our golden wings – we knew we’d done our bit and more.

ATA – known by several different sobriquets, including Anything to Anywhere, Ancient and Tattered Airmen and Always Terrified Air Women – was set up at the beginning of the war primarily to ferry aircraft between factories, maintenance depots and frontline squadrons.

For others it was a wrench. We were simply expected to pick up our lives, our jobs, our kitchen sinks. But on that bitter-sweet winter’s day, as Audrey Sale-Barker lowered the flag, we knew we’d given our best years to the skies and mostly seen it through.

ATA’s Women’s Section was created by pilot and writer Pauline Gower, whose pre-war career saw her participate in air pageants and Alan Cobham’s Air Circus.

Yet some part of us would emerge from stray corners of chilly airfields; remembering those we’d lost along the way.

Based at White Waltham in Berkshire, its spiritual home, ATA pilots made a major contribution to the RAF’s war effort by freeing up valuable combat pilots from aircraft pick-up and ferrying duties. Indeed, according to Lord Beaverbrook – charged by Churchill to do whatever it took to crack out aircraft for Fighter Command in 1940:

“Without the ATA the Battle of Britain would have been conducted under conditions quite different from the actual events… (ATA pilots)… were soldiers fighting in the struggle just as completely as if they had been engaged on the battlefront.” He was speaking at the closing ceremony at White Waltham on 30 November 1945 – the day that ATA was disbanded. - 70 -

From Sisters in Spitfires by Alison Hill published in 2015 by Indigo Dreams. Available on Amazon or signed copies from the author (£8). Email alison-hill@blueyonder.co.uk for more details.

SPONSORED FEATURE – BARNARD CASTLE SCHOOL VICTORY75

CHOOSING THE RIGHT BOARDING SCHOOL A MILITARY MOTHER’S PERSPECTIVE Forces children may be known as dandelions for their ability to set down their roots and thrive no matter what, but as military mum Liz Rhodes believes, and the school community would agree, the right environment is vital to parents’ peace of mind.

y the time our daughter Katie was nine she had moved four times and she came home one day and asked us for a constant in her life – a school and friends who wouldn’t change every 18 months. I hadn’t even thought of boarding school. I was working part-time then, and everything revolved around Katie and the twins, Georgie and Ed.

We decided to look round for a school, but we are a strong Northern family and I wanted my children to remain grounded, able to perceive the realities of life, with no pretensions, and to value having to earn the respect of others. We looked across the North and chose Barnard Castle School because we liked the product; we knew students who had been there and others currently at the school, and felt that Barney provided the all-round education and characterbuilding we wanted. Katie joined in Year 4 and is now studying at Harper Adams University, spending this year on an industry placement; the twins started in Year 5, and are now studying A-Levels in Year 13. Top : A view of Barnard Castle School in Barnard Castle, County Durham. Left : Georgie and Ed Rhodes.

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VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – BARNARD CASTLE SCHOOL

“Our aim is to create a homefrom-home, an environment in which our pupils are happy, safe, contented, where they can thrive and achieve.”

HEADMASTERS MESSAGE

ony Jackson, Headmaster at Barnard Castle School, strives to create the right culture and environment in which young people can flourish.

When we were posted to Germany the school could not do enough to ensure our children were admitted and quickly settled, which was incredibly reassuring for us.

“Choosing a school for your child”, he says, “is one of the most challenging and important decisions you will have to make – which is why we place enormous emphasis on ensuring everyone feels a sense of belonging at Barney; only then will they come close to maximising their potential.

When my dad visited for the first time as a grandparent to watch the girls’ hockey he was greeted personally by the head who thanked him for coming and made him feel very welcome. I believe, thanks to the ethics that lie at the core of Barney, Katie is incredibly self-reliant and capable, Ed is a complete gentleman and Georgie is strong and caring of others.

“We recognise and understand this is even more important for parents and children from the military, when the vocation of serving our country results in time spent away from home. With a long and proud history of looking after children from ages 7 to 18, we are highly experienced at dealing with the complexities that military life can bring”.

I rely on the school to create a vision of what every child can achieve. The host of extra-curricular activities they become involved in give them the skills to present themselves, act in the right way and become better people. It is so heartening as a parent that the school is there as an extension of our family. It is a wrench as a mother to allow your children to board, but I have such faith and trust in the people who are looking after my children to make the school their home. Their schoolmates become their siblings and I have no doubt they will remain important to them right through their lives. Staff act in loco parentis and the fact that when we were posted back to the North our children wanted to continue boarding speaks volumes for choosing Barnard Castle School.

confidence, independence, humility and learning to live harmoniously with others. “All our boarders at Barney make new friends, try new activities and sports and step out of their comfort zones, which helps prepare them for the challenges they will face in life”, she says.

Faced with the choice of moving back home the twins were more than happy to stay at school. According to Ed, now 18: “it’s just so much easier to be a boarder”.

“All the while they are supported by an extended ‘family’ of housemasters, housemistresses, matrons and support staff, who are always on hand to help and guide them as they grow and learn”.

He is also planning to go to Harper Adams University to read farm management. “I don’t really want to change even though home is now nearer. School feels like a family”, he says.

Senior boys’ Boarding Housemaster Luke Monument agrees: “Our aim is to create a home-from-home, an environment in which our pupils are happy, safe, contented, where they can thrive and achieve”.

According to Georgie, who hopes to read law: “You have different friendship groups. Your day pupil friends are great, but your boarding family are like siblings and the friendships are even deeper.

According to Scott Edwards, Housemaster of Junior Boarding: “We believe in keeping pupils ‘younger for longer’ and giving them the very best support in their preparatory years and as they progress into senior school.

“You soon learn how to get on with your housemates, be more considerate and how to compromise. The bond with boarding house staff is strong too. After-hours you see them in a different light”. Senior Girls’ Boarding Housemistress Lesley Burgess believes boarding school life is a fantastic experience, presenting many new opportunities to develop vital life skills, including

Boarding is great fun and very rewarding. It echoes closely the values of the school – integrity, kindness, responsibility, positive attitude and respect – in an environment large enough to find new friends, but small enough to feel like a family”.

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Welcome to Barney Set amid stunning countryside in Northern England, Barnard Castle School is an independent day and boarding school for girls and boys aged 4-18. We offer exceptional all-round education, first class facilities and excellent pastoral care within a happy, family environment.

Newgate, Barnard Castle, County Durham DL12 8UN Tel: +44 (0)1833 690222 Fax: +44 (0)1833 638985 Email: genoffice@barneyschool.org.uk

VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – SOUTH CENTRAL AMBULANCE SERVICE

RECRUITS FROM ARMED FORCES PLAY KEY ROLE IN SOUTH CENTRAL AMBULANCE SERVICE South Central Ambulance Service or SCAS saves lives throughout the South of England – with former Armed Forces personnel playing key roles across all its emergency and other services. Alan Spence explains.

is nan was in the WRAFs, his step-dad in the Army and his grandad in the Royal Marines. When at 21 Dave Tyler’s time came to choose his first professional role in life, he went for the RAF. “Yes there were military links in my family history and we would talk about the military from time to time, but my interest in the RAF mainly came from within me – me wanting to belong to something that could make a difference, something exciting, part of a team…”.

His journey took him in the direction of the Career Transition Partnership (CTP), the operator of the government’s scheme which readies and assists serving or retired military personnel to succeed in civilian employment. And it was through CTP that Dave came face to face with SCAS, which, at the time, was gearing up its ex-military recruitment campaign – and had just became an Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award holder.

After training at RAF Halton and DFTC Manston, Dave became a member the RAF’s elite fire-fighting service, with subsequent overseas postings including Kenya and Brunei.

“I was looking for an alternative pathway”, says Dave, “but one which still offered me aspects of what I’d experienced in the RAF”.

He spent four enjoyable and professionally satisfying years in the RAF, but seeking new challenges and a more settled schedule in his personal life, he began to look around for an alternative career.

“I very much wanted to be part of a public service, a highly professional unit…and, yes, something that could get the adrenalin going from time to time. Basically, SCAS shared quite a few of the operational values and characteristics of my life in the RAF”. - 74 -

SPONSORED FEATURE – SOUTH CENTRAL AMBULANCE SERVICE VICTORY75

Medical training….the C1 driving licence for larger vehicles…..learning about mental health and how to talk to people in “dark places” …..the co-responder programme…. training how to calmly assess situations as a first responder when time is of the essence to save life …..all these have all been steps along the way as Dave moved from novice towards a qualified Associate Ambulance Practitioner with aspirations to becoming a Paramedic in the future. He is proud of the skills he has honed with SCAS and possesses a strong sense of achievement which has come with the proven realisation that he can potentially make the difference between life and death for someone involved in a car crash or struck by a heart attack. Indeed, he did just that when a member of his own family had a cardiac arrest and he happened by chance to be on hand to intervene.

SCAS – SAVING LIVES ACROSS FOUR COUNTIES……

So what lies ahead for Dave at SCAS? Certainly, a hugely varied and fulfilling professional life with a number of different avenues to explore.

outh Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust’s (SCAS’s) mission is clear “Working towards excellence – saving lives and enabling you to get the care you need”.

CAS traditionally had a long-standing relationship with the Armed Forces as an employer, but as recruitment of appropriate personnel in to NHS emergency services continued to face challenging times, it increasingly focused its attention on tapping in to the significant annual transition of service leavers to civilian life.

SCAS serves around 4.6 million people in its core area which takes in Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, as well as providing non-emergency patient transport services in Surrey and Sussex – so, in all, covering around 7 million people. Its main functions are:

Not only did it seek to employ more ex-military personnel to access their skills and expertise, but it set out to expand its already existing reputation as a forces-friendly employer in line with its signature of the government’s Armed Forces Covenant.

Responding to 999 accident and emergency calls – which amount to over 500,000 annually NHS 111 non-emergency medical assistance – for which it takes around 1.25 million calls annually

SCAS became part of the NHS Employers’ Reservist Group and an active champion of work for military veterans in the NHS, flexibly facilitating Reservists’ commitments, encouraging other members of its workforce to commit to the reserves, training Cadet Forces and supporting annual Armed Forces Day events.

Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services (NEPTS) Commercial Logistics Services – moving mail, medical specimens and parcels across its core counties.

Its commitment to the armed forces earned SCAS an Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award in 2017 – only the second such award to an ambulance service at that point.

SCAS’s core values are: Teamwork, Innovation, Professionalism and Caring, these values align with those of the Military and may be the reason that Military recruitment is so successful.

And such is the ever-closer relationship between SCAS and the Armed Forces that around 20 per cent of job applicants are transitioning or former Armed Forces personnel.

INTERESTED IN WORKING FOR SCAS? All SCAS vacancies are advertised on their website

www.scasjobs.co.uk

Opposite : Dave Tyler at work with the South Central Ambulance Service and inset during his service with the Royal Air Force..

Follow them on social media

@scasjobs:

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South Central Ambulance Service

NHS Foundation Trust

JOIN US è è è è

If you want to work as part of a team If you want an exciting and rewarding career If you want a fresh new challenge If you want development opportunities

Do all of the above appeal to you? If so, please visit: scasjobs.co.uk to find out more about South Central Ambulance Service and the job opportunities available within our Trust. A FEW OF OUR CAREERS: è Urgent and Emergency Care (Emergency Care Assistant, Paramedic, Specialist Practitioner) è Call Centres (NHS 111 + 999 available in Bicester, Oxfordshire and Otterbourne, Hampshire) è Commercial Services (Ambulance Care Assistant, Driver, Logistics, Patient Transport Service Call Centre) è Support Services (HR, Finance, IT, Administration)

scasjobs.co.uk

SPONSORED FEATURE – RNRMC VICTORY75

On top of this it faces a range of cost increases, including those relating to tightening governance and regulatory procedures, as well as higher staffing costs, particularly for case workers. And the future funding of RNRMC? That, too, will necessitate the charity responding to changing landscapes, partly due to the cessation of LIBOR funding – from fines handed out to banks for their activities in the money markets – which injected £1bn into the charity sector. This, in turn, could generate greater competition for voluntary income – which many charities report is already under pressure due to the military’s peacetime profile and tight personal and corporate budgets. Bell envisages a need for greater investment in targeted fundraising and some drawdown from RNRMC reserves, but is comforted and encouraged by the huge potential for Naval charities to work ever-more closely together, collaborating and cooperating wherever it makes sense in order to ensure that the future needs of all beneficiaries are appropriately and compassionately met.

RNRMC’s 2018-19 Impact Report highlights include: • Funding for 580 courses of counselling and 1327 separate counselling sessions; • 140 Naval families making use of Family Flats at the HMS Nelson Navy base in Portsmouth predominantly for single and low-income parents enabling them to spend quality time with their children – with more opened at Royal Navy Air Stations in Yeovilton and Culdrose; • Funding for 26 respite breaks for young carers; 288 prizes and awards to boost morale and recognise achievement, 1841 individual grants averaging almost £4000 each; • 83 pence of every £1.00 distributed on Naval family support; • Focus on helping members of the Naval family with relationship difficulties with the assistance of Relate, mental health issues and loneliness.

Festive Genie-us! Last Christmas RNRMC let the Genie out of the lamp in Portsmouth for Royal Navy families by backing an initiative which drastically reduced the cost of them going to see Aladdin at Southsea’s King’s Theatre. Almost 300 families with either one parent serving overseas or recently returned watched the production as a result of joint efforts by Commander Portsmouth Flotilla, Portsmouth City Council, Naval Service Family and People Support and Naval Families Federation – with RNRMC providing a grant to get ticket prices down to affordable levels. This stroke of Festive Genie-us not only demonstrates the RNRMC’s commitment to providing quality of life enhancements to serving Naval personnel and their families, but is a prime example of its partnership ethos, which seeks to maximise benevolent impact.

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VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – RNRMC

GUIDE TO RNRMC SUPPORT PROGRAMMES PROGRAMME 1 – NAVAL SERVICE SUPPORT Aim : support sailors, marines and their families in ships, bases and communities by helping:

PROGRAMME 5 – INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT Aim : to ensure that those who fall on hard times have access to financial support to:

• • • •

• combat debt and ensure financial stability • enable people to remain independent for as long as possible • enable those wounded, injured or sick to fulfil their potential

improve conditions for serving personnel enhance efficiency and morale in Naval services improve family life and relationships community provision for all children, families and young people.

Partners include the Royal Navy and Greenwich Hospital. PROGRAMME 2 – FAMILY SUPPORT Aim : support Naval families to help improve: • outcomes for children, young people, and their families • outcomes for families who need extra assistance for children with health, social or educational needs. Partners include Naval Families Federation, Kings Foundation, Relate, Home Start, Kids UK and Aggies. PROGRAMME 3 – HEALTH AND WELLBEING Aim : support mental health and wellbeing for serving personnel and their families by helping to: • prevent escalation of need or deterioration in health • improve mental health • provide required support post transition to civilian life. PROGRAMME 4 – COMMUNITIES SUPPORT Aim : provide support in communities to serving personnel, veterans, families and children through activities and befriending to combat a broad range of life’s potential challenges including: • • • • • • • • •

loneliness and social isolation family relationships transition to civilian life outcomes for children and young people, including health, social care and education family support during deployments mental health and well-being debt and financial stability sign-posting to information, resources, support and guidance support for carers.

PROGRAMME 6 – VETERANS’ SUPPORT Aim : support those who have served to lead fulfilling lives post transition, assisting them where necessary across a range of challenges including:

• • • • • • •

loneliness and social isolation debt and financial instability mental and/or physical health challenges to independence family relationships transition to civilian life not knowing where to find support

PROGRAMME 6 – PROMOTING INDEPENDENCE AND PROTECTING DIGNITY Aim : ensure those who have served can be supported and cared for in their later years by: • enabling people to remain independent for as long as possible • improving the quality of life in residential and nursing care settings • providing end-of-life care. (Note: Programme still under development)

HOW TO CONTACT RNRMC The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity Building 37, HMS Excellent Whale Island, Portsmouth Hampshire, PO2 8ER Tel: 023 9387 1520 Email: theteam@rnrmc.org.uk For more information please visit

www.rnrmc.org.uk

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VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – EAST OF ENGLAND AMBULANCE SERVICE

ARMED FORCES TO AMBULANCE SERVICE NEW CAREER, SAME VALUES East of England Ambulance Service shares many aspects of the UK Armed Forces’ ethos and operational standards. Alan Spence describes how this makes it a very attractive post-service career option.

he Covid-19 national emergency has stretched all ambulance services to the limit in recent months. But even in normal times providing a 24-hour, 365-day-a-year accident and emergency service across 4,700 square miles of the East of England is no easy task.

ITS PRODIGIOUS RESOURCES AND TEAMS INCLUDE:

The East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST) covers six counties – Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex – with a population of around six million people.

Over 4,000 staff and 1,500 volunteers Three ambulance operations centres (Bedford, Chelmsford and Norwich) 387 front line ambulances

Across roughly half of this area, EEAST also provides non-emergency transport services to and from hospitals, treatment centres and other similar facilities for patients who cannot travel unaided due to their medical condition or frailty.

178 rapid response vehicles 175 non-emergency ambulances 46 major incident/resilience vehicles

In a normal year EEAST receives around one million emergency calls and treats 67,157 people through its Urgent Emergency Advice and Triage Centre. - 82 -

Over 130 sites

SPONSORED FEATURE – EAST OF ENGLAND AMBULANCE SERVICE VICTORY75

“Those who are reservists are given the time to train and serve for their country, and, when they return, they continue to care for our patients.”

In order to maintain and, indeed, further enhance professional standards and expertise, EEAST has increasingly focused part of its recruitment campaign on military service leavers and veterans. This policy recognises the value of such recruits’ transferable skills and their aptitude for working in a dynamic and diverse environment like the East of England Ambulance Service. In August 2018, EEAST became one of the first NHS Trusts to sign-up to the Step into Health initiative aimed at encouraging people from a military background, or their dependents, to embark on a new career in the NHS. Step into Health was developed by the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Walking with the Wounded, and The Royal Foundation, the Duke of Cambridge’s charity. The Duke of Cambridge officially launched the programme during a ceremony in London in January 2018, which was also attended by the EEAST’s Director of Service Delivery, Kevin Brown and Armed Forces Champion, Terry Hicks. Careers are not limited to just frontline accident and emergency roles. Others include maintenance, administration, finance, communications and management, as well as opportunities within dispatch and call handling, in addition to work placements and training opportunities for people from military backgrounds. In 2019 EEAST became one of only three ambulance service trusts to be awarded an Armed Forces Covenant Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) Gold Award – the Ministry of Defence’s highest badge of honour – for showing outstanding support for those who serve, veterans and their families.

“We all have a role to play in ensuring that the Armed Forces community is not disadvantaged by service, and each of these employers is setting an example as a meaningful advocate for those protecting the nation”. “Medical reservists play an essential role in the Armed Forces and bring a wealth of skills and experience to NHS organisations. Our student paramedic and apprentice programmes, therefore, offer the opportunity to redeploy to alternative regiments and companies”, Hicks says. EEAST has supported operational deployments for staff that have been mobilised to serve in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Some have been regularly deployed repatriating seriously ill or injured personnel to the UK hospitals from conflict-affected or humanitarian disaster zones including, for example, West African countries during the Ebola Virus. EEAST has also developed a Wellbeing Handbook for Veterans to help them navigate any support they and their families and dependents may need. This has been written with the support of Combat Stress and informed by the experiences of veterans and service leavers, and the challenges they have faced accessing appropriate treatments post service. Veterans are also invited to become part of EEAST’s Wellbeing Support Hub, which is based on peer-to-peer link-ups to ensure specific needs are addressed.

“To be one of so few Trusts to hold this award is a great honour,” says Hicks, and it’s proof we excel at valuing this group of staff. “Our 200 military veterans have access to specific help and support when they come into EEAST, and we are alert to their needs, and those of their families”. “Those who are reservists are given the time to train and serve for their country, and, when they return, they continue to care for our patients. We recognise that these dedicated men and women give up their time to train and serve in the Armed Forces, along with combining this with a civilian life and career”. “For example, we have a specific programme for Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) and access to specialist support for our military veterans”. Opposite : Mark Wibberley (centre) recruitment specialist with EEAST. Right : One of EEAST’s specially-designed ambulances which are being rolled out across the region.

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We’re recruiting • • • • •

Front-line A&E and PTS roles Apprentice front-line A&E roles Emergency call handlers Make-ready operatives (other support roles are also available) Volunteer community first responder

Our stations

In return we offer •

Respect

•

Great roles and responsibilities

•

Teamwork

•

Unsocial hours payments (dependent on role)

•

Development opportunities

•

Excellent paid holiday entitlement

•

Staff wellbeing

•

Entry into the NHS pension scheme

•

NHS discounts

•

And lots more…

On an ordinary day... an extraordinary service

SPONSORED FEATURE – EAST OF ENGLAND AMBULANCE SERVICE VICTORY75

MEET MARK WIBBERLEY I joined the army in 1979 at the age of 18, choosing the Life Guards, and did 22 weeks basic training at the Guards Depot in Pirbright, then was posted to Hyde Park Barracks, Knightsbridge. A six-month riding course followed and after passing out I was posted to 1 Troop LG where I took part in ceremonial occasions mounted on a horse. I watched the Iranian embassy siege live from my seventh-floor accommodation. I rode on Prince Charles & Lady Diana’s Wedding Day in 1981 and was on guard at Horse Guards Parade when the relief guard was blown up in Hyde Park in July 1982. After this I was posted to the Motor Transport Section to ride a Triumph motorbike with a bomb jammer attached to follow the guard changes. I left in 1986 for three years and re-joined in 1989 when I was posted to Windsor, then Germany, followed by the Gulf War as a load operator on a Challenger One Tank and later to a drill and weapons course in Pirbright. I was in Germany when the Berlin wall came down. I was posted to Windsor and from there to Bosnia in 1994 as part of the UN Forces, and again in 1999. During this time I went recruiting AFCO Norwich following the regular recruiting course.

I had a great time; I organised a Royal visit and hosted it for HRH Princess Anne. I set up army preparation courses for a runner off the uniformed service course. I left the Army in 2004 and was awarded an MBE for services to the Regiment. I then took employment at City College Norwich, first to teach and afterwards as the sports and recreation officer, gaining my certificate of teaching and a BA in Education at the same time. Two years in Norfolk Police followed but having decided after two years it wasn’t for me, I joined the Ambulance Service where I started on Patient Transport Services. I then passed my exams to be an Emergency Care Assistant and moved on to pass exams to become an Emergency Medical Technician. For the last year I have been working as a recruiting manager for Cambridge, Suffolk and Norfolk as well as keeping up my frontline ambulance skills. I also joined the union who put me through my NEBOSH Health & Safety course. In this role I inspect all ambulance stations in central Norfolk and advise on health and safety issues. I am passionate about getting ex-forces to join the East of England Ambulance Service where a very worthwhile second career awaits.

MEET EMMA GOLDSMITH I joined the British Army in 1992 as a mechanical engineer in the REME. During my 13 years within the Army I served with a number of regiments in Germany, Canada, Bosnia and the UK, as part of a light aid detachment. After leaving the military in 2005 I had numerous jobs, but eventually made the decision to join the East of England Ambulance Service in 2012.

I initially joined in a non-emergency role as part of the patient transport services and after a few months transferred into a frontline role as an Emergency Care Assistant. Once the Trust starting recruiting student paramedics I applied and got accepted onto the pathway. After my initial training within the Trust I continued to spend my final year at the University of East Anglia and eventually qualified as a paramedic in 2017. Joining the ambulance service has enabled me to work within a large organisation again amongst like-minded colleagues who daily deliver fantastic patient care to people in need.

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VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – EAST OF ENGLAND AMBULANCE SERVICE

MEET MARK WRIGLEY I am a Leading Operations Manager in central Norfolk for EEAST, which I joined in 2006 after serving in the RAF for 22 years as an Electronics Technician, Ground Defence. After initial training at RAF Swinderby, I moved to RAF Locking, Weston Super Mare, to complete an 18-month course in electronic engineering specialising in airfield and long-range air defence radar systems. After completing training at Locking, I was posted to 27 Squadron, RAF Regiment, RAF Leuchars, near Dundee. Within months I was sent to the Falkland Islands to serve on the Resident Rapier Squadron (RRS) – the first of what became nine tours. Completing my tour I returned to Bonny Scotland, got married, applied for an overseas tour in Germany and in 1987 was posted to 15 Squadron RAF Regiment at RAF Wildenrath. In 1998 we were posted to RAF Saxavord in the Shetland Isles – my best posting ever. The first time I entered the Sergeant’s Mess and saw the residents at the bar in jeans, T-shirts and slippers (yes slippers!) was

horrifying, but the social reality of living in a remote community of less than 100 staff was fantastic. Shetland was followed by RAF Brize Norton, where I served on the Tactical Communications Wing (TCW). This meant more tours away from home and the family, which was now growing. Around this time I began thinking about a new career while still relatively young enough to embark on such a major change. It’s a big step leaving the Armed Forces and its way of life after such a long and rewarding career. I had no idea what I wanted to do. My wife was already a paramedic working for – what was then – East Anglian Ambulance Service and enjoying it immensely. I suppose it was a natural choice for me to follow in her footsteps. Although I miss the RAF very much, leaving the Armed Forces was not the wrench I thought it might be. The continuous training I completed in the RAF on, for example, new equipment or for promotion, prepared me for the training I undertook to become a paramedic. And working as part of a team in such a large organisation as EEAST with its camaraderie and professionalism, pride in doing a good job and the bonus of being able to make a difference is the same as life in the RAF.

MEET TOM MARTIN qualities throughout Training – leadership, unselfishness, cheerfulness in adversity, determination and courage.

Shortly after leaving school in the mid-Nineties I decided to apply to become a Royal Marine Commando and following a three-day assessment I was deemed a suitable candidate. The eight months I spent at the Commando Training School down in Lympstone was an amazing experience which taught me a huge amount about myself and made me the person I am today. During the final two weeks of Kings Squad the rest of the lads in the troop voted me as the person who should receive the Commando Medal which made me feel incredibly proud. This achievement is awarded to the person who is felt to have displayed the Commando

During my service I spent time with Comacchio Group. We were responsible for guarding the UK Naval Nuclear Weapons programme and, in addition, we specialised in counter piracy and counter narcotics maritime interdiction operations across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. After leaving the Corp I spent a couple of years in between jobs, back packing around the globe and climbing in the UK before finally settling down with my wife and starting a family. I now work for the East of England Ambulance Service as an HR Advisor, and have done so for the last eight years.

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JOIN OUR TEAM AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE We’re recruiting

#BeSeenInGreen “You are invited into people’s homes and places of work in their darkest hour, and when you walk in people relax, and that’s when we go up a gear and say: ‘OK, we’re here to help.’" Tracy Nicholls, Director of Clinical Quality and Improvement. Tracy has worked her way up from patient transport driver, 25 years ago, to being a director at the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

Apply today

www.eastamb.nhs.uk

THE OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION A CENTURY OF SUPPORT The Officers’ Association is an established charity supporting officers and their families for over 100 years. Alan Spence examines how one of the UK’s tri-service military charities for officers acts as an important bridge to post-service careers, whilst also protecting those facing hardship.

he troops returning home after the First World War often faced dire circumstances. Almost three million were speedily released on to a war-weakened economy which bore little resemblance to the promised land “fit for heroes to live in…”. Amongst them were many thousands of officers from all three services, including the newest – the Royal Air Force founded in April 1918. Competition for available jobs was fierce and unemployment spiralled. Hunger and poverty often beckoned, including amongst “temporary gentlemen” – the surviving members of the 265,000 recruited from the middle and working classes on temporary commissions for the duration of the war who possessed no independent means of financial support.

Additionally, there were those from the traditional officer class whose private means had disappeared in the economic and social upheaval generated by the most horrific conflict in history. Such was the severity of the situation – made worse still for the many officers who bore the mental and physical scares of the Great War – that the former commander of the British Expeditionary Force and his wife, Earl and Countess Haig, organised a highly successful public subscription for these officers supported by Admiral of the Fleet Earl Beatty and the Chief of the Air Staff Viscount Trenchard and the City of London.

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SPONSORED FEATURE – OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION VICTORY75

In 1920 this resulted in the founding of the Officers’ Association (OA) which received its Royal Charter the following year. Although it was initially thought that the OA would only be needed for three to five years, such was the continuing blight of the First World War, coupled with global economic crises, that it continued to remain in place during the 1920s and 1930s to meet the needs of officers facing difficult times – and has done so ever since. The first Royal Patron was King George V, followed in 1936 by King George VI, who was succeeded by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 – a year which saw almost 30,000 cases dealt with by OA, the highest level since 1927. This not only reflected the continuing impact of the Second World War, but changes to the OA’s Charter to enable the charity to cover support for women officers and their dependents. In the years that followed the OA has continued to make a major contribution to the lives of officers and their families both directly through support services, but also by making the voices of the officer corps heard through representations to government and others on such issues as military pension reform and Defence Reviews.

“I attended numerous webinars and insight days advertised through the OA and soon realised the breadth of roles within the financial sector was vast.” Katie Lavin, former Royal Artillery officer now works for UBS under their Ex-Forces Associate Recruitment Programme.

ENSURING DIGNITY AND COMBATTING HARDSHIP

n 2018/19 the OA paid out almost £1.4 million in grants to ensure former officers and their families were able to combat hardship and pursue their lives with dignity. The number of individuals supported amounted to 985, around ten per cent of whom live overseas in 27 different countries.

THE GRANTS AND WELFARE TEAM DEALT WITH 985 CASES

Grants were used in many ways. Many were renewed annually to assist with the general cost of living as well as helping to meet the cost of care. Other grants were paid once to provide a variety of things including bathroom adaptions, stairlifts, wheelchairs and riser recliner chairs. In order to maximise its welfare support, OA works closely with other military charities including SSAFA, the Royal British Legion, the RAF Benevolent Fund, The Royal Navy Officers’ Charity and ABF the Soldiers’ Charity. Of the £1.4 million paid in grants, some £350,000 came from other charities.

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THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF GRANTS PAID OUT IN 2018-2019 WAS £1.4 MILLION

VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION

HELPING OFFICERS SECURE SUSTAINABLE EMPLOYMENT The aim of any career transition is to achieve fulfilling and sustainable employment in a role that feels right and reflects individual circumstances, aspirations and skills. Individual consultations help officers use their military skills and experience in the civilian workplace. OA personnel also advise on how officers should best present their skills, whether in CVs, networking sessions with employers, or formal interviews.

OUR VISION:

A SECURE AND SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR OUR OFFICERS AND THEIR FAMILIES

It is one thing, for example, for an officer to have experienced day-to-day life in Basra or Helmand Province, but it is often quite another for that transitioning officer to explain just what it is about that experience that makes him or her a valuable potential employee, especially with an organisation that has little or no understanding of the military skillset or training.

OUR MISSION:

The OA works to build opportunities for Service leavers as well as championing the value of military skillsets to meet their business challenges.

TO PROVIDE OFFICERS AND THEIR FAMILIES WITH THE SUPPORT THEY NEED TO THRIVE OUTSIDE THE ARMED FORCES

Moreover, through its close relationships with employers, the OA operates its own successful Executive Jobs Board, which posted over 1,500 jobs geared towards the officer job seeker last year.

he Officers’ Association (OA) was founded immediately after the First World War as mass demobilisation collided with a war-weary, dislocated economy to create huge levels of unemployment, including amongst former Royal Navy, Army and RAF officers. Their mission is to provide officers and their families with the support they need to thrive outside the Armed Forces so helping officers secure sustainable employment remains critical. For former officers facing challenging times it is also a much-valued source of advice and financial support when needed.

The OA also works with corporates and other organisations to create and develop their own military recruitment programmes which can help establish long-term mutually beneficial links. Longer term, this can provide employers access to highly trained officers as part of their recruitment strategy.

Although the OA’s focuses on “Your life beyond the Services”, its engagement often begins whilst officers are still serving, albeit actively considering transitioning into civilian employment. Employment forums and networking opportunities are important as a means of highlighting the sort of career opportunities available to officers. The real advantage the OA delivers are the highly prized one-to-one meetings with their specialist OA Career Consultants covering all aspects of service civilian employment.

“I am really grateful to the OA for enabling me to understand more about the opportunities available and supporting me with all aspects of my transition.” Johnny Clive, former Blues and Royals officer, now a project manager with KPMG.

Figures from the OA’s latest Annual Report show that over 900 one-to-one career consultations and CV reviews took place in 2019. - 90 -

SPONSORED FEATURE – OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION VICTORY75

HOW WE HELPED

NICK CHANNER

Nick Channer, a former Chief of Staff for British Forces Germany, is now Chief of Staff at security services company Wilson James Limited. “The OA Employment Careers Day in York was excellent and the foundation of my networking success. It gave me my first contacts outside the Army and the confidence and skills to network effectively. I really recommend this event to other service leavers.” Nick served for 35 years, spending the last four years managing the Army’s move back to the UK. He knew networking would be vital in launching a new career and contacted the OA to attend key career events. Nick was introduced to BuildForce, an alliance of construction employers, industry bodies and Service charities that connects veterans with job opportunities. Via BuildForce, Nick was interviewed at Wilson James Limited, which provides security services for organisations and sites across the UK. The company was expanding and recruited Nick as Chief of Staff, to support the day-to-day running of the business and strategic planning.

HOW WE HELPED

GEMMA JONES

Gemma Jones was an Acting Lieutenant Commander and is now a Military Recruiter for Amazon. “My career consultation really helped me to improve my CV.” Gemma was the Gunnery Officer on HMS Brocklesby during the Arab Spring and completed a tour of duty in Afghanistan as a Cultural Specialist for Camp Bastion. She left the Royal Navy because she wanted a more flexible approach to work, especially as a mother of two young children and with a husband who is often away at sea. After registering with the OA, Gemma accessed the Executive Jobs Board, watched several webinars and had a one to one career consultation. She also attended several open days promoted by the OA, including at Deloitte and Barclays. After a short resettlement period, Gemma was successful at interview at Amazon and has taken up her new role as Amazon’s UK Military Recruiter.

HOW WE HELPED

ASHLEY STEVENSON

Ashley Stevenson is a retired Air Commodore and is now a Military Adviser to businesses. “The OA provided good support during my transition. I still regularly check the Executive Jobs Board and read their email newsletters to keep up-to-date with the latest opportunities and careers advice.” During his 37 years in the RAF Ashley was a Harrier pilot, served in Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, and was Commandant of RAF College Cranwell. On leaving the Armed Forces, Ashley sought a flexible approach to work that a portfolio career provides. Ashley registered with the OA, had a career consultation and CV support. He also attended an OA employment event and signed up to the weekly newsletter. He became a part-time military consultant for the Army & Navy Club, which he first saw advertised in the weekly email. His current role is VP Operations EMEA to Ocean Software, an Australian company.

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SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL VICTORY75

CHURCHILL – THE LION THAT ROARED BRITAIN TO VICTORY Inspired by the Bible’s Book of John Chapter 4 Verse 23 the words “Cometh the Moment, Cometh the Man” have never been more aptly used than in reference to the appointment of Winston Churchill as Britain’s Prime Minister in 1940 as the country faced potential defeat and destruction at the hands of the Nazis, writes Victory75 Editor Alan Spence.

e would come to be known as the man who saved Britain in its hour of greatest danger, but Winston Churchill – as he was then – was not an automatic choice to take over from beleaguered Neville Chamberlain in May 1940 after Britain’s failed campaign to stop the Nazis overrunning Norway.

As First Sea Lord from 1911 he had ensured that the Royal Navy, the biggest in the world, was prepared for the First World War, and, after the catastrophe of Gallipoli, he had served as a battalion commander on the Western Front before returning to become Lloyd George’s energetic Minister of Munitions.

Indeed, Churchill, back as First Lord of the Admiralty since the outbreak of war with Germany nine months before, had been a key architect of the Norwegian Campaign – and some of his critics drew unfavourable comparisons with the catastrophic Gallipoli Landings in 1915 in World War I when, as First Lord of the Admiralty first time round, he was the main driver of an adventurous plan to shorten the war by attacking what he termed the “soft underbelly of Europe”.

But crucially he had led opposition through the 1930s – his so-called “wilderness years” when he was out of office – to the government’s appeasement policy with dire warnings of the likely consequences of German re-armament.

That said, by 1940 he was a potential Prime Minister with previous personal military experience and achievements. As an Army officer he had personally experienced action, including in the last cavalry charge in British history at the Battle of Omdurman in the Sudan.

Further he was assisted by his main rival for No 10 Downing Street, Lord Halifax, who, as Foreign Secretary, was closely associated with appeasement, ruling himself out on the grounds that running the country from the House of Lords was not feasible. So, on 10 May 1940 Churchill, who, himself, had been less than certain he would succeed Chamberlain, was invited by King George VI to form the next government.

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VICTORY75 SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL

No Prime Minister has ever taken office in less auspicious circumstances. On the day of his appointment as Prime Minister German forces unleashed Blitzkrieg against Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. And the stage was set for Churchill to mobilise some of the most powerful, inspirational oratory ever uttered by a British leader. “All I have to offer you”, he told the House of Commons and the Nation on 13 May “is blood, toil, tears and sweat”. He meant it and the German Army proved it in the days to follow with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the French Army soon facing potential annihilation.

We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

Hopelessly out-fought and out-manoeuvred they fell back on to the wide, flat beaches and sand dunes of Dunkirk a short distance south of the French-Belgian border – and hoped and prayed that ships of the Royal Navy would get to them before Hitler’s Panzer columns broke through their diminishing defensive perimeter. What happened next has gone down in the annals of military history as the greatest ever escape by the British Army from almost certain destruction at the hands of the enemy: the epic evacuation of almost 340,000 British and Allied troops from Dunkirk –10 times more than thought possible. On 4 June Churchill referred to the evacuation as a “miracle of deliverance” and in a rallying cry to a Nation about to face Hitler alone he spoke the following immortal words: “We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” When, 12 days later, France sued for an armistice with Germany, Churchill again addressed the Commons and the Nation in the third of his great speeches of defiance in the face of what seemed to many, including some members of his own Cabinet, hopeless military odds: “The Battle of France is over... the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.

Top : Churchill with Lord Halifax in 1938. Above : Churchill and Neville Chamberlain, the chief proponent of appeasement.

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SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL VICTORY75

“The Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.”

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour”.”

Churchill’s ability – both in public and in private – to keep Britain in the war was not just based on words however. Although in his mid-60s he was still a man of great mental and physical energy, huge charm and wit – and a relentless, sometimes bullying, taskmaster.

These speeches not only inspired the British Nation in its darkest hour, but framed Churchill’s entire resistance to the possibility of a deal with the enemy which some members of the government, led by Lord Halifax, the Foreign Secretary, believed was the only reasonable option and that to fight on was little short of madness. In sometimes furious, impassioned private exchanges Churchill argued that Britain would merely become a vassal nation in any deal with Hitler and that the agreement, whatever terms it stated, wouldn’t be worth the paper it was written on – just like those which had been signed by Hitler over the previous five years with other nations.

He now unleashed everything in his personal armoury on senior government officials, civil servants and military leaders, cajoling them in to a frenzy of action to ensure the defence of the country and the ultimate pursuit of victory. Moreover, he surrounded himself with his own army of advisers and aides, and, when necessary, he was adept at reaching out in any direction to someone he thought could make a big difference during the national emergency. And as the Battle of Britain followed the Battle of France a little later in the summer of 1940, it was to his friend the press baron Lord Beaverbrook that he turned to ensure that the country had enough Spitfires and Hurricanes to win it.

In the end his view prevailed with the Labour members of the War Cabinet – Clement Attlee and Walter Greenwood – supporting him, as well as former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who was eventually won over. - 95 -

Above : Ludgate Hill area of London with firemen, equipment and burnt out buildings during the ‘Blitz’.

VICTORY75 SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL

Above : World War II poster containing the famous lines by Winston Churchill.

Above : German Heinkel 111 bomber over London. The River Thames and Tower Bridge are visible below, 7 September 1940.

Churchill knew Beaverbrook’s capacity to get around anything that vaguely resembled an obstacle; his great powers of persuasion and personal drive – and gave him his full backing and support as the head of a new Ministry of Aircraft Production – separate from the Air Ministry which had previously run aircraft procurement.

“Churchill knew, however, that Britain could not defeat Germany alone, even with all the assistance and support which could be mustered from the Empire and Commonwealth.” It was a brave, unconventional appointment with an extraordinary outcome – the RAF finished up with more fighter aircraft at the end of the Battle of Britain than it had at the beginning. The Battle of Britain commenced in July 1940 and continued in often clear blue skies to its mid-September peak, and trailing off towards the end of October. On 20 August Churchill famously told the Nation “never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few”. And it is as “The Few” that the Battle of Britain pilots occupy their iconic position in the pantheon of British military history. By his words, energy and actions Churchill inspired and willed the Nation to fight on – and when “The Few”

ultimately denied the Luftwaffe air superiority in autumn 1940 he had won his first strategic engagement with the Nazi dictator. And the latter had lost his first military campaign of the war, along with the opportunity to invade Britain and close down the European War in the west. Churchill knew, however, that Britain could not defeat Germany alone, even with all the assistance and support which could be mustered from the Empire and Commonwealth and despite the RAF’s magnificent performance in the Battle of Britain and the Royal Navy’s ongoing status as the largest navy in the world. Britain’s position as an island nation worked for it when defending itself against would-be invaders but against it when it required vital strategic supplies of food and military equipment to be imported across hostile seas and oceans – principally the Atlantic. Moreover, the Empire brought troops, airmen, sailors and supplies but British overseas interests had to be defended as well as strategically important locations to protect the vital traffic of war – places like Gibraltar, the Suez Canal and Singapore; the latter tragically falling to the Japanese in February 1942. Whilst protecting its Empire and its strategically important supply lines was an integral part of protecting Britain itself, it nevertheless spread the country’s armed forces far and wide at a time when the Wehrmacht was a mere 20 miles across the Channel. - 96 -

SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL VICTORY75

In late 1940 the prospect of occupation had receded, but in a different set of circumstances it could, perhaps, return – for example if Germany’s U-boats won the Battle of the Atlantic, cutting off food supplies and other vital supplies (indeed Churchill admitted after the war the U-boat threat was the only thing that kept him awake at night). Alternatively, if Britain had any hopes of launching or being part of an Allied invasion of Europe from its own shores, there was nothing amidst the military stalemate of late 1940 which suggested it could ever be achievable in the current military status quo.

“For Roosevelt to convince detractors to enter the war on Britain’s side he had to be sure that Britain had the will to fight on if supported by vast flows of new military aid and ultimately the US’s own military assets.”

These were the questions which ceaselessly occupied Churchill as the Luftwaffe – the Battle of Britain lost – increasingly threw its energy and resources into the nighttime Blitzing of British cities in the autumn and winter of 1940/41. And the answer was always the same: he had to persuade an isolationist United States to enter the war. Amidst the gloom he nevertheless foresaw a day when British and US troops would storm ashore somewhere on continental Europe’s coast and commence the liberation of its peoples, albeit for some in 1940/41 Britain’s mere longterm survival was a dim prospect.

Above : An American newspaper reflecting public opinion to the war, July 1940.

Churchill marshalled an intense diplomatic assault on Washington, which not only spelt out Britain’s needs, but the long-term strategic implications for the United States in the event that Britain, with all its assets and resources both at home and around its Empire, were to fall under the control of Nazi Germany, including possibly the British Navy. Put simply the proposition was: fight Hitler now from Britain, rather than in your own backyard. It sounded logical and appealing, but it was still a difficult sell for President Roosevelt to the powerful isolationist lobby and others in the US who were worried that America could declare war on Germany only to discover that Britain was defeated before the two countries could fuse an effective military alliance against Germany.

Above : President Franklin D. Roosevelt (left) and Harry Hopkins.

For Roosevelt to convince detractors to enter the war on Britain’s side he had to be sure that Britain had the will to fight on if supported by vast flows of new military aid and ultimately the US’s own military assets – and he sent Harry Hopkins, one of his closest advisors, to find the answer. Churchill was delighted to take up the challenge. Hopkins, a social worker who had worked with Roosevelt on the New Deal to tackle unemployment in the 1930s, was given a warts and all view of Britain by his host ranging from a review of the Fleet to the badly bombed docks in Glasgow. And night after night he dined with different guests from all sides and classes of British society from industry to trade unionists, the armed forces to the professions – who spoke of the country’s united determination to fight on. - 97 -

Above : The Prime Minister, Mrs Churchill, and Mr Hopkins at Fleet Air Arm Station, Donibristle, January 1941.

VICTORY75 SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL

Hopkins was ultimately convinced of Britain’s sense of purpose under Churchill and tears ran down the Prime Minister’s face when Hopkins announced at a dinner in Glasgow that his proposed advice to Roosevelt could be summed up in lines from the Old Testament’s Book of Ruth: “Whither thou goest I will go... thy people shall be my people”. Brilliantly choreographed by Churchill, the visit was arguably the genesis of what became the Special Relationship between Britain and the US as personified, in the beginning, by the personal friendship between Churchill and Roosevelt who throughout the war exchanged over 1700 letters and telegrams – not to mention phone calls which in Churchill’s case were usually made from a tiny room deep below Whitehall which was not only roughly the size of a toilet, but had a familiar toilet engaged/vacant lock on its door. It’s still there for all visitors to the Cabinet War Rooms to see. Soon after Hopkins’ visit Lend-Lease was approved by Congress whereby Britain could take US military supplies on a promise to either return or repay them after the war – “the most unsordid act in the history of any nation”, said Churchill.

Above : Roosevelt (left) and Churchill are seated on the after deck of HMS Prince of Wales, in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, during the Atlantic Charter Conference, August 1941. Opposite : US Navy battleships at Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941.

Churchill tried to persuade Roosevelt to go to war, but it was still too early for the American President to do so with much still to be argued back home. But if they were to go to war together against Hitler and any nation that allied themselves with Nazi Germany, they would need a common vision of what their war aims should be and it was on this that they spent their time in their secret, peaceful refuge. And it was time well spent – not just for the US and Britain, but for both countries’ allies around the globe as they produced the basis of the Atlantic Charter, a comprehensive compendium of freedoms to be recognised, achieved and protected by all those who subscribed to them. They had, between them, laid the foundation stones of the United Nations – something worth going to war for.

Above : President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease bill to give aid to Britain and China, March 1941.

In June 1941 there was further respite for Britain when Hitler launched his invasion of the Soviet Union, opening up a war on two fronts for Germany – a more attractive proposition for Britain and its potential future ally. And then came the secret Newfoundland Summit and the Atlantic Charter in early August 1941 when the USS Augusta rendezvoused with HMS Prince of Wales in the quietude of Placentia Bay, Newfoundland carrying their respective charges to their first Summit.

But it still wasn’t the trigger for America to go to war. That wasn’t pulled until 7 December 1941 when, without declaring war and without warning, Japan attacked the US naval base of Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, as well as US-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and, the British Empire territories of Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong. On hearing the news Churchill is said to have raised his arms aloft and exclaimed: “we’ve won”. Later in his own account of World War ll he wrote: “Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful.” And well he might – for he had achieved the second of his two great strategic achievements as Britain’s war leader – a military alliance with the United States against Germany, and, of course, Japan. - 98 -

SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL VICTORY75

- 7 DECEMBER 1941 -

Without declaring war and without warning, Japan attacked the US naval base of Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. - 8 DECEMBER 1941 -

Congress declares war on Japan.

Churchill hadn’t been responsible for the specific circumstances which had finally brought it about, but he had built a powerful relationship and understanding with Roosevelt which finally only needed a hostile event, or perhaps even a mistake, by Germany or Japan, for the US and Britain to weld together a great military partnership. If it hadn’t been Pearl Harbour, it could well have been triggered, for example, by worsening relations between Germany and the US in the North Atlantic where U-boat attacks on convoys had increasingly brought their navies in to direct conflict. Moreover, Churchill’s ability to increasingly press the US for strategic aid, both material and financial, through 1941 had, in Hitler’s eyes, seriously eroded Washington’s status as a neutral power in the war. On 8 December Congress declared war on Japan, as did Britain, and three days later Japan’s allies Germany and Italy both declared war on the US, which immediately reciprocated.

Within 18 months of the catastrophe of Dunkirk and his refusal to agree a deal with Hitler, Churchill’s defiance of the odds and – some would say – logic had paid off, along with his long wooing of Roosevelt, the US Government, Congress and the American people, thereby helping to tilt the balance of opinion from isolationism to principled intervention and prudent self-interest. The entry of the United States into the war marked the apex of Churchill’s personal power and influence in the campaign against Hitler. From now onwards strategy was Allied strategy in which he was a co-architect with Roosevelt, and later increasingly with Stalin, both of whom ran countries with, ultimately, much greater military might and resources. That said, it is probably true to say that during the rest of war he never gave the outer impression of someone of diminished power and military enterprise.

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VICTORY75 SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL

Operation Overlord on 6 June 1944 marked the successful landings of 156,000 troops on the beaches of Normandy – the greatest amphibious invasion in history which began the liberation of Europe.

The prospect of some form of D-Day – when the Allies would, side by side open up a western front against Hitler – was now quickly on the agenda. Not wasting any time, Churchill crossed the Atlantic and on 26 December spoke stirringly to Congress of two countries united together to protect and deliver freedom. The US military build-up in Britain commenced almost immediately with some 4,500 troops arriving in Northern Ireland in mid-January 1942 – the first of some 1.5 million American military personnel who, under Operation Bolero, arrived in the United Kingdom in the period before D-Day, around half of them in the first six months of 1944. Operation Overlord on 6 June 1944 marked the successful landings of 156,000 troops on the beaches of Normandy – the greatest amphibious invasion in history which began the liberation of Europe. Churchill often pushed his staff to the limit – dictating speeches and memos until the early hours of the morning

and changing or re-writing plans at the last minute – he even ordered a comprehensive review of those for D-Day itself long after all was settled and agreed and not long before it was scheduled to take place, much to the irritation and exasperation of his exhausted commanders. But Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, probably spoke for quite a few of them when he wrote “it is worth all these difficulties to have the privilege to work with such a man”. Moreover, his location on D-Day itself also resulted in a long wrangle involving Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower, King George V1 and a flock of officials: Churchill wanted to observe the landing from HMS Belfast which would be shelling the beaches. In the end, he was stopped by the King who told him that if Churchill insisted, he himself would also go with him – at which point Churchill had little choice but to change his plans.

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SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL VICTORY75

“.... the Allies steadily closed in on Germany until on 7 May 1945 General Alfred Jodl representing the German High Command and Hitler’s successor, Admiral Doenitz, signed an unconditional act of surrender.” But just as he pushed others, he also pushed himself to the limit. Between 1941 and 1945 he made 19 journeys by sea, land and air – some putting him in considerable danger – building and helping to sustain the Grand Alliance between Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union. In December 1941 he suffered a mild heart attack at the White House during his first visit to the United States after Roosevelt’s declaration of war on Germany and after the Tehran Summit in 1943 he contracted pneumonia. The Summits were vital as a means of determining the course of the war against Germany and Japan and endeavouring to shape the post-war world although major disagreements ultimately arose between the western allies and the Soviet Union.

Above : Churchill giving his famous ‘V’ sign, May 1943.

Meanwhile, the Allies steadily closed in on Germany until on 7 May 1945 General Alfred Jodl representing the German High Command and Hitler’s successor, Admiral Doenitz, signed an unconditional act of surrender. The Allies had triumphed in Europe. The following day was declared Victory in Europe Day, and countries around the world erupted in joyous celebration. None more so than Britain. At 15.00 Churchill addressed the Nation: “The German war is … at an end. After years of intense preparation, Germany hurled herself on Poland at the beginning of September, 1939; and, in pursuance of our guarantee to Poland and in agreement with the French Republic, Great Britain, the British Empire and Commonwealth of Nations, declared war upon this foul aggression.

Above : The “Big Three”: From left to right: Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill on the portico of the Russian Embassy during the Tehran Conference to discuss the European Theatre in 1943.

After gallant France had been struck down we, from this Island and from our united Empire, maintained the struggle single-handed for a whole year until we were joined by the military might of Soviet Russia, and later by the overwhelming power and resources of the United States of America. Finally, almost the whole world was combined against the evildoers, who are now prostrate before us. Our gratitude to our splendid Allies goes forth from all our hearts in this Island and throughout the British Empire…

Above : Churchill waves to crowds in Whitehall on the day he broadcast to the Nation that the war with Germany had been won, 8 May 1945.

Advance, Britannia! Long live the cause of freedom! God save the King!” The Lion had triumphed – against all the odds. - 101 -

VICTORY75 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS

THE CHANNEL ISLANDS FROM OCCUPATION TO VICTORY The Channel Islands were the only area of the British Isles occupied by Nazi Germany but a major propaganda coup for Hitler. Victory75 Editor Alan Spence introduces a special section on the Islanders’ experience of occupation – and ultimately liberation

ike everywhere else in western Europe in the Spring of 1940, the Channel Islanders were caught off-guard by the speed, thrust and brutality of Blitzkreig – and the dreadful decisions they faced when Britain decided against defending the Channel Islands due to insufficient military resources, the potential loss of life and the Nazi threat to mainland Britain.

On Sark, the approach was different with the indomitable Dame of Sark, Dame Sybyl Hathaway, the island’s ruler, persuading people to stay and then, by many accounts, keeping the occupying Germans as much under her thumb as possible!

With the German Army lurking a short distance across the water in France, and the rapidly mounting danger to shipping between Britain and the Channel Islands from both the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine, little time was left to take decisions which – ultimately and understandably – were a patchwork in both nature and execution. All of Alderney’s 1500 inhabitants left and returned after the war to an island of concrete monstrosities – part of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall against possible invasion – and the skeletal remains of Nazi concentration camps for slave workers they brought to the island, and the graves of those who never left.

The experience of the main islands of Guernsey and Jersey – described in the following pages by today’s LieutenantGovernors HE Vice Admiral Sir Ian Corder KBE, CB and HE Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton GCB, ADC respectively – was mixed. Some left, some stayed – with short goodbyes between departing children and remaining parents the most wrenching. The Occupation from 30 June 1940 – 9 May 1945, a major propaganda coup for Hitler, experienced many twists and turns. It started with what the Germans regarded as a light-touch designed to maintain reasonable relations between occupiers and occupied, particularly in view of a possible invasion of the British mainland. But ultimately the removal of so many basic freedoms, allied with economic austerity and a regime of arbitrary justice was – to say the least – never going to make for comfortable times between the invader and the oppressed. Towards the end in the winter of 1944/45 they faced the same problem of near starvation as the Allied front line advanced towards the heart of Germany, leaving the Islands an increasingly isolated enclave off a coastline now occupied by the Allies. Liberation finally came on 9 May 1945. The remnants of the German defences and other installations are these days sights for fascinated tourists most of whom can only imagine what life was like during the Occupation. For the sadly dwindling number of those who were there, each annual Liberation Day is a poignant reminder of great relief and joy, tempered by grim recollections of some of the Occupation’s darker moments.

Above : German soldiers standing in King Street, Saint Helier, at Charing Cross (now site of La Croix de la Reine monument) during Occupation of Jersey, August 1941.

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VICTORY75 BRITAIN UNDER NAZI OCCUPATION

JERSEY UNDER NAZI OCCUPATION The Occupation of the Channel Islands in 1940 was the first time that a part of Great Britain had been occupied by a foreign power since the invasion of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. Jersey’s Lieutenant Governor His Excellency Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton GCB reflects on life under the Nazis from Occupation to Liberation, an iconic period etched in to the Islands’ history.

ronically, the German occupation achieved what the French had tried and failed to achieve many times, and yet the invasion had been launched from Normandy, the very region of France from which William the Conqueror hailed and with which the Channel Islands most closely associates to this day.

The debate about whether the Channel Islands should have surrendered will always continue – like those surrounding similar defend-or-surrender decisions down the ages – but in reality, there was never any possibility of the Channel Islands being defended without a very great loss of life.

Indeed, the flags of all the Islands proudly bear the ‘leopardised lions’ of Normandy. The Occupation was an inevitable consequence of the rapid sweep of the Nazi regime across mainland Europe in 1940.

So, in mid-1940, the people of the Islands were faced with a stark choice: leave their homes and possessions behind and evacuate to England or stay and try to survive under occupation.

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BRITAIN UNDER NAZI OCCUPATION VICTORY75

“It would seem that Hitler was convinced Britain would launch an attack to try and reclaim the Islands as soon as practicable.”

It is important to remember that many of the men had already left to join the British Army, Navy and Air Force and a significant number of those living in The Islands had not been born there. Thus, after the bombing of St Helier Harbour in Jersey, the occupying Nazis arrived rounding up all of the remaining British military personnel and deporting them to France and Germany: ‘because they must be aliens and potential spies’! Subsequently, large-scale deportations of ‘non-resident’ Islanders occurred on 15th September 1942. This was a direct order from Hitler as a reprisal against the internment of German contractors working in Iran. Almost by return ferry, Forced Workers and Slave Workers, Spaniards, Moroccans and others, who, as a result of the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s were still incarcerated in concentration camps in southern France, as well as Polish and other Eastern Europeans, were brought in to The Islands to start building some of the most extensive defences seen along the European shoreline. It is estimated that close to 9 per cent of all the concrete poured by the Germans to defend the coast from northern Norway to the Spanish border, was laid in the Channel Islands.

Top : Batterie Schieifflen was the last of the batteries to be set up on Jersey. The guns used at this batterie were transferred from Batterie Gneisenau, Guernsey, to Jersey in August 1944 to increase defences in the East of the island.

It would seem that Hitler was convinced Britain would launch an attack to try and reclaim the Islands as soon as practicable.

Opposite : Bunker construction by OT Workers watched by high-ranking visiting German officers in Jersey, 1943.

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VICTORY75 BRITAIN UNDER NAZI OCCUPATION

Life was hard for Islanders during the occupation and local Nazi Commanders and their relationships with the Insular Authorities played a significant role in the quality of the day-to-day lives and fortunes of the communities.

There are many anecdotal stories of events that happened often in the most unlikely of situations. Meat was heavily rationed in the Islands, but one story is that a butcher was bringing an ‘undeclared’ (to the Germans) side of pork in to town one evening, when his van had a puncture. Whilst changing the wheel, a German patrol came along and demanded his papers and to know what he was doing. Once satisfied that he was there ‘legitimately’, the NCO in charge ordered his men to help the butcher change the tyre and then he was sent on his way. Fortunately, they never looked under the cover in the back of his van! However, after D-Day, conditions in the Islands got much worse; rations were severely curtailed as the links to France were cut. By early 1945, the Islanders were on the edge of starvation. If it had not been for the arrival of the SS Vega in December 1944 and subsequent shipments, carrying St John/Red Cross food parcels, then many Islanders would probably have died from malnutrition.

There are many tales of great bravery by Islanders during the occupation. A number tried to escape by boat to tell the outside world what was going on; sadly, few made the crossing to England successfully.

“A number of islanders committed crimes against the occupying forces and were deported to German Camps from where they never returned.” Whilst on 8th May 2020, Europe marks the 75th Anniversary of Victory by the Allies, Channel Islanders will be focused on their specific 75th Anniversary, that of the Liberation of Jersey and Guernsey on 9th May and of Sark on 10th.

Island families often gave up part of their meagre rations to leave food in hedgerows for the starving and ill-fed Slave Workers. Some, at great personal risk, sought to give sanctuary to escaping Forced or Slave Workers. A number of islanders committed crimes against the occupying forces and were deported to German Camps from where they never returned. At the same time, many children on the Islands during the occupation, amused themselves by trying to circumvent the Occupiers’ mandates and causing as much disruption as they could get away with.

Today, as Channel Islanders look forward to the future optimistically, the occupation of the Islands in 1940, but most importantly their Liberation in 1945, remain iconic moments in the character of the Islands – and of their people.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR His Excellency Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton, GCB, BSc, FRAeS ex Chief of the Air Staff and current Lieutenant Governor of Jersey.

Above : On 1st July 1941 (after exactly one year of Occupation) ‘V’ signs were painted in and around the Rouge Bouillon area, including the German road sign at the bottom of Queens Road. Above right : Thanks to the efforts of the International Red Cross, the Swedish ship SS Vega made six trips from Lisbon to the Channel Islands between December 1944 and the end of the War, bringing vital supplies.

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VICTORY75 GUERNSEY UNDER GERMAN OCCUPATION

GUERNSEY UNDER NAZI OCCUPATION The collapse of France in June 1940, left the British Channel Islands open to attack and likely occupation by Germany by sea, land and air. The only question was how soon this would happen. His Excellency Vice Admiral Sir Ian Corder, Lord Lieutenant of Guernsey, explains events from occupation to liberation.

n the end, and albeit reluctantly, the British government decided on 15 June 1940 that the British Channel Islands would not be defended as they were of limited strategic value and any attempt to prevent occupation by the Nazis would result in great loss of life, and ultimately be unsuccessful. After this decision to declare them “open islands”, the focus fell on the rapid evacuation of British troops and other military personnel – and those islanders who wished to chance crossing the Channel in the face of possible German air and sea attack. The demilitarisation of the islands was rapid, with most troops gone by 20 June.

This resulted in parents having to take heart-wrenching decisions about either sending their children in their school groups to Britain or keeping them at home. Guernsey evacuated approximately 5000 children and 12000 adults out of a population of 42,000, albeit as occupation loomed the Island’s government increasingly urged people to stay. Lack of space on ships wasn’t the only reason – the island needed people to keep its economy functioning throughout the occupation. The declaration of the Channel Islands as “open islands” with no military presence didn’t entirely protect the islanders, as the news did not reach the German Authorities.

For the islanders themselves it was more difficult due to the limited number of vessels available in the short time they had to leave and the consequent need for passengers to be prioritised.

Above : This image of the German’s marching through Guernsey was widely used for Nazi propaganda. St Peter’s Port. Guernsey. ca 1940.

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GUERNSEY UNDER GERMAN OCCUPATION VICTORY75

“Guernsey evacuated approximately 5000 children and 12000 adults out of a population of 42,000, albeit as occupation loomed the Island’s government increasingly urged people to stay.” Not realising the situation the Wehrmacht began to prepare an invasion force and the Luftwaffe launched several combined bombing and reconnaissance flights. It was during one of these on 28 June that a line of tomato lorries parked on the harbour side in St. Peter Port was mistaken for troop carriers and bombed – with 34 islanders killed and many more injured. Two days later a German reconnaissance pilot landed briefly at Guernsey’s deserted airport to test defences. Convinced they didn’t exist he reported back to his Luftwaffe commanders, who that night flew in a platoon of airmen by Junkers transport aircraft led by Major Albrecht Lanz. Lanz was driven in a police car to the Royal Hotel where he announced to local officials that Guernsey was now occupied by Germany. Given its strategic location, the island was to become the Headquarters of the German Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Islands. The only silver lining in a very dark cloud was that the Luftwaffe’s adventurous actions had saved Guernsey from further air raids and attacks by the Kriegsmarine, followed by German troops storming the island with significant loss of life. As the Occupation began anyone considered to be a possible British serviceman was rounded-up, Occupation Reichsmarks were issued to underpin commercial activity, British Summer Time was changed to Central European Time and everyone was instructed to drive on the right hand side of the road. And the German armed forces consolidated their position on Guernsey with a system of bunkers, sea defences, gun-emplacements and anti-aircraft batteries as the Island became one of the most heavily fortified parts of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, designed to protect against any attempt at the re-occupation of Western Europe by Britain and, subsequently, the Allies. Life under the Nazis was mixed. The Islanders were very much conflicted – like all peoples occupied by hostile powers down the ages, and by 1940 those occupied by the Nazis across Europe; with the added pressure of being the only part of Britain under enemy occupation.

Above : Pleinmont Observation Tower constructed in 1942.

No-one wanted to be occupied by Germany, but would widespread civil disobedience or acts of sabotage in a small island have made any difference? Undoubtedly, they would have provoked severe retribution against a population which had no idea how long the Occupation would last. Cut off from the outside world and with one enemy soldier for every two islanders, resistance was often through small acts of defiance. The Guernsey Underground News Service, known as GUNS, was a group of people who secretly listened to the BBC News on illegal radio sets, carefully preparing newsletters for covert distribution around the island. These updates of how the war was progressing did much to sustain morale in the face of Nazi propaganda. All members of GUNS – including Sark’s only baker – were eventually caught and taken to prisons on the continent, where two of them perished. In total, eight Guernsey people died as a result of resistance to the occupying Forces. The islanders had to survive, and to survive they needed to keep the economy working, crops growing, livestock herds healthy…and the everyday routines of society functioning – from feeding their families to maintaining education and public services. As it was the Nazis could be cruel enough without overt opposition from the local population. Restrictions on movement and activities – from forced sale of cars to visiting beaches and fishing – along with confiscation of radios and other property, censorship and, as the war progressed, increased rationing all combined to make the occupation a miserable and challenging experience.

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VICTORY75 GUERNSEY UNDER GERMAN OCCUPATION

The Gaumont Palace cinema in St Peter Port, Guernsey, featuring the film “Victory in the West” on Adolf Hitler’s birthday on 25th April 1941.

But when, for example, uncovering British spying missions in 1940 or experiencing the humiliation of successful SOE operations in 1942, which resulted in the capture of a total of eight German soldiers and the death of several others, the Nazis turned Guernsey’s uneasy day-to-day existence into a climate of fearful retribution against anyone suspected of involvement. Deportations to prisons and camps in France and Germany – from which some were never to return – constituted the main punishment. More than a thousand men, women and children were deported from Guernsey and Sark during the course of the occupation. Meanwhile, the cruel and callous treatment of slave labour imported from Eastern Europe and elsewhere to build Guernsey’s military defences and concrete bunkers was a constant reminder of Nazi cruelty. Neither was Guernsey’s small Jewish population spared the brutal persecution that characterised German occupation wherever it occurred. Three of its members were sent to Auschwitz, where they were murdered. The Normandy Landings in June 1944 brought some hope that the occupation could soon be over, but liberation still lay almost a year away.

So ironically the commencement of the liberation of Europe marked probably the most difficult period for the islanders as a whole with food and other vital supplies running so low that they ultimately became dependent on Red Cross deliveries aboard SS Vega, which made a number of trips to the islands. Ultimately, though, the Germans’ position was hopeless. On 9 May 1945 – one day after VE-Day –the Germans on Guernsey signed an act of unconditional surrender on board HMS Bulldog off St. Peter Port and soon afterwards British troops were taking over all key installations around the island. And that evening relief and reverie broke out across Guernsey as all generations celebrated the end of an Occupation, which had tested the islanders to the edge of their mental and physical endurance. Situated closer to the French coast, Sark was liberated the following day. The Union Jack was again flying across Guernsey, and its people were free, although the displaced inhabitants of Alderney would not be able to begin returning home to their shattered island until December 1945.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Vice Admiral Sir Ian Fergus Corder, KBE, CB is a retired senior Royal Navy officer who served as UK Military Representative to NATO. In 2016, he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey.

In September 1944, the occupying force declined an opportunity to surrender, and the Allies took the view that the Germans holed-up on the Channel Islands posed no threat and, as such, were not worth what could possibly become an unnecessary and costly military distraction.

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SPONSORED FEATURE – TRINITY INSURANCE SERVICES LTD VICTORY75

BROKING A GOOD DEAL FORTalk THEtoARMED FORCES Trinity about protecting Chichester-based Trinity Insurance Services Ltd is a specialist provider of tailored financial services to members of the Armed and their families. Managing Director the things thatForces matter most. Mark Austin explains how the business’ relationship with the military community extends much further in keeping with its Armed Forces Covenant commitments.

A hello@talktotrinity.com

former Gurkha officer, Trinity Insurance Services’ Managing Director Mark Austin is passionate about his business’ relationship with the military community. “I see it as a partnership on so many different levels”, he says, “not just a niche market for the financial services we tailor to the needs of members of the Armed Forces and their families”.

“Putting it simply, no other profession asks its members to put their lives on the line the way the military does…

“They deserve our support – and they deserve to be treated 01243 817777 fairly: which is the essence of the Armed Forces Covenant and the commitments which organisations, like ours, make to ensure that no member of the Armed Forces and Visit: TalktoTrinity.com

“As someone who served in the Armed Forces I am acutely their families is disadvantaged during their service years or aware of the role they play in protecting our Nation and its afterwards”. interests, and the many different stresses and sacrifices thatLimited is authorised and regulated Trinity Insurance Services Trinity Insurance Services signed the Armed Forces by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) number: 307068. this can involve – not only to those who serve, but to wives, Covenant in 2016 and in 2018 received a Silver Award partners, children and other relatives”. under the Covenant’s employer recognition scheme for the “There are times when we ask a lot of them – and perhaps level of support it provided members, their families and there have been times in recent years when we have asked veterans. They are currently working towards the Gold almost too much”, he says. Award.

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VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – TRINITY INSURANCE SERVICES LTD

For Trinity treating members of the Armed Forces and their families fairly and in line with the Covenant starts with the nature of the financial services it offers.

SIGN THE ARMED FORCES COVENANT

These include, for example, life insurance and personal accident insurance which covers deployment around the world, including war zones; moreover military kit and personal possession cover applies – on or off duty – anywhere in the world.

Over 4000 organisations have signed up to the Armed Forces Covenant “but there are still many organisations out there”, says Austin, “who should consider committing to it”.

Additionally, through its link-up with nationwide fee-free BFG Mortgages Trinity is able to help customise mortgages to the requirements of members of the Armed Forces, including, for example, easy access to home rental approval in the event of overseas postings. On top of the military-friendly products it markets, Trinity is also an Armed Forces-friendly employer. Most of Trinity’s call centre, administration and country-wide representatives have either served or have close family or other relations with the military.

“Not only does it formally express an organisation’s support for the Armed Forces and a way of framing that organisation’s support in whatever economic sector they are located, but for the organisation itself it provides all sorts of opportunities…

Moreover, Trinity supports the military community in other ways, principally by sponsoring military charities. In 2017 it signed a partnership agreement with SSAFA, the UK’s oldest tri-service military charity, under which Trinity makes special offers available to SSAFA supporters, volunteers, staff and beneficiaries and, in return, makes donations to SSAFA for every policy signed-up. Trinity is also engaged with many military sports and sponsors the Royal Army Women’s Football Team, the Royal Navy Football Association Inter-Region Championships and for the 11th year running, the Army Lawn Tennis Annual Indoor Championships.

“For many organisations it’s a valuable way of recruiting transitioning personnel….members of the Armed Forces are much sought after by many organisations for their disciplined organisational skills and teamwork ethos – as well as their specific operational or technical skillsets, many of which can be very advanced…” “Then there’s the opportunities for employees to get involved with military charity-related activities which are good for teambuilding –such as those which surround Armed Forces Day every year in June…” “It’s a partnership…”

INCREASED FOCUS ON TRANSITIONING PERSONNEL Trinity has traditionally focussed on the financial needs of serving personnel and their families. Whilst this will continue to be the case, the brokerage is also developing plans to offer financial services specifically customised to transitioning personnel.

Trinity’s move is very much in keeping with the launch by the Ministry of Defence of the Defence Transition Services (DTS), designed to help those in the services who may need assistance in taking control of their personal financial and insurance affairs. According to Veterans’ Minister Johnny Mercer, DTS will provide “new guidance for all service leavers on issues to consider when leaving the armed forces, including housing, finances and access to healthcare, as well as the crucial issue of their family’s transition away from being an integral part of Service life”.

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“The world outside the military is a brand new experience, especially for personnel who have been serving in the Armed Forces for a long period or, indeed, all their professional life,” says Austin.

Talk to Trinity about protecting the things that matter most. hello@talktotrinity.com 01243 817777 Visit: TalktoTrinity.com Trinity Insurance Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) number: 307068.

VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – NATIONWIDE BUILDING SOCIETY

THE NATIONWIDE BUILDING SOCIETY

SUPPORTING THOSE WHO SERVE – THEN AND NOW The Nationwide Building Society through its constituent predecessors has a long history of serving and supporting the Armed Forces going back to the First World War – a tradition, says former serving officer and Nationwide project manager Graeme Hood, which remains as strong as ever. But long before the Armed Forces Covenant was ever heard of the predecessor of the Nationwide Building Society, the Co-operative Permanent Building Society, was practising this philosophy in keeping with the “mutual” caring social values of the building society movement. Indeed, going back to the First World War, the Cooperative Permanent introduced “interest-only” payments on mortgages to help those serving in the Armed Forces on reduced income – something which was again introduced during the Second World War. It was in the immediate years after the end of the Second World War, and then through the 1950s, that the society, along with others in the building society movement, played such an important role in helping to fund the post-war housing programme, including for the many returning members of the military.

he 75th Anniversary year of the end of the Second World War is a remarkable time of celebration and remembrance, albeit amidst the tragedy of the Covid-19 virus which, amongst other “at risk” groups, sadly targets the remaining members of the “Greatest Generation” who, along with those no longer with us, preserved the freedom of the United Kingdom when it faced mortal threat. For me as a former serving officer in the 9th/12th Royal Lancers and now a reservist in the Royal Wessex Yeomanry, all military commemorations have deep meaning. They are reminders of great loss of life, of courage and bravery, and commitment and sacrifice. Also, they illuminate the debt that society owes those who were prepared to give their all for their country and its liberty and way of life. Then – and now. In this respect I am proud these days to be part of an organisation which is fully committed to its promises under the Armed Forces Covenant which ensures that members of the Armed Forces, their families and veterans are not in any way disadvantaged by their current or previous military service.

As many in Britain had feared the Second World War battlefront well and truly came to the home-front, bringing death and destruction to London and other port cities and major centres of industry and commerce. With more than 500,000 homes destroyed or uninhabitable, and several million more damaged, housing became the single most important challenge on the national agenda both in the immediate post-war period, and onwards through the 1950s.

In London one in six people had lost their homes, but in some other cities the ratio was much higher. In London one in six people had lost their homes, but in some other cities the ratio was much higher. The second most bombed city, for example, was Hull where more than 86,000 houses were destroyed or damaged, and 152,000 people left homeless, whilst in two nights of bombing of Clydebank only a handful of the town’s 12,000 homes were left undamaged.

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SPONSORED FEATURE – NATIONWIDE BUILDING SOCIETY VICTORY75

These dreadful statistics give some idea of not only the human suffering during the war, but the huge housing problems the nation faced after victory finally came in 1945 – which the Nationwide’s predecessors set out to help address with other members of the building society movement, helping, amongst others, those returning from war to settle down with their loved ones in peace – in a home of their own.

Also, Nationwide understands the difficulties that members of the Armed Forces can have with repeated and sudden changes of location and so adopts a flexible policy towards rental arrangements.

It very much recognises that members of the Armed Forces, their families and veterans qualify for special treatment given the nature of their current or previous career and does everything possible to ensure that is the case in terms of mortgages and other financial services.

Meanwhile, as part of its overall relationship with the Armed Forces, the Society was – and very much remains – a forcesfriendly employer, encouraging veterans to work for the Nationwide and facilitating service in the reserves, including by, for example, granting additional leave and protecting jobs for long deployments.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Graeme Hood is a Project Manager in Nationwide’s transformation team helping Nationwide meet the needs of its members now and in the future.

Nationwide is a staunch supporter of the Government’s Forces Help to Buy Scheme whereby the Ministry of Defence makes interest-free loans available for use as a deposit when members of the Armed Forces are seeking to purchase a home of their own

Key Points of the Forces Help to Buy Scheme The most difficult part of buying a home is often securing a deposit which can take a long time to save up for and is not always easy when you have other things to budget for such as legal fees and moving costs. The larger your deposit then, generally, the lower the interest rate you may qualify for. The Forces Help to Buy Scheme FHTB scheme is a government scheme offering Armed Forces Service Personnel an interest-free loan towards a deposit to buy a property. Eligible applicants can apply to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to borrow up to 50% of their salary, up to a maximum of £25,000. Eligible applicants can use their FHTB loan towards their deposit amount, on Help to Buy Equity Loan or Shared Ownership applications if they are also providing a deposit from our current acceptable sources.

You can find out more by calling us on 0800 30 20 10 (Mon-Fri 8am-8pm, Sat 9am-5pm) or visiting your local branch or via our web site www.nationwide.co.uk You can find out if you are eligible for Forces Help to Buy via

www.gov.uk/guidance/forces-help-to-buy

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SSAFA WORLD WAR II ARCHIVE VICTORY75

STORIES OF SUFFERING AND SACRIFICE The following stories of courage, suffering and sacrifice and the many powerful and mixed emotions war engenders have been compiled by SSAFA’s Bryony Waite.

NORMAN LEWIS Sapper Norman Lewis was captured by the Germans in 1940 and held as a prisoner of war in Poland for five years, until he embarked on an epic 10,000-mile escape. Crossing continents to evade recapture or worse, he arrived back on home soil one month before the end of the war in Europe. Now 100-year-old Norman recounts his story on the 75th Anniversary of Victory.

“Eventually, we got into Germany. They marched us through Germany for a day and then packed us onto cattle trucks for another three days and three nights. We were packed so tight that nobody could sit down. They just wedged us.”

“I was captured on 7 June 1940 about 10 miles from Rouen. I hadn’t a clue about Dunkirk [which happened between 26 May and 4 June]; nobody told us. “Walking up a hill, we noticed a group of soldiers firing over our heads at the bridge and we thought they were friendly…….. so we went towards them and realised that they were Germans…. we’d walked into an ambush.

Prisoner of War

“They marched us to a ditch which was surrounded by trees and they set up a machine gun to shoot us.”

Almost shot “As I was lined up to be shot, I knew I was going to die, my life flashed in front of me. I saw everything, and that I was about to lose it all. “But then a German officer coming down the road saw what was about to happen and stopped it and told us to get out of the ditch and start to walk behind the lines. “After two or three days on the march, it had dawned on me that I was a prisoner and that I couldn’t do much about it, so I accepted it. That’s how I got around it. Some of the lads wouldn’t accept it; they killed themselves. “When we got to Holland, they put us into coal barges. We were in the coal barges with the hatch shut tight; total darkness….

“Eventually the train stopped, and we were in Poland at a place called Thorn [Torun]. They opened the doors and we fell to the ground and they marched us to a large Polish fort which was going to be our prison for about six months. We were put into a cold room – ten men – and we slept on the floor that night. The next morning we’d had no food. They gave us a cup of coffee – imitation coffee; it was a drink and that was it, we didn’t mind that. “Men committed suicide; an awful lot of them did. “Eventually, we were ordered to come out of the fort and go to a large camp that they had built for us. There were 23,000 men there. I was there for two and a half years. “On the insides of the camp, there was one strand of wire, ten foot from the main barbed-wire fence. Anybody going over that single wire was shot, because the German’s said they were trying to escape. We were playing football one day and the ball bounced against the main fence. One man went charging after it, jumped over the single wire and they shot him.

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VICTORY75 SSAFA WORLD WAR II ARCHIVE

“Eventually, Red Cross parcels arrived. The first batch was one parcel for 16 men. We had to draw lots. Mine was an OXO cube out of that lot. Eventually, it was one parcel per man per week.

“I remember Churchill standing up and telling us that Germany had surrendered. I went out and there were people in the streets dancing. “

“If it hadn’t been for the Red Cross I wouldn’t be here now, because the German diet was no help.”

Escape “One day in 1945 we heard gunfire. It was the Russian Front. They got closer and eventually the German guards decided they would leave…. they locked us in the prison and threw away the key. “We didn’t know how we were going to get out. We had a bit of food and a drop of water, and eventually some Poles came and broke the door down. “We hid in a cellar for three days. The battle went on around us. When we came out of hiding the Russians were in charge. “Russians (eventually) put us on a cattle truck with a basket of food, a drink and some blankets. There was a fire in the middle with a stove and straw at either end. We were on there for six days and six nights and ended up in Odesa. “We set sail through Constantinople in Turkey, to Egypt, to Italy, to Gibraltar, to Liverpool “When I knocked on the door (in Stoke) in the early hours of the morning, my dad opened his bedroom window and said, “who’s there?” I said, “it’s me, Dad. Norman.” I had never seen my Dad breakdown before…...

“The following Monday I was talking to my next-door neighbour and I saw a young lady cycling over the hill. I thought, “she looks nice”. It turned out to be his sister Dorothy. I took her out that night, then I took her out the next night. By Wednesday I knew, “she’s the one I’m going to marry”. “We were married for 70 years until she died five years ago. We have three children and 17 grandchildren.”

VE-Day “I remember the news coming through about the end of the war in Europe. I remember Churchill standing up and telling us that Germany had surrendered. I went out and there were people in the streets dancing. There was drink. It was wonderful. Dorothy had gone to work, and all my friends were away at war, so I had the day to myself. “All the shopkeepers came out of the shops, and people put a street party on. We just laughed and were happy. “I was longing to get back and to pick Dorothy up, at 5pm. We didn’t do anything in the evening. At home we had a glass, me, my Dad and Dorothy. That was all.”

SSAFA “CHIN-WAG” A few years ago, a nurse spoke to Norman’s local SSAFA branch in Staffordshire to see if they were able to support him. Kathy Munslow, Divisional Secretary, went to meet him to have a ‘chin-wag’ and find out how she could support him. “It was a chin-wag that changed my life.” according to Norman. Though Norman didn’t want much help, Kathy was able to arrange getting him a wheelchair to help him get about his home and for trips. She also introduced him to Geoff from a local partner charity called Tri-Services. Geoff is also a former Royal Engineer (though younger), and the pair visit Norman every week to check and address his needs and to swap stories. Through Kathy and Geoff, Norman has met many other veterans, attended memorial ceremonies as guest of honour and even been awarded medals he didn’t realise he was owed. They even hosted a party for Norman’s 100th birthday last year.

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SSAFA WORLD WAR II ARCHIVE VICTORY75

EDWIN LEADBETTER Edwin Leadbetter, from the Glasgow area, served in the Royal Navy protecting Arctic Convoys delivering vital supplies to the Soviet Union, whilst battling atrocious seas, freezing weather and the enemy.

“I joined the Navy at 18 and was posted to be part of the Arctic Convoy on HMS Fencer, an attacker-class escort carrier. We were particularly useful because we had an aircraft on board, it would do reconnaissance work, and defend the ships in U-Boat attacks. I did 12 trips in total. “I was very lucky, because my ship was never hit, but there were some dreadful times. “I had to be on the bow, out on the deck in the freezing cold. It was thick ice, and you could barely stand on it. I had to keep the decks clear for the planes to take off and land onboard. There were times when the aircraft would crash land onto the deck or flip over – the conditions were treacherous..”

The Tirpitz At one point in the war, Edwin and his crew took part in an attack on the feared Tirpitz, a giant battleship, threatening the convoys from a Norwegian fjord. Damage to the Tirpitz meant months of repairs.

Life after war Edwin, like many men who saw active combat, struggled with his mental health. He spent time at The Bridge of Earn Hospital near Perth to recuperate.

“I experienced hallucinations about the war. I would wake up during the night and start shouting, and things like that, so I spent about six months in the converted convalescence hospital for the troops. “Lots of men seemed to have been affected in that way. But I’m alright. “I don’t think about my wartime experience too much.” After finally leaving the Navy in the mid-1950s after the Suez campaign, Edwin spent 19 years in the Royal Naval Reserve, and then joined the Territorial Army Reserves.

“We carried planes. They were on top and as we were going in they were above us….it took a tanking. “We were submarine chasers, so we gave after the Germans...”

War’s end Towards the end of the war, Edwin was posted to Australia, and then recalled back to the UK after Japan surrendered.

“I remember being told the war in Europe was over. It was great, but the war was still on and I just wanted to get back to Scotland. “We had to wait to get demobilised and I think it took eight or nine weeks to get back.”

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SSAFA SUPPORT In the past few years, Edwin has needed some additional support to enable him to continue living independently. His late son was a SSAFA Branch Secretary in Germany and Edwin’s daughter Elizabeth McKenna was a SSAFA caseworker, so they knew exactly where he needed to turn.) “I asked some caseworkers, Joyce and Irene, to help my Dad.” Elizabeth explains. “They… managed to secure him an annuity from the Royal Navy and Burma Star Association, which was fantastic. “They also secured £1,100 for him to get new clothes and furniture for his flat which was brilliant. I was shocked at how much help they gave him. “Not only that, they have been able to organise outings for him including to the site of the D-Day landings and …. HMS Belfast. “The help we got from SSAFA turned his world around….”

VICTORY75 SSAFA WORLD WAR II ARCHIVE

DANIEL HARRISON Corporal Daniel Harrison was drafted into the Royal Artillery in February 1943 as part of the 103rd Anti-Tank Regiment. He was in Germany when he was told the war in Europe was over. Now 97, he recounts his war years.

“I was doing an engineering apprenticeship before I was called up. I did my training in different parts of the country, including Bradford and the Brecon Beacons and then I was sent to Ashford ahead of the D-Day invasion. “I was put on a fishing boat with my company. I remember sitting in the Channel for hours, waiting for our moment. We landed on Gold Beach. It was my job to keep supplies flowing, and to assist with transport, and I did that for the rest of the war. “I remember working in Dresden. It was a ruin; the whole place had been flattened. It was hard to take in. “I hadn’t been away from home aside from on holidays, but in the Army, we became a family. We looked after one another, so there were some good times.”

VE Day On VE Day, Daniel had been out with his squadron camouflaging ammunition and repairing roads in a forest for access, alongside Canadian troops, when he was told the news the war had ended in Europe.

After the war in Europe was over, Daniel spent time in Hamburg to help with the rebuilding of the city. He was sent home on leave and was then posted to Denmark where he was tasked to recover bodies of men who had died and identify them for their relatives back home. He spent six months in the role, using items such as markings in shoes, earrings and photos to find out the identities of more than 50 men, who had died during the six years of war.

“Our officers and Sergeants were at our base, which was a ten-minute walk away from us. We came back from repairing the road, and after our meal they told us, “you won’t be going out again, Germany surrendered”. I don’t know how long they’d know before we were told. We didn’t have newspapers or anything like that. “We didn’t know it was happening… we saw what was going on, but you don’t believe everything they tell you. “It was gorgeous. There were tears and everybody was happy. I went to have a tot of rum somewhere. It was a celebration of a kind. “But it was a bit surprising how long it took before we had a chance of going home.”

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“I hadn’t been away from home aside from on holidays, but in the Army, we became a family. We looked after one another, so there were some good times.”

SSAFA WORLD WAR II ARCHIVE VICTORY75

KATHLEEN TOZER Private Kath Tozer joined the ATS as a gunner in January 1941 at the age of 17. She served at anti-aircraft bases on the home front until the end of the war. Kath was injured on duty, but carried on. Years later SSAFA fought for her to get a war pension.

VE-Day

“I joined wanting to be a gunner (at) Ack-Ack bases. I wanted to do my bit for the country.

“I was in Leeds on leave when the news came. The announcement came over on the radio..

“We used to do a 24-hour pattern, one day we’d do cook house duties, another day we’d do guard duty, then another day we’d do height finder, another day predictor.

“I went to the Town Hall, all the bands and drums were going. Thousands were on the street. It was packed... I never saw so many people.

“I loved the predictors and height finders…. We used them to tell where Jerry was and how high he was, using earphones.

“It was very exciting, everyone was screaming, shouting, laughing and making merry… After the war, Kath went on to have a family with Bill. She heads up five generations, with 40 in total.

“The German planes would come across the channel – over Dover – and we would get the fuses, put them on the shells and then the guns would fire up at the planes.

“75 years on from the war, that makes me feel old. To think I went through it all.

“I stayed in big Nissen Huts – with 26 girls in each one. You were never alone. You always had someone to talk to.”

Yanks

“I hope others now sit and think about that time and know that we tried to make it a better world. “Us women often don’t get the recognition we deserve – even though the Queen was in the ATS. I would like it to be remembered that we did our bit”.

“We used to go to dances with the Yanks, they were good company. They’d send lorries for us..

DECADES AFTER THE WAR, KATH MET SSAFA DIVISIONAL SECRETARY HARRY ELLIS

“They had oranges and bananas, and nylon stockings with seams up the back. Kath met her husband Bill during the war, while he was on leave from the Navy.

“I told him about one day (during the war) when we were in a Nissen hut full of mustard gas. We had to go in with masks on and test it for the civilians. When we came out, I fell over something and injured my ankle. The pain went on for a while, but I never took much notice.

“He was torpedoed. But he survived and got back OK. “It was awful being away from him when he was at sea. He was in Hong Kong fighting the Japanese…

“Harry told me that I should be eligible for a war pension, and so he set about helping me. He did all the paperwork and drove me back and forth to Plymouth, to doctors and to court. I got given a lump sum. You never get enough on a normal pension, so it helped.”

Kath and Bill got married …. and honeymooned in Torquay when he was on shore leave.

“As soon as I saw him, I fell for him. He was like Steve McQueen! “We went on to spend 70 years together. It was fate...”

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“I think SSAFA and Harry are wonderful – they are people who give up their spare time to help people”.

VICTORY75 SSAFA WORLD WAR II ARCHIVE

JOAN BLAIR Joan Blair served in the ATS during the war. On VE-Day she made her way to central London and danced and cheered in the Mall outside Buckingham Palace and in Trafalgar Square.

“I joined the ATS in 1941, aged 18, and was posted to Hounslow in London. My Dad wasn’t keen on me joining up. It was the furthest I had ever been from Newcastle. “I got posted to work as a clerk for a Colonel. We really felt important in our unit where we were. I really enjoyed it. “A friend of mine, also called Joan, was the Colonel’s driver. I used to help her as she would take the mail to the London office. The smog was awful, and the blackouts meant you couldn’t see anything, and my friend was scared driving in those conditions. I would walk in front of the car to make sure she stayed on the road. “During the war, London really suffered. I arrived after the Blitz had finished, but I met people who experienced the worst of it – and I saw all the damage from the bombs. “I was billeted to live with a woman and her young daughter, who I shared a room with. They had seen the worst of it. There had been direct bombing on that street and one family had all been killed in their home. Only their dog had survived.

“Somebody important had got us to the front position, because we were connected to headquarters in London. We saw the Royals come out on the balcony, and the young princess who is now our Queen – everyone screamed and clapped. We felt honoured to be where we were. I wish I’d had a camera. “There was so much noise and singing. Then we made our way to celebrate in Trafalgar Square. Everybody got together and we partied at night-time. We celebrated more than one night. “There was so much going on. We were just rejoicing, knowing it was mostly over.

“But there were some good experiences too. We used to go to dances with the Colonel, and he’d let me have a lift home with Joan in his car afterwards, which he wasn’t meant to do. I felt very special.”

“You think you’ll always remember it, but there was so much that happened it became a blur.

VE Day “When the news was blasted into our barracks in Feltham that the war in Europe was over, Joan and I made our way into central London, by jumping on the backs of lorries. There was plenty of traffic going in and out. “We were at the front of Buckingham Palace, with the masses of crowds behind us – everyone wanted to be there.

After the War Joan left the ATS and went back home to Newcastle where she worked for the Ministry of Health. She was there when the NHS was invented. Then she left to marry her husband who she had met at a dance hosted by the Ministry.

“I’d arranged a first date with him, and I was waiting for him for ages. I thought he’d stood me up, and I was about to go home – then I saw him racing down the road. He’d accidentally arranged the date on the same day as his sister’s wedding so had rushed to me after that!”

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VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – ROYAL NAVY NURSING SERVICE

QARNNS – 170 YEARS OF NAVAL NURSING From a cluster of nurses in the Crimean War to the gold-standard nursing practitioners of today’s Royal Navy, Lt. Leanne Fullwood tracks the history and achievements – past and present – of Queen Alexandra’s Royal Navy Nursing Service – Qarnns.

n the mid-19th Century whilst Florence Nightingale – “The Lady With The Lamp” – railed against the atrocious conditions and lack of proper treatment for British soldiers and sailors during the Crimean War and struggled to improve them at Scutari, not far away at the Royal Navy base at Therapia, also near Constantinople (today’s Istanbul), Eliza Mackenzie and her team of six nurses was taking the first tentative steps in creating what became the Naval Nursing Service. It took a further 30 years or so before the Naval Nursing Service formally came in to being staffed by five nursing sisters at Plymouth and a further six at the Royal Hospital Haslar, Gosport, built well over a century before in the mid18th Century. Their introduction generated a series of foolish precautions to ensure they were only able to see patients’ heads, shoulders and feet to avoid embarrassment. Wearing navy-blue serge dresses with a white apron, white frilly caps and navy-blue serge capes or tippets, they were addressed as “Madam” by patients and staff alike.

The sisters brought the valuable organisation and cleanliness essential to preventing the spread of infections and enhancing the chances of successful treatment. So much so that within a few years they were introduced at the Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham and by the end of the 19th Century the first two sisters were sent to sea on the so-called Benin Expedition of 1897. In 1902, the Admiralty was quick to seize the offer of Royal patronage from Her Majesty Queen Alexandra, wife of King Edward Vll, who became President of the Nursing Staff at which point it became known as Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service – and the acronym QARNNS was born. As talk of possible war with Germany increased, a QARNNS Reserve was founded in 1910 and at the outset of the First World War QARNNS was greatly expanded with the recruitment of volunteers, including from the Red Cross.

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SPONSORED FEATURE – ROYAL NAVY NURSING SERVICE VICTORY75

In both the First World War and the Second World War QARNNS were active in campaigns and naval bases around the world, including Gibraltar, Malta and Singapore, where some members were captured by the Japanese in 1942 and subsequently suffered the cruelty and deprivations of imprisonment. The Korean War, the Suez Crisis and the Falklands War were subsequent major crises in which members of QARNNS served with distinction. In 1949 a nursing section of the Women’s Royal Naval Service was created, but after only 11 years this was integrated in to QARNNS in 1960 creating a single women’s nursing service affiliated to the Royal Navy, though not formally part of it until 2000. Meanwhile, in 1983 the male and female nursing services were amalgamated with the title “Sister” giving way to Nursing Officer.

“In 1902, the Admiralty was quick to seize the offer of Royal patronage from Her Majesty Queen Alexandra, wife of King Edward Vll” Nursing in the Royal Navy today is a diverse role where QARNNS are required to be prepared for a wide variety of situations. Between February 2003 and November 2014, QARNNS and the Defence Medical Services (DMS) as a whole, provided extensive medical support to Operation TELIC (Iraq) and Operation HERRICK (Afghanistan). The evolution of medical capability during this time of enduring operations was astounding and the standard of healthcare and subsequent patient outcomes provided the aspiring baseline that all three services now seek to deliver on future operations.

Today, QARNNS operate primarily on a ‘contingency operations’ basis, responding quickly and flexibly to evolving situations around the globe. This has included QARNNS serving during the Ebola Crisis in 2015 in West Africa, humanitarian responses in the Philippines in 2013 and ongoing support to the Caribbean since 2017. QARNNS also contributed to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan in 2017 to deliver medical care to deployed personnel in the region as part of humanitarian and peace keeping initiatives. Royal Hospital Haslar was the last of eight military hospitals to close in 2009, having been utilised to provide medical care since 1753. The government ruled that military trauma care was more effective if streamlined within NHS major trauma centres. This resulted in the establishment of 5 Joint Hospital Group (JHG) Units including Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, Frimley Park hospital in Surrey and James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough. Additionally, Stanford Hall is the new Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre in Loughborough (formerly Headley Court) where military patients can receive specialist rehabilitation care from nurses and specialist allied health professionals. Although QARNNS belong to The Royal Navy, there is a requirement for all serving military nurses to be flexible to work in both land and maritime spheres, often in austere and challenging environments. The Commando Forward Surgical Group (Role 2) recently spent 4 months deployed in Norway alongside 3 Commando Brigade, conducting cold weather training to provide doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and medical assistants with the skills and knowledge required to live and work in extreme arctic conditions, with or without protective shelter.

Above : The Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham, opened by H.M. King Edward VII in 1905 the hospital was in operational service until 1961 when the Royal Navy vacated the site.

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Above : Her Majesty Queen Alexandra

“THE CREW LOOK AFTER THE SHIP, I LOOK AFTER THE CREW”

Adult Nurse Regular and Reserves Starting salary of £33,000 What you get • Starting salary of at least £33,000 after Initial Naval Training • Excellent pay and pension • Six weeks’ paid holiday each year • Free Medical and Dental Care • Sports and adventurous training • Caring for civilian and military patients alongside NHS teams and deploy around the world on ships or land operations providing first-class nursing care wherever you are What you need • BSc in Adult Nursing • Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) registration

For more information call 0345 607 5555 Visit www.royalnavy.mod.uk/careers

SPONSORED FEATURE – ROYAL NAVY NURSING SERVICE VICTORY75

When the unfamiliar is familiar “As Royal Navy Nurses, we are familiar with the unfamiliar. No matter how varied the mechanism of injury may be, our care will be the same. COVID 19 has not changed that. We our guiding ourselves, our colleagues and our patients through this. Verbal communication has never been more vital. PPE inhibits my concerned expression, nod of confidence, affirmation or reassuring smile. My words have to work so very hard so my patients know they are not alone”.

Today, the DMS utilises a Role 1-4 framework to ensure casualties are able to receive the appropriate level of treatment within a recommended time frame. ROLE 1 includes front line medical facilities such as

those on board ships, submarines and deployed units.

ROLE 2 provides a damage control resuscitation,

limb and life-saving capability and today, this includes an emergency department, operating theatre and intensive care capacity.

Lieutenant Nicki Whitehead, Critical Care Nursing Officer

RFA Argus

ROLE 3 in a maritime context is RFA Argus which

has extensive medical provisions on board including 4 emergency department trauma bays, operating theatres, up to 10 intensive care beds, intermediate care wards, full laboratory capability, CT scanner, x ray and ultra sound as well as a broad range of specialists including physiotherapy, mental health teams and the Hospital Management Cell that co-ordinates all activity within the complex. In addition to the Maritime Role 3 capability, there are land-based capabilities within Army Field Hospital Units and Joint Expedition Forces as well as the RAF’s Hospital Support Unit (HSU).

ROLE 4 capability has been firmly established within the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham (formerly Selly Oak) where the majority of military casualties wounded around the world are repatriated, for ongoing specialist care in one of the country’s leading trauma centres.

Those deployed in South Sudan in 2017 experienced challenges with sanitation, wet seasons and provision of an ‘Advise, Assist and Mentor’ package to the Vietnamese who were taking over the hospital in 2018 as their first ever peacekeeping mission. Today, QARNNS are currently fighting a war on home turf during the Coronavirus pandemic. Working in clinical areas within JHGs including emergency departments, wards and intensive care, they have been able to provide additional manning, advice and support to the NHS through this unusual time. Nurses serving in the Royal Navy and the wider DMS have to maintain the same registration requirements laid out by the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council as well as maintaining their Defence Operational Nursing Competencies and annual military training. Nursing as a profession has evolved and our skills and abilities allow us to care for patients autonomously in many ways, but generally as part of a skilled multidisciplinary team. In a large UK hospital, this is easily facilitated with resources and equipment, specialist personnel and support staff for all eventualities.

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VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – ROYAL NAVY NURSING SERVICE

In a deployed environment, these elements are precious commodities with every piece of kit and equipment being accounted for. Working within smaller teams also requires the most effective and robust team working practices to ensure seamless delivery of care to patients. Most crucially, this includes open communication from the most senior to the most junior member of the team. Every individual is respected and valued for their expertise and contribution to the output of the whole deployment. The skills and experience of military nurses allows them to carry gold-standard nursing practice all over the globe, both to serving personnel and civilians. It is unique, challenging and rewarding in equal measures and anyone who has served in the QARNNS, past and present, carry those values, skills and experiences with them for a lifetime.

Surviving an ice cold plunge We undertook icebreaking drills to ensure we could survive a plunge into ice cold water and extract ourselves unaided. We built shelters in the natural environment and established a fire and warmth to be able to cook food and survive the cold. We also had to test the equipment and tents of the Role 2 hospital to ensure we could maintain our capability and provide necessary patient care including re-warming if needed”. Chief Petty Officer Naval Nurse Andy Sutherland

Witnessing recovery is a real privilege “Caring for military patients at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine in Birmingham has been the most rewarding part of my career. Patients and their families receive the very best medical and welfare support from a huge network of military and civilian personnel to ensure they survive even the most catastrophic injuries. Supporting a patient both physically and mentally from critical care through to discharge and witnessing their recovery is a real privilege”. Lieutenant Leanne Fullwood, Nursing Officer

REMEMBERING AND GIVING THANKS TO THE SECOND WORLD WAR GENERATION.

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NORTHERN IRELAND VICTORY75

NORTHERN IRELAND IN WORLD WAR II PLATFORM FOR INVASION Northern Ireland played a key role in victory over Nazi Germany, both industrially and strategically, and its people served bravely in all military and related services in the different theatres of war around the world. Victory75 Editor Alan Spence explains.

orthern Ireland’s major contribution to the war effort included man-power, ships, aircraft, munitions, military textiles and food, and its strategic location abutting the Atlantic Coast made it a crucial base for helping the Allies close the air gap in the campaign against German U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic, and a major platform for assembling Allied troops, especially from the United States, for the invasion of Europe. After Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s portentous declaration of war on Germany on 3 September 1939, Northern Ireland – like the rest of the United Kingdom – generally fell in to a period of calm during the “Phoney War” – perhaps even more so given its distance from mainland Europe. Nonetheless, then and throughout the war, thousands of volunteers from across the different communities came forward to fight bravely on sea, land and air, including in the Battle of the Atlantic, on D-Day and over Germany during the strategic air offensive.

There have been many great tributes to the role Northern Ireland played in the war, including that of the Luftwaffe itself which in four night raids in May and June 1941 delivered Germany’s thoughts on the strategic importance of Belfast’s military and armaments industry in the form of high explosives, incendiaries and dreaded powerful landmines delivered by parachute. These raids became known as the Belfast Blitz, and took place at the tail-end of the Blitz on London and other UK cities and ports, and just ahead of Hitler switching his attention to his forthcoming invasion of the Soviet Union later in June 1941. The Luftwaffe was aiming to severely damage Belfast’s industrial capacity, but inevitably civilian casualties were high, partly due to Belfast’s relatively compact construction and crowded housing.

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VICTORY75 NORTHERN IRELAND

The Luftwaffe was aiming to severely damage Belfast’s industrial capacity, but inevitably civilian casualties were high, partly due to Belfast’s relatively compact construction and crowded housing. The first raid on the night of 7-8 April may only have occurred due to a large German bomber force of over 500 aircraft running out of primary targets due to heavy cloud cover and their pilots consequently seeking alternative targets. The second on 15-16 April, the so-called Easter Tuesday Raid, had hugely tragic consequences for the people of the city with 900 killed and many more seriously injured. Indeed, after London it was the second highest one-night casualty level for any UK city. Overall, in the four raids over 1000 people died and 100,000 were made homeless, with many more having to repair damage to their houses. The human cost of the Blitz sent a wave of horror through Northern Ireland and scarred many both mentally and physically for the rest of their lives. Top : Short_Sunderland_Mk_V Above : HMS Belfast Opposite : A.F.S. in York Street, Belfast – April 17th 1941.

Damage to Belfast industry was considerable with Royal Navy ships in Harland and Wolff’s shipyard for repairs hit by bombs, a boiler factory and power station wrecked and cranes and gantries destroyed.

and its sister ship the Olympic before the First World War – set about building some 140 warships and over a 120 merchant vessels during the war years with its workforce doubling to around 35,000.

At Shorts’ aircraft factory, three almost-completed Sterling Bombers were lost, amidst other serious damage, whilst elsewhere in the Docks Area and in nearby streets, wood yards, storage facilities and warehouses burned to the ground. However, in the context of Northern Ireland’s overall industrial contribution to the six-year war effort, the impact of the Belfast Blitz was thankfully minimal. Harland and Wolff had been positioning itself as a potential supplier of wartime military equipment – other than warships and other naval vessels – as Hitler’s threats to peace in Europe intensified from the mid-1930s. The company set up a venture with aircraft manufacturers Shorts – Short and Harland – which gained its first major order from the RAF for Handley Page Bombers. During the war its output focussed on the Short Stirling Bomber and the Short Sunderland Flying Boat, opening a repair base in the west of Northern Ireland to support the air campaign against Hitler’s U-boats. Meanwhile, Harland and Wolff’s shipyard – one of the most formidable in the world which had built the ill-fated Titanic

Orders from the Admiralty included the aircraft carriers HMS Formidable and HMS Unicorn, as well as the battle cruiser HMS Belfast which opened-up on the Normandy’s Atlantic Wall in the early hours of D-Day and these days is permanently anchored on the River Thames in central London as a museum ship operated by the Imperial War Museum. Harland and Wolff was also responsible for the repair of over 20,000 damaged vessels during the war years. Whilst remembered for its shipbuilding capabilities, Harland and Wolff was also involved in the manufacture of guns and tanks. Elsewhere, Northern Ireland linen and textile industries produced an estimated 200 million yards of cloth for the armed forces and munitions factories turned out around 75 million shells, whilst farmers dramatically raised the level of ploughed land – to even include the front lawn of Queen’s University in Belfast and part of the Stormont estate.

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“ Without Northern Ireland, I do not see how the American forces could have concentrated to begin the invasion of Europe” Supreme Allied Commander General Eisenhower

Meanwhile, out in the ocean to the west the longest military campaign of World War ll continued every day of the conflict – the Battle of the Atlantic – with geography dictating a significant role for Northern Ireland, the most westerly part of the United Kingdom.

But Northern Ireland’s strategic significance extended much further still for, in the words of Supreme Allied Commander General Eisenhower, it was here “that the American Army first began to concentrate for our share in the attack upon the citadel of continental Europe…

And it was here that convoy escorts could be assembled and deployed and increasingly longer-range aircraft flown in to what became a closing “air gap” out in the Atlantic where at the beginning of the war U-Boats had been safe from air attack.

“From here started the long, hard march to Allied Victory. Without Northern Ireland, I do not see how the American forces could have concentrated to begin the invasion of Europe”. Estimates suggest that up to 300,000 US troops transited through Northern Ireland with their maximum presence peaking at well over 100,000 at any one time. It was from here that some departed for combat in Operation Torch in North Africa in 1942 – the US’s first campaign against Germany – but Northern Ireland is mainly remembered as the embarkation point for the Normandy Beaches in 1944.

Keeping the Atlantic sea lanes open for food and other strategic supplies as well as the transportation of troops and military equipment was fundamentally important to the United Kingdom’s survival and ultimately the Allies successful invasion of western Europe and the defeat of Hitler. Catalina and Shorts Sunderland flying boats operated from Castle Archdale in Co Fermanagh seeking U-boats preying on merchant shipping, whilst the westerly port of Lisahally became the most strategically important base in the northwestern approaches for repairing and fuelling naval vessels and re-deploying them on convoy duty.

Bangor, North Down, is closely associated with the departure of US troops for Omaha and Utah Beaches. Fittingly its northern pier was re-named Eisenhower Pier by Mary Jean Eisenhower in 2005 in honour of her grandfather.

Indeed, when the remnants of Germany’s U-boat fleet officially surrendered on 15 May 1945 Admiral Max Horton insisted that this should happen in Lisahally in tribute to the port’s crucial role in the Battle of the Atlantic. - 131 -

Top : On Eisenhower Pier, mosaics depict the boroughs role in WWII, including General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s historic send off to the hundreds of Allied ships gathered in Bangor Bay before the D Day landings.

VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – FORCES CARS DIRECT

SERVING AND SAVING ARMED FORCES CAR DISCOUNTS

Lincoln-based Forces Cars Direct has saved serving and former members of the Armed Forces over £100 million on car purchases since it was launched 20 years ago and its discounts are going to be more important still to buyers in the uncertain post-Covid times ahead Managing Director Steve Thornton tells Alan Spence.

ith the Covid-19 lockdown freezing business and uncertainty at every level of the economy its very tough on most people”, says Steve Thornton, Managing Director of Forces Cars Direct (FCD)

line for the nation. Fact”, he says. “And don’t forget some of the conditions they have to serve in, whether in a straight military or humanitarian capacity, – and the potential for long-term mental or physical injury”.

“But I’m determined to do every thing I can to help out members of the Armed Forces and veterans – young and old – at this unprecedented time…that’s what I set up this business to do nearly 20 years ago – and its mission is more relevant now than ever”.

Much work has been done in more recent years to assist serving and ex-military with the Armed Forces Covenant a focal point for organisations’ commitment and activities.

Since Thornton himself became a veteran some two decades ago and set up FCD on the outskirts of Lincoln – a city which positively oozes links with the military, particularly the RAF – he has saved veterans around £100 million on car purchases in special discounts which can be up to 30 per cent of a new vehicle’s showroom price. The FCD secret includes a mix of low overheads, which bypass showrooms for online sales, and Thornton’s energetic negotiating skills with car manufacturers. But that’s not all. FCD, like many successful businesses, follows a rigorous partnership ethic which is based on mutual loyalty – demonstrated by the high levels of repeat business – and, in FCD’s case, a wider relationship with its military and former military clientele in keeping with its commitments as a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant. Thornton enjoyed his four years in the Army which took in a posting to Germany and involvement in Operation Granby in the Gulf, but left convinced that members of the Armed Forces, both present and retired, deserved a better deal generally from society. “No other job calls somebody to potentially put their life on the

Over 3000 organisations have now pledged their help and support to ensure that serving personnel, their families and veterans are in no way economically or societally disadvantaged due to their current or previous military service. “FCD’s professional contribution is the money it can save car buyers and the overall quality of our service, which makes customers return again and again”, says Thornton. “Our wider, partnership contribution comes in the form of the broad support we give to the Armed Forces’ community which takes many forms…” And, indeed it does.

Left : Steve Thornton

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SPONSORED FEATURE – FORCES CARS DIRECT VICTORY75

“FCD’s professional contribution is the money it can save car buyers and the overall quality of our service, which makes customers return again and again”

MEET THE BRAND AMBASSADOR Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins’ Ant Middleton, former Special Boat Service, adventurer, TV presenter, inspirational author and speaker – and Forces Cars Direct Brand Ambassador.

One of FCD’s high profile partnerships is with SSAFA-the Armed Forces charity, the UK’s oldest tri-service charity, to which it makes a contribution for every car sold – raising many thousands of pounds over the last three years or so.

Inevitably, Ant is popular with FCD’s clientele and has been a big hit at, amongst other venues, Catterick Garrison’s “Party In The Park” day .

FCD is also known for its support for the Armed Forces’ Battle Back Golf Programme founded at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, Headley Court in 2009, to utilise golf to support the wounded, injured and sick, aiding rehabilitation.

Earlier this year FCD hosted an exclusive “Ant Middleton Evening” at the Manchester Sporting Club, where the ex-SBS man shared his compelling stories and experiences with a captivated audience and signed copies of his latest book “The Fear Bubble”, whilst raising funds for The Rob Burrow Foundation for Motor Neurone Disease.

Catterick Garrison’s Annual “Party in the Park” fun and entertainment day is another event which attracts FCD’s support, along with Phoenix Veterans, a community-owned organisation which helps former members of the Armed Forces cope with PTSD.

“I jumped at the chance to work with a company who do something to benefit our military”

And when it comes to FCD’s support for the military community, there’s no doubting Thornton’s personal enthusiasm. This has driven him to play in goal for the charity Veterans in Crisis Sunderland in a fund-raising match at the Stadium of Light, and share his dulcet tones with Forces Sweetheart Kirsty Orsborn and others in a recording of “He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother” with proceeds going to a range of charities, including “All Call Signs”, the Homeless Veterans Project and the Lee Rigby Foundation.

Veteran Business of the Year Award Forces Cars Direct was awarded the coveted Veteran Business of the Year Award in 2019 by English Veterans Awards which celebrates the achievements of former Armed Forces personnel in the areas of sport, fitness, business and the wider community, and companies that go above and beyond to recruit from our veteran community.

CALL 01522 814010 OR EMAIL INFO@FORCESCARSDIRECT.COM - 133 -

VICTORY75 THE RAILWAYS

KEEPING THE WARTIME RAILWAYS RUNNING The UK’s railways made a vital contribution to victory in World War ll. As Luke Blake explains they were vital to the movement of food, fuel and other crucially important commodities around the country, as well as the transportation of equipment and troops.

uring World War ll Britain’s four main railway companies, the Great Western Railway (GWR), the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and the Southern Railway (SR), were all brought under government control as they had been in World War I – and the term “British Railways” emerged for the first time.

Railways also played a crucial role in the mass movement of civilians and troops. At the outset of war in 1939 the big fear was that Britain’s cities would face intensive bombardment by the Luftwaffe. This resulted in a massive evacuation of children, mothers with babies and those with disabilities from towns and cities to the countryside.

The combined operation of the four major railways and the smaller independent companies proved to be a huge asset in the war effort with more freight moved during World War II than at any point during the history of the railways. This reflected a number of factors, including attacks on British coastal shipping resulting in seaborne cargoes switching to the railways and massive movement of military equipment and armaments.

With the road network and the availability of vehicles limited in the 1940s, over 1.5 million evacuees were transported by the railways just in the first three days of the evacuation in September 1939. One of the biggest mass movements of military personnel occurred in late May and early June 1940 during the Dunkirk evacuation when nearly 340,000 British and French troops were brought across the Channel, principally to Dover.

The railways boasted some very powerful artillery mounted on railway chassis to defend against a possible German invasion. One, known as the “Boche Buster”, was fitted with an 18 inch gun – almost equivalent to those of the largest battleships of the time.

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THE RAILWAYS VICTORY75

From here the railways took over, returning British troops home or to new bases, and conveying French troops to various locations on the south coast where they returned to French ports in Brittany and Normandy. Indeed, throughout the war the railways were the key means by which troops and other military personnel moved around the country, whether embarking for combat overseas, transferring between bases or for a few days leave. And then, of course, in the run-up to D-Day many troops were moved from all over the UK by train to ports on the south coast, such as Portsmouth and Southampton from where on D-Day itself – 6 June 1944 – over 150,000 embarked for the Normandy beaches, followed by many thousands more.

TRAGEDY AND BRAVERY IN SOHAM EXPLOSION

All this came with major challenges, especially from the Luftwaffe seeking to cripple the British war effort. A large amount of railway infrastructure was heavily damaged or destroyed.

n the night of 2 June 1944 driver Benjamin Gimbert’s locomotive was pulling a freight train of almost 50 wagons loaded with 500 pound bombs and detonators when he noticed that the first wagon had somehow caught fire.

Southern Railway, in particular, suffered heavy damage, partly because its lines served some of the largest, most strategically important ports in the UK, including those used for D-Day.

Fearing a catastrophe he stopped the train and told his fireman, James Nightall, to climb down from the cab and uncouple the first wagon from the train.

Similarly, major lines running in to London from all other points of the compass were closely targeted, as well as those linked to other major ports around the United Kingdom – Belfast, Liverpool and Hull amongst them.

Once he had done this, Gimbert attempted to pull the wagon as far away as he could from the town of Soham in Cambridgeshire.

Emergency repairs to the system were usually made quickly, but routine maintenance was cut down to a minimum.

But as he was passing through the station, the wagon, containing over five tons of high explosives, exploded, killing Nightall and badly injuring Gimbert.

Trains could do little by way of defending themselves and there are stories of drivers whose trains were under attack accelerating towards tunnels. On the other hand there were fears that should the ground be bombed above the tunnel the latter could collapse on the train.

Soham Station was completely destroyed and the railway line badly damaged, but Gimbert and Nightall’s actions prevented an even worse tragedy. Had the whole train detonated, Soham would have been destroyed with many lives lost.

Travelling at night, crews would do their best to cover up the bright orange light from the fire box, though the effectiveness of this could be limited.

Their selfless courage earned the two men the George Cross and later modern diesel locomotives would carry their names in honour of their selfless courage.

The resilience of the network itself, however, benefitted from the anarchic way the 18,000 miles of track had been assembled mainly in the 19th and early 20th centuries. There was no overall strategic plan for a national network – just many different railway companies building lines often in competition with each other which ultimately led to substantial duplication of railway routes, including several north-south mainlines. The result was that decades later when the Luftwaffe was hellbent on closing it down, the lay-out was so extensive and complicated that it was usually always possible to get around bomb damage quite quickly by diverting trains via other rail routes – sometimes major, sometimes branch lines or spurs.

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Above : Ben Gimbert GC, Buckingham Palace, 10 October 1944. James Nightall was posthumously awarded the GC

VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – THE OPEN UNIVERSITY

EXCEPTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE The Open University’s (OU’s) Gerry Cronin explains the innovative role of the OU’s Disabled Veterans’ Scholarships Fund (DVSF) – the first of its kind in the UK dedicated to providing free education to disabled veterans, coupled with comprehensive disability and careers advisory support.

ilitary veterans have many specialist skills, as well as discipline and dedication in abundance, but they often lack the formal qualifications needed for many civilian jobs. Despite high levels of employment amongst veterans, they often find themselves in low-paid or routine occupations that don’t make use of their substantial skill set. A life-changing disability can often compound the challenge of finding fulfilling employment when injury ends a military career. Finding a satisfying role is described as ‘difficult’ by 44% of disabled veterans, who have had little choice in leaving behind their lives in the Armed Forces. The Open University’s Disabled Veterans’ Scholarships Fund (DVSF) is the first of its kind in the UK dedicated to providing free education to disabled veterans, injured in or due to service, along with a tailored wraparound disability support and careers advisory service.

Through scholarships, The Open University (OU) is providing a free and wholly supported route into Higher Education – enabling veterans to develop their confidence, reskill for a new career and prepare for a rewarding life outside of the Armed Forces. Since 1969, the OU’s mission has been to open up education for all. With a disabled student community of over 27,000 students, the OU is expert at providing extraordinary support to students experiencing an array of physical and mental disabilities. Many veterans do not consider university to be an option. They may not be able to afford fees or cannot attend classes because they are in work. They might not have the formal entry qualifications required by traditional universities.

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SPONSORED FEATURE – THE OPEN UNIVERSITY VICTORY75

“It’s because of the DVSF that I am here today! There are no words to say how grateful I am and how privileged I feel to be given this opportunity.” © SHUTTERSTOCK

However, the OU has no such entry barriers and offers students a fresh start. With over 180 qualifications and 600 modules to choose from, students only need the desire to learn and to look forward to planning their futures – for themselves and their families. Learning with the OU is life-changing. Distance learning means that students have the flexibility to study wherever and whenever they are able; around their jobs, family and other commitments.

FIND OUT MORE If you are a disabled veteran and would like to know more about the scheme, please visit:

Students who are awarded a DVSF scholarship are given support immediately and helped to make course choices and prepare for their studies. They are offered disability support to prevent their medical conditions standing in the way of success and are guided around the civilian world of work by experienced careers advisors.

www.open.ac.uk/courses/choose/veterans The scheme opens for applications for October intake on March 18, 2020 If you would like to make a gift to support the scheme, please contact:

The DVSF has already supported over 100 veterans to start their learning journey, and we are fundraising to provide more places and give even more opportunities for veterans to change their futures.

OUDO-Corporate-Partnerships@open.ac.uk

A NEW JOURNEY FOR DISABLED VETERANS LIKE DANIEL Daniel now had to adjust to his life outside the military while coping with his physical disability. He had nothing to occupy his mind and wasn’t able to play the sports he enjoyed so much. Dark thoughts started to close in, and Daniel slipped into depression. It was at this time that Daniel signed up with Help for Heroes, who introduced him to new sports he was able to do. They also told Daniel about the OU’s DVSF. Daniel applied to study a BSc (Honours) degree in Computing & IT and was part of the first intake of students to start their scholarship in 2018.

fter joining the Army at just 16 years old, OU student Daniel Bingley was flying high in a military career when a terrible injury turned his world upside down. In 2012 he was injured in Iraq following an explosion which seriously damaged his hearing. Later that year he also suffered a terrible fall which severely damaged both his knees meaning that he often requires the use of a wheelchair.

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“After being injured and struggling with life, I couldn’t see what my options were. The Open University gives me flexibility, so I can work around my sports training. It also helps me mentally and with my disability.”

VICTORY75 SPONSORED FEATURE – THE OPEN UNIVERSITY

FROM THE FORCES TO THE COURTROOM: KATE’S STORY “I would urge anyone considering applying for a scholarship to go for it. The OU will not be the answer to everything, but it just might be a part of the answer.”

hen Kate Moth was medically discharged from the Army in 2016, she began doubting her sense of self and had no idea what she was supposed to do next.

with comprehensive student support throughout. The careers service has also been extremely helpful, providing guidance on both courses and career paths.

“I had built up my identity around the idea of being someone who helps others, not the person who needs help themselves. For the sake of my own mental health, my previous careers as a police officer and a registered nurse were no longer an option for me and I was left questioning my very sense of self. When I stepped into the job market there were a couple of false starts and I clutched at more than a few straws – HR? Teaching? Candlestick making? However, in late 2017 I finally found a role within a local junior school as a teaching assistant, working with special education needs pupils, the hours of which allowed me to work around my family and study commitments. Although I settled into the working environment and found it rewarding, my ultimate goal was to work towards a role in the legal sector, where I could provide help to both the serving and veteran military community. I came across the advertisement for the OU Disabled Veterans’ Scholarships Fund on the Help for Heroes website and was overjoyed to be selected for a scholarship. I commenced study on a Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) in October 2019 and the experience has so far been overwhelmingly positive,

The recovery process is neither straightforward nor easy and I am very aware that there are veterans out there who have suffered life-altering and far more complex physical and mental injury than my own. Everyone’s journey is different, but one thing that seems clear to me, speaking both as a former health professional and a recovering veteran, is that focus on a positive goal can be very beneficial. I would urge anyone considering applying for a scholarship to go for it. The OU will not be the answer to everything, but it just might be a part of the answer.” FIND OUT MORE AT WWW.OPEN.AC.UK

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ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW 22 CARAT GOLD COIN MINTED FOR THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF VE DAY!

World first! Main design has a‘white’ rhodiumplatinum finish symbolic of the peace of VE Day!

Solid 22 carat gold coin for the 75th Anniversary of VE Day!

Only 3,999 have been minted! Actual size = 14mm diameter

Yours at the introductory price

of just

£99*

The world’s first Quarter Sovereign with a ‘white’ rhodium platinum finish: only 3,999 minted, z and it can be yours for just £99* (plus £4.99 P&P) AT A GLANCE • The world’s first quarter sovereign coin produced with a rhodium-platinum finish! • Minted to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of VE Day the main design with a brilliant white finish symbolic of the peace of VE Day • Mintage is only 3,999 • Guaranteed to sell-out: availability ends on 31st August 2020. At that time, any coins unsold will be melted down reinforcing the rarity of this coin. (see at right). • Order today and own it at the introductory price of £99 (plus £4.99 P&P) but only until 30th June 2020 after which the price will be £199, subject to availability

This year we mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, the moment when six dark years of war ended, and peace returned to Britain. In the challenging times we face today, with lockdowns and restrictions to our personal freedoms, it is easier for us to empathise with the outburst of relief that followed the announcement the war was finally over. The deprivations we are experiencing today however, pale in comparison to those faced during wartime. On the 8th of May 1945, Prime Minister Winston Churchill broadcast the news that the Second World War was over in Europe. The nation erupted into celebration: church bells rang out, people spilled onto the streets, the mood of relief and crowds growing through the day and into the night: the revellers even included two ‘incognito Princesses’, Elizabeth and Margaret! It’s important we remember this pivotal moment in our nation’s history, and that’s why an exceptional quarter sovereign coin has been minted. This new coin is the first ever to be produced with a rhodium-platinum finish! As the rarest of the six types of platinum, and costing as much as US$10,000 an ounce, rhodium is used only in exceptional circumstances - and in this instance, it has been used to give the main design of this solid gold coin a brilliant ‘white’ appearance to symbolise the peace brought by VE Day. This world first, and the significance of this commemoration, is why the mintage of just 3,999 coins is likely to be subject to considerable demand. Fewer than 1 in every 6,000 UK households can own one! Hattons of London are making this new 22 carat gold coin available to a limited number of new customers at the introductory price of £99 (plus £4.99 P&P) - but only until 30th June 2020. After this the price will be £199, subject to availability. There is a limit of one per household at this introductory price, and this offer is not available elsewhere. Guaranteed to sell-out: availability of this coin will end on 31st August 2020. At that time, any coins unsold will be melted down and we will issue to owners a new certificate stating the final mintage which may well be considerably lower than 3,999. This ensures there will be little or no surplus of this coin on the secondary market, reinforcing the rarity of the coin you have purchased. Considerable demand is CALL NOW, FREE: phone lines open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm expected for this world-first: you may apply with the coupon below but we recommend ordering by phone to immediately guarantee your order is or visit - www.hattonsoflondon.co.uk successful by calling 0800 083 5691.

0800 083 5691

Proudly associated with SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity. 10% of all net profits on sales of this coin, and other coins in this series, will be paid in support of SSAFA. Registered as a charity in England and Wales (Number 210760) in Scotland (Number SCO38056)

Major credit cards accepted. * Introductory price is £99 (plus £4.99 P&P) until 30th June 2020 after which the price will be £199. Offer subject to availability. Limit of one coin per household, UK households only | Your order is covered by our no-questions-asked 60 day complete satisfaction guarantee | Hattons of London has a five star Trustpilot rating | Technical specifications: Coin: quarter sovereign | Issuing authority: Alderney | Diameter: 14mm | Date of coin: 2020 | Purity: 22 carat gold | Weight: 2g | Minting Quality: Brilliant Uncirculated | Hattons of London reserves the right to alter or withdraw this offer before the end date | Hattons of London Ltd, Company 10718280

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Yes, I wish to apply for the limited edition 2020 VE Day 75th Anniversary Gold Quarter Sovereign to be delivered to my UK address for only £99 plus £4.99 P&P. I understand that I can apply for only one coin, and that my order should be made within 7 days. I confirm I am over 18 years of age.

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The Victory & Peace Medal AWARD, in association with SSAFA the Armed Forces charity, is proud to announce the striking of the Commemorative World War II Victory & Peace Medal to mark the 75th anniversary of victory and final settlement of peace in Europe, the Far East and Pacific war zones after much sacrifice and loss of life over a total six year period of war.

As we are commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, we are delighted to confirm AWARDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s partnership with SSAFA, the Armed Forces Charity.

The ribbon has outer bands of red and blue representing the services and the involvement of SSAFA whilst the the two diamond white bands reflect the 75th anniversary of victory and peace. The ribbon is fitted to an uniquely designed suspender with its unusual feature of the dove of peace rising in flight carrying in its beak a palm branch, the symbol of victory and peace.

Lieutenant-General Sir Andrew Gregory, KBE, CB Chief Executive of SSAFA We hope you will support SSAFA by applying for the Commemorative Victory & Peace Medal and through the purchase of items in the Victory 75 Collection available from AWARD. Any funds raised will enable SSAFA to continue its vital work.

The Victory & Peace Presentation Set features an engraved full-size medal, miniature medal and matching ribbon brooch bar, elegantly displayed in an attractive case which is personalised with service details. This handsome set offers safe and secure storage of the beautifully presented medals and has a saving of ÂŁ23.50 on individual prices.

Proud supporters of Veteran Groups and Charities for over 30 years.

www.awardmedals.com Apply for the medal or send for the catalogue and details of our medal services: AWARD (Dept V75A), PO Box 300, Shrewsbury SY5 6WP, UK Tel: 01952 510053 Email: info@awardmedals.com