#1 The Daily Mail obsession with Hitler and all things related

[Bev]

Previously unseen photos showing British and American soldiers liberating the Dutch city of Eindhoven 68 years ago have come to light.

The black and white snaps depict scenes of jubilation among the local residents who had just endured four years and four months of Nazi occupation.

Many show captured German soldiers being rounded up and searched by the Allied troops while other servicemen are seen having a rest in the grass after taking the city.

British Guards Armoured division driving through delighted locals in Eindoven en route to Arnhem


Others are of women arm-in-arm with their liberators, children clambering over British army trucks and tanks and soldiers holding babies aloft.

But the scenes of celebration during the early stages of the doomed Operation Market Garden in September 1944 proved shortlived.



Hours after the pictures were taken, the Germans launched a devastating air attack on Eindhoven, destroying buildings and killing scores of civilians.

Market Garden - a daring mission to seize bridges across the Rhine and drive the enemy back towards Germany - ended in bloody failure.



The black and white snaps depict scenes of jubilation among the local residents who had just endured four years and four months of Nazi occupation

On September 17, 1944 some 34,000 paratroopers were dropped behind enemy lines at various points along the Rhine river in order to take the strategic bridges.

The British 30 Corps tank regiment were to provide back up by driving 40 miles along a single track road from Eindhoven in the south to Arnhem in the north.

But the British were unable to reach their final objective and, with three miles to go, abandoned the operation on September 25, leaving 10,500 British paratroopers stranded at Arnhem.

About 1,500 of them were killed in the Battle of Arnhem and 6,500 taken prisoner.

Another 2,500 soldiers were left on the wrong side of the Rhine but were heroically rescued by boat in a night-time evacuation under the noses of the Germans.


Many of the photos show captured German soldiers being rounded up and searched by the Allied troops while other servicemen are seen having a rest in the grass after taking the city.

Despite the failure of the operation, Eindhoven remained free from the Nazis.

The unpublished photos were unearthed by British author Ian Gardner as he researched his book 'Deliver Us From Darkness'.

It is a detailed account of the actions of the companion unit of the 'Band of Brothers' US paratroopers, who were immortalised in Steven Spielberg's TV series of the same name.

Ian, from Aldershot, Hampshire, said: 'Military historians have said Market Garden was a total disaster.





The British 30 Corps tank regiment were to provide back up by driving 40 miles along a single track road from Eindhoven in the south to Arnhem in the north.

'But try telling that to the Dutch for whom Allied paratroopers were liberators from German tyranny and occupation.

'Upon entering Eindhoven, which was the first Dutch city to be liberated, thousands of people spilled onto the streets to embrace the paratroopers, overjoyed after four dark years of Nazi occupation.

'When XXX Corps entered the city, the roads were so crowded their tanks and vehicles were unable to get through.

'The celebrations were short-lived as Eindhoven was bombed the following evening by the Luftwaffe, causing hundreds of civilian casualties.

'The German army began an audacious series of counter-attacks along the road to Arnhem and over the next two weeks the American paratroopers were called upon to defend the transport hubs north of Eindhoven.'

British Guards Armoured division driving through Eindoven en route to Arnhem

Around 2,500 soldiers were left on the wrong side of the Rhine but were heroically rescued by boat in a night-time evacuation under the noses of the Germans.

Just a load of photos so in the interest of those with slow connections, I won't link to them all, just the one.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2207812/Newly-discovered-photos-scenes-jubilation-allied-troops-liberate-Eindhoven-years-Nazi-occupation.html

[Karl Radl]

Originally Posted by Bev

Good points and all true. It's the reason I go to the DM first -it's the only paper that prints the sort of news I'm interested in, although the spin and agenda is irritating when you have to wade through half a dozen 70 year old embellished and embroidered non-stories to get to the two or three immigration stories.

Meh I wouldn't even bother personally. I've taken to reading little of the mainstream news these days other than the Beeb, because I simply can't stand to read most it. I even find the Beeb hard to read and most right-wing news sources are either pro-jewish (which I can't abide) or tin-foilers (OMFG doomsday is upon us!).

There is a little bit of Eastern European and "extremist muslim" (which recently seems to encompass any muslim with its mouth open) bashing permitted but that's about it in a nutshell.

Yup: even then they seem to be scaling that back because of the 'incitement to hatred' legislation. The victim rights lobby is also increasing taking pot shots at the standard Mail-type vilification of those yet to be tried (the whole 'court of public opinion' thing).

Basically you can only have an opinion any more if you are liberal or a leftist. After all; as even the Times of late pointed out, the Tory party are basically free market junkies, while the Labour party are believers in a liberal nanny state.

People hate politicians and both parties as a rule, but they don't see any credible alternative party.

Mind you from what my mother tells me the price of fuel and the continued mass youth unemployment might be the two things that finally break the stuffed shirt brigade. Oh and plus the fact that employers are using the crunch created by the banks to insist in an; effective, increase in working hours, pay freezes (even withholding inflation linked rises) and treating their staff like shite.

Basically if things don't improve in the next 3-4 years there will be; what they are already fearing, a 'lost generation' who hate banks, politicians and immigrants.

I didn't even know about that caper so it couldn't have been disseminated too widely. I've just begun reading his interview with Rees. Rees says:

Well he basically defended genocide publicly and it was quickly brushed up the carpet. I did write to him about his disgusting sentiments however: he didn't reply.

"it" being the bombing of German civilians and houses.

I wonder if he holds the same view with regards to Palestinian schools and hospitals?

Quite possibly: 'holocaust' historians tend to; if not already jewish, be rather pro-Zionist as a rule of thumb. Conversely those who write on the Soviet system and Stalin's terror have a tendency to be anti-Zionist and somewhat critical of the over-emphasis on the holohoax.

[Bev]

Surprise!


What - you didn't think they'd miss a day, did you?

German schoolchildren preparing for the invasion of the UK during the Second World War were given a textbook portraying Hitler as a man of peace and the British as evil warmongers.

The bizarre 1942 publication - which was written in English - attempts to give children an idea of what to expect when visiting the British Isles in the event of a successful Nazi take-over.

In it, a variety of bold claims are made, accusing Jews of running the British press and statements about English people secretly supporting Fascism, but it does reflect Hitler's admiration for the work of William Shakespeare.



Taking the peace: Designed to prepare schoolchildren for life in Britain under German occupation, the text book makes a series of bizarre claims

Embellished: The textbook grossly exaggerates the gulf between the rich and the poor, complete with his cartoon which supposedly depicts how the British upper classes treat the impoverished





How the other half live: This image, left, is designed to give an 'insight' into how the lower classes were housed in slums, while another chapter, right, focuses on the 'decline' of agriculture



Sentiments of anti-semitism: Predictably, the guide book also includes a section on how the Jews are supposedly regarded in England

Laughably, Hitler is portrayed as a 'great peacemaker' while English ‘atrocities’ against India and Ireland are described in gory detail - with no mention at all of Nazi death camps.

And the gulf between the upper and working classes is greatly exaggerated, with whole chapters dedicated to the Victorian slums of London.



To emphasise their claims, the text is accompanied by strange illustrations, including a cartoon of an aristocrat trampling over poor people.

Sections have titles like ‘A Document of Misery’, ‘Decline and Fall of the British Empire’ and ‘England and the Jews’.


However, the textbook also celebrates various aspects of British culture, including the countryside and the works of Shakespeare.

A picture of the Bard’s birthplace, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warkwickshire, is even splashed across the front cover.

Hitler, a notorious fan of the playwright, even dedicated a section of the text to his role as a British cultural icon.

The book, which was designed to be distributed among German teens ahead of a planned invasion, celebrates Hitler as a man of peace.
ENGLISH CHILDREN WERE TAUGHT...

Hitler was a mass murderer responsible for the deaths of millions
In the event of a Nazi invasion, advice on how best to stay safe
Der Führer and Nazi Germany bore a deep hatred of the Jews
War was declared when all other attempts at diplomacy with Nazi Germany failed
Hitler built compounds to separate Jews from the remaining German population
Millions of Jews were sent to death camps, where they were executed

GERMAN CHILDREN WERE TAUGHT...

Hitler was a man of peace, who made the world several offers of friendship
In the event of a Nazi invasion, advice on how best to appreciate Shakespeare
Even the English intensely dislike the Jewish way of life
France spat on Hitler's outstretched hand of friendship and increased its military
The English aristocracy trampled over its lower classes and forced them into slums
The English were guilty of 'atrocities' against India and Ireland

One section reads: 'He [Hitler] made before the German people and the world several offers of peace, in words which were unequivocal, emotional and idealistic.

'He was called a liar in the world press. He offered France friendship saying that there was no further cause of quarrel between their two peoples.

'The French press spat on his outstretched hand and increased their military strength.'

The 1942 book was entitled ‘Hirts Englandkundliches Lesebuch fur die Oberstufe an Oberschulen’ [‘English Textbook theory for Colleges and High Schools’], and was written at the height of Nazi expansion across Europe.

It has been put up for sale by a private collector and is expected to fetch £250 when it is sold at auction on Thursday.



Cultural tips: A guide on the country's Elizabethan theatres was also included in the book


Getting familiar with the Bard: A chapter on William Shakespeare and his significance in literature is also touched upon


Economical with the truth: English 'atrocities' against India and Ireland are described in gory detail - with no mention of Nazi death camps



Richard Westwood-Brookes, of Mullock’s Auctioneers in Ludlow, Shropshire, said the textbook gave a 'comic-book' interpretation of 1940s British life.

He said: 'This is a chilling reminder of what the Nazis had in store for us had they successfully invaded in 1940.

'They were clearly preparing their students and their troops for occupation of the UK - training them in the culture and history of our country so that they knew what to expect when they took over.

'It is particularly frightening to see the chapters on our Jewish heritage and our relationships with the Jews in the UK.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2208404/Nazi-textbook-portrays-Hitler-great-peacemaker-British-EVIL---Shakespeare.html

[Henry.]

'It is particularly frightening to see the chapters on our Jewish heritage and our relationships with the Jews in the UK.'

What Jewish heritage?

I/We don't have any....

[Dawn Cannon]

Originally Posted by Henry.

What Jewish heritage?

I/We don't have any....

Must mean "The Dark Satanic Mills" which were often jewish owned, particularly in hellish towns like Bradford.

[andy]

"And the gulf between the upper and working classes is greatly exaggerated, with whole chapters dedicated to the Victorian slums of London."
Surely it would not be possible even for Goebbels to exaggerate the gap between rich and poor.It is documented historical fact.

[Bev]

Another day, another story. This time, Hitler was plotting against the Paddies.

A top-secret Nazi war dossier has come to light which reveals Hitler's chilling plans to invade Ireland during the Second World War.

The document contains detailed maps and postcards of the country and has been kept by a family out of public view since the end of war.

And it reveals that even though Ireland was officially neutral during the conflict, Hitler still viewed the country as a target for invasion.

The Irish allowed German U-boats and submarines into their waters during the Second World War, but the booklet entitled Militargeographische Angaben uber Irland pinpoints key cities and other sites in Ireland for destruction.


A new document has come to light which reveals Hitler's plans to attack Ireland, left. The dossier includes eight pull out maps where key cities and other important locations are numbered, right



Postcards, such as this one of Dublin, are also included in the document to provide extra information about the layout of key sites

The document - handed to high ranking Nazi officers - also included pictures of key locations such as dams, ports, cities, high ground and beaches which the German High Command believed would be of importance when they invaded.

These key places were numbered by military officials before being plotted on a series of eight fold-out maps, which would have been used during 'Operation Sealion.'



On September 17, 1940 Hitler was forced to scrap Operation Sealion because of the Luftwaffe's failure to gain air supremacy over England during the Battle of Britain.

The Nazi offensive never took place after the German defeat in the skies, but experts believe the book reveals what could have happened if the Nazi's had conquered Britain.



The scarce copy of 'Militargeographische Angaben uber Irland' published in 1940 has been uncovered for the first time after it was kept in the same family following the end of the Second World War


On September 17, 1940, Hitler was forced to scrap plans to invade Ireland - called Operation Sealion - because of the Luftwaffe's failure to gain air supremacy over England during the Battle of Britain



Although the Nazi offensive never took place, experts believe the book reveals what could have happened if the Hitler had conquered Britain



The document is expected to fetch up to £600 when it goes under the hammer at Ludlow Race Course tomorrow

It is thought the documents show that might have considered invading Ireland first and establishing an invasion force there for a later attack on the UK mainland



This postcard shows a power station in Shannon County Clare situated in the south-east of the country

The scarce copy the document which was published in 1940 is expected to fetch up to £600 when it goes under the hammer at Ludlow Race Course tomorrow.

Historical documents expert Richard Westwood Brookes, of Mullocks Auctioneers, said the booklet shows how the Irish were wrong to believe they were safe from invasion after accommodating the Nazis during the war.

He said: 'This will come as quite a surprise as the Irish believed that the country's neutrality protected them from the Nazis.

'They were clearly wrong and it is a very sobering reminder that no one in the world was safe from the evil of Hitler.

'Despite the fact that many Irish were sympathetic to Germany throughout the war, they were clearly earmarked by the Nais for invasion and for the same fate as all the other countries in Europe.

Mr Westwood Brookes said it was also possible that Hitler might considered invading Ireland first to establish an invasion force there for a later attack on the UK mainland.

He added: 'It would have made complete military sense for the Germans to invade Ireland as it was a perfect location to set up to reinvade England in a bid to take Britain back from the Germans.

'Ireland had strategic links to America as well so it would have made tactical sense for them to occupy the country swiftly.

'We have naturally come across invasion plans for Britain before but I have never seen one for Ireland.

'We are really expecting interest from Irish collectors - it is, after all, part of their history that more than likely they were completely unaware of.'



Among the postcard set is this image of Stormont, in Belfast, which is now the home to the Northern Ireland Assembly



This grainy image shows the docks area of Belfast which would have been a key port for Hitler to seize to launch any attack on the country



Although historians have discovered invasion plans for Britain before this is the first time a detailed plan for taking Ireland has been uncovered


Expert Richard Westwood Brookes said the document shows how the Irish were wrong to believe they were safe from invasion after accommodating the Nazis during the war



This picture shows the built up centre of Belfast - experts are expecting interest from Irish collectors as the dossier provides a chilling reminder of what might have been had Hitler followed through with plans to invade the country



It made military sense for the Germans to invade Ireland as it was a perfect location to set up for an invasion of England




The quiet spot of Glenalough, a glacial valley in County Wicklow, was also highlighted in the document



The contents page for the documents highlights the detailed extent to which the Nazis had planned an invasion of Ireland




Ireland had strategic links to America so it would have made tactical sense for the Nazis to occupy the country swiftly



The front page of the dossier which shows that no one was off limits for the Nazis when it came to Hitler


Key spots were plotted on a series of eight fold-out maps, which would have been used during 'Operation Sealion'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2208860/Top-secret-dossier-uncovered-containing-detailed-maps-postcards-Hitlers-plan-invade-neutral-Ireland.html

[andy]

The fact is despite many "movement" people of Irish descent claiming otherwise the Irish did not "allow" German submarines to use "their" waters.The fact was with only two serious ships the Irish Navy had no means to stop them.Add to that the fact that the UK had declared a 200 mile limit on the west coast of Ireland and mined it.Saying German subs and ships used Irish waters is exactly the same as saying they used British waters.Whish they did when hunting targets.
Develera's and Ireland's much vaunted and infamous neutrality does not stand up to serious examination certainly not in the same way that Sweden's,Switzerland's,Spain's and Portugal's.The entire Irish Intelligence service was handed over to the UK.Sure there was much public talk and Churchill addressed it in his victory speech.Many Irish radicals claim this was Develeras quid pro quo cementing his (Develeras) reputation among the Irish as a die hard independent of the British nation.Smoke and mirrors as always of course many Irish did support the third reich though more fought for the allies.This was true of the British as well.

[Karl Radl]

Originally Posted by Bev

Another day, another story. This time, Hitler was plotting against the Paddies.

That's possibly the most idiotic thing the DM has said for a while given that what it is citing is an intelligence document in the event that an invasion of Ireland became necessary. Incidentally speculative operational plans have been standard in every country from the mid-late nineteenth century onwards: they were not part of Operation Sealion. You can see that if you can read German from the front page of the document: 'Detailed Military Geography of Ireland' as of 30th September 1940.

Its a fucking standard document: bloody amateurs.

The British Empire drew up plans to go to war with America during the first Irish civil war following World War I (between Loyalists and Republicans): does that therefore mean that the British Empire were secretly planning to invade the USA in the early 1920s?

I found the auctioneer's email and suggested he might like to either learn to read German (as he can't be a 'military documents expert' if he said what he said) or sue the DM for misquoting him. I also asked him what body he is accredited by given that they have standards about this kind of thing and they cannot simply lie about a historical document that is up for auction as it is malpractice.

[Bev]

Originally Posted by Karl Radl

That's possibly the most idiotic thing the DM has said for a while given that what it is citing is an intelligence document in the event that an invasion of Ireland became necessary. Incidentally speculative operational plans have been standard in every country from the mid-late nineteenth century onwards: they were not part of Operation Sealion. You can see that if you can read German from the front page of the document: 'Detailed Military Geography of Ireland' as of 30th September 1940.

Its a fucking standard document: bloody amateurs.

The British Empire drew up plans to go to war with America during the first Irish civil war following World War I (between Loyalists and Republicans): does that therefore mean that the British Empire were secretly planning to invade the USA in the early 1920s?

I found the auctioneer's email and suggested he might like to either learn to read German (as he can't be a 'military documents expert' if he said what he said) or sue the DM for misquoting him. I also asked him what body he is accredited by given that they have standards about this kind of thing and they cannot simply lie about a historical document that is up for auction as it is malpractice.

Ooh - excellent. I was hoping you, EG or Aryan Lord would see this particular story and offer your opinion on it. It just didn't sit right with me but I wasn't sure why.

[Karl Radl]

Originally Posted by Bev

Ooh - excellent. I was hoping you, EG or Aryan Lord would see this particular story and offer your opinion on it. It just didn't sit right with me but I wasn't sure why.

Its just stupid: it annoys me because there isn't a word of truth in it. The numbers are actually points of major strategic interest not 'invasion points'. It is why a power station is included: it is of little value in strictly military terms, but it has great value in intelligence and strategic terms.

I mean the fuck wits are that transparent that they claim it was for Operation Sealion when it is dated 30th September 1940: when Sealion was postponed indefinitely on 17th September 1940.

Fucking morons.

[Bev]

Originally Posted by Karl Radl

Its just stupid: it annoys me because there isn't a word of truth in it. The numbers are actually points of major strategic interest not 'invasion points'. It is why a power station is included: it is of little value in strictly military terms, but it has great value in intelligence and strategic terms.

I mean the fuck wits are that transparent that they claim it was for Operation Sealion when it is dated 30th September 1940: when Sealion was postponed indefinitely on 17th September 1940.

Fucking morons.

I did wonder about the dates!

I'm just reading the comments and some of them are enough to reduce the reader to tears.

There are a couple of reasonable ones such as:

Good god! The Irish DID NOT allow German U-Boats into their ports during the war! That is a ludicrous old wives tale only repeated by uneducated and ignorant morons. The truth of the matter is Ireland actually violated her 'neutrality' several times in FAVOUR of the Allied cause. Some quick facts for the anti-Irish brigade and Phil Vinter. Ireland never introduced a foreign enlistment act during WW2. They easily could have done so in order to prevent Irish people joining the British military. They didn't and thousands of Irish men and woman served in the British armed forces (a higher proportion from the South than the loyalist North in fact). The Irish security services secretly liaised with British intelligence during WW2 and there was a joint plan in place to deal with a German invasion of Ireland. Critical weather data used for the D-Day landings was provided by the Irish government. The Irish army ditched German style helmets & bought helmets from Britain. I could go on!

and

Operation Sealion was the german plan to invade the UK mainland, not Ireland. Operation Green, or Unternehmen Grün, was the planned invasion of Ireland. Do your homework before printing articles, it's embarrassing when national media continually get things wrong.

but there's plenty of sectarian stupidity popping up and as for this one:

The Irish always glorify tragedy after it happens, rather than preventing it in the first place. Their foreign policy has always been misguided.

LOVE this one, though.

STOP softening us up for war. We dont want it or need it. How many more so called documents will be found this month ? The DM has published at least 5 recently. Give it a rest. We are not stupid.

[Bev]

Today's pitiful, pitiful story comes to you from:



In fact, I'm for the DM on this one.

Please put down any cups, swallow anything you have in your mouths, (I am not responsible for choking or splattered monitors) and read on for today's instalment.)

Does this image show the ghosts of WWII prisoners on their death march? Former Army Officer takes haunting image along route they took

Let's just take a minute to reflect on that.

Does this image show the ghosts of WWII prisoners on their death march? Former Army Officer takes haunting image along route they took

I'm not kidding.

A retired army officer retracing an infamous 'death march' made by Allied prisoners of war was stunned when this haunting image appeared in a photo he took of the route.

Due to a freak reflection through a car window, Major John Tulloch unwittingly captured a group of ghostly skeletal figures walking along the same muddy track in Borneo.

Some 2,400 World War II PoWs died in the horrific Sandakan Death Marches in 1945 to avoid them being liberated as Japan was forced on the retreat.


Apparition: Has Major captured the spirits of long dead PoWs on a notorious death march 67 years ago?

Severely malnourished and barefoot, they were forced by brutal Japanese captors to walk 160 miles in sweltering heat for a month.

Men who collapsed through exhaustion were left to die or were killed by being shot, bayoneted or beheaded.

Conditions were so appalling that some of the servicemen are said to have resorted to cannibalism to stay alive.

Only six men survived the three marches from Sandakan to Ranau and that was because they managed to escape.

It was the single greatest atrocity against Australian troops.



Surrendered: 67,000 PoWs also forced into notorious Bataan Death March in the Philippines, April 1942

Maj Tulloch took his photo while sat in the passenger seat of a 4x4 vehicle driving along the route 70 years later.

It is thought a combination of a reflection from a patterned towel left on the dashboard and mud on the windscreen resulted in the astonishing supernatural image.

Maj Tulloch said he took the picture in 2010 when he did a recce of the route ahead of a
March of Remembrance and the unveiling of a memorial to the 400 members of the Royal Artillery who died.



Rest Point: Exhausted PoWs get respite along the Bataan Death March watched by merciless Japanese guards



Cruelty: Over 11,000 Allied prisoners died or were killed on the way by guards

Maj Tulloch, 66, said: 'We were driving along the same track as that taken by the death march and I was clicking away on my camera, I took about 200-odd digital photographs.

'I went through the pictures on a computer screen later and didn’t see it the first time round. I went back over them again and I just suddenly thought "what the hell...?"

'I looked at the photo again and went very cold indeed. What I saw were the shapes of 17 or 18 ghostly figures coming out of the jungle and walking down the track going to Ranau which you can see in the far distance.

'It took me a few moments to work out how it had occurred but it was too weird for words. I showed it to several people and they said it is quite extraordinary, some even refused to look at it because it was so haunting.

'While my guide drove along he put a towel on the dashboard. The towel had a pattern on it and that reflected through the windscreen. I have called it reflections of a death march.'

Maj Tulloch is now an instructor in jungle warfare for the Royal Artillery.



At Bayonet point: Japanese troops guard American and Filipino prisoners in Bataan in the Philippines after their capture on 9th April 1942.

DEATH MARCHES OF WORLD WAR TWO

Forced death marches of captured soldiers, interned civilians or persecuted ethnic groups such as the Jews were carried out by both Nazi Germany and the Japanese Imperial Army during the war.

They were carried out to stop prisoners being liberated and hundreds of thousands met their deaths through lack of clothing or food, exhaustion, disease, beatings or murder by their captives.

In the Europe theatre British or American prisoners of war were generally treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention.

However for the six million captured Russian soldiers their treatment was very different and 3 million were starved, worked to death or exterminated.

But as the tide of war began to turn and the Red Army drove towards the Nazi heartland in late 1944, Hitler's forces began to evacuate captured PoWs and other prisoners westwards.

In one of the harshest winters on record, some 80,000 British men were driven along as they joined columns of fleeing refugees and inmates from the concentration camps.

Allied PoWs were divided into groups of up to 300 men and marched off under guard.

But lack of supplies meant they had to scavenge for food and shelter and the weak were left behind to die. Others were murdered by some of their guards.

Official figures said 3,500 US and British and Commonwealth men lost their lives but others estimate around 8,348 died.

But the most notorious death marches were the SS-led evacuation of concentration camps.

Those too weak were killed outright and the rest were mercilessly driven on to other camps suffering beatings and mass murder.

For example nine days before the liberation of Auschwitz 60,000 inmates were taken on a 35 mile death march to waiting trains, 15,000 died on the way.

In the Far East the Japanese Imperial Army was also responsible for carrying out numerous death marches.

One of the most notorious was the Bataan Death March of 60,000 Filipino and 15,000 US PoWs after a three month battle in 1942.

They were forced on a 128km march in which over 11,000 were beaten, bayoneted, mistreated and died from heat and exhaustion.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2209468/Does-image-ghosts-WWII-prisoners-death-march-Former-Army-Officer-takes-haunting-image-route-took.html

[Bev]

Bit of a struggle today for the poor souls - they're having to do a bit of a rehash to fill the quota.

The mighty drone of 600 bombers filled the night air as they flew the length of eastern England. As planes thundered overhead, people peeped through their blackout curtains to see if they could glimpse what was then one of the largest bombing forces ever assembled.

On board the Lancasters, Stirlings, Halifaxes and Wellingtons were more than 4,000 airmen — and all knew they stood a very good chance of not returning to base the following morning.

Among that awesome mass of metal pounding through the dark sky was a Lancaster bomber with the marking ED427.



As part of 49 Squadron, the bomber and its seven crew had taken off at precisely 21.14 on the evening of April 16, 1943, from Fiskerton airfield five miles east of Lincoln. It was the second time the plane’s crew had flown together, and they were hoping this raid would go as successfully as their bombing of Stuttgart two nights before.

The Lancaster was piloted by Flying Officer Alexander ‘Alec’ Bone, who, at 31, was by far the oldest and most experienced of the crew.

An instructor who had taught many Battle of Britain pilots to fly, Bone was one of the most respected and able pilots in all of Bomber Command. A champion fencer, tall and charming, Bone was what we would today call an alpha male.

The rest of the seven-strong crew — flight engineer Norman Foster, navigator Cyril Yelland, wireless operator Raymond White, bomb aimer Raymond Rooney, air gunner Ronald Cope and air gunner Bruce Watt were aged 19 to 23, and all looked up to Bone.

One of six brothers, his father described him as ‘the pick of the bunch’, and he was well qualified to command of a bomber crew.

As he sat at the controls, Bone’s mind might well have wandered temporarily from the mission to his own recent tragedy. Just four months earlier, he had lost his wife, Menna, 22, to tuberculosis. He had received the news of her illness when stationed in Canada, but by the time he had returned, Menna was already dead and buried.

The planes that night had two targets. Fewer than half the aircraft were heading for various factories in and around Mannheim some 40 miles south of Frankfurt. Bone’s Lancaster, however, was part of the larger element heading more than 200 miles further east to the Czech brewing town of Pilsen, where they were to attack the massive Skoda works that produced armaments for the Nazis.

After a flight of nearly 800 miles, in which Bone successfully outwitted night fighters and dodged numerous flak batteries, ED427 safely arrived over what he presumed was the target at around 1.30am on April 17.

Below was a hellish inferno, and Bone would have felt confident he was dropping his two 1,000lb bombs and one 4,000lb ‘Cookie’ bomb — made of a thin steel casing to carry more explosives, and devastating in its impact — in the right place.

However, unknown to him, the leading Pathfinder aircraft had dropped their flares which indicated the target in the wrong place: they fell on the harmless village of Dobrany five miles to the south-west of Pilsen.

To make matters more tragic, a nearby psychiatric hospital had been mistaken for the Skoda works, and it took the brunt of the raid. According to a German casualty report, some 300 patients were killed, and some 1,000 German soldiers and 250 civilians were killed or wounded.

Unfortunately for the Allies, the Skoda works were untouched, and the entire raid — called Operation Frothblower in recognition of Pilsen’s brewing history — was one of Bomber Command’s biggest failures.


This would of course have been unknown to Bone and his crew, who had dropped their payload and were now bearing west for the five-hour flight home.

They were looking forward to breakfast and some sleep, as well as Easter the following weekend.
However, the men of ED427 were never to enjoy another breakfast.

At some point during the flight something went badly wrong, and the Lancaster failed to return.
In the squadron’s operations records book, the bald statement was simply typed: ‘Missing without trace.’

Until last week, nearly 70 years after the raid, the fate of ED427 was still a mystery. But now, thanks to an archaeological excavation in Germany, the truth of what happened can finally be told.

The story that emerges from the German soil is a heart-wrenching tale not only of tragedy, but of incompetence and an unforgiveable bureaucratic slip-up which kept the families of the crew in the dark for decades.

A week after the raid, Wing Commander Johnson of 49 Squadron wrote to Bone’s mother, telling her ‘so far we have received no news of any kind, but you can be sure that as soon as any is received, it will be passed to you immediately’.

No concrete news was ever to come. According to Bone’s brother, Arthur ‘Alf’ Bone, 91, their mother suspected the worst. ‘I think she knew he had gone in her mind,’ he says, ‘and I think I did, too.’


Alf was an RAF pilot as well, and heard about his brother when he was about to take a Wellington up in a practice flight. A telegram was delivered to the cockpit a few minutes before take off. ‘For the first time, I felt a panic attack,’ Alf recalls. ‘Alec was so dear to me. Normally I liked the smell of the inside of a Wellington, but on that occasion I just smelled death.’

Alf idolised Alec. The last time he saw him was in Canada in 1941. ‘I was stationed at an airfield called Swift’s Current,’ Alf says. ‘One day Alec flew his two-seater Harvard 120 miles from Moosejaw to pay me a surprise visit.’ Alec told Alf to put on a parachute, and took his brother up in the training aircraft. ‘We did lots of acrobatics,’ Alf remembers. ‘We dived, climbed, looped the loop — you name it. I loved it.’

In October 1943, the family received a letter informing them the Air Council had determined that ‘they must regretfully conclude that he has lost his life’, and that Alec’s death was presumed to have occurred on April 17.

For the rest of her life, Alec’s mother lived in what Alf described as ‘a vacuum’, in which she was never to know what had happened to her son. Officials of every stripe simply told the families of the crew they had no idea what had happened to ED427.

However, it now emerges the RAF did know what had happened to the plane and the bodies of its crew but, disgracefully, the families were never told. In October 1946, Squadron-Leader Philip Laughton-Bramley of the RAF’s Missing Research and Enquiry Unit was investigating the fates of crashed aircraft in the Mannheim area.


His research took him to the village of Laumersheim, 14 miles west of Mannheim, where a former police constable told him that on April 16-17 a ‘four-engined aircraft crashed in flames 200 yards east of the village and exploded on contact with the ground’.

According to the German, the trunk of one body was found, along with the remains of some six or seven men. The body parts were removed, but nobody could remember where they had been taken.
Laughton-Bramley was persistent, and continued to hunt.

Eventually, he found two graves in the military section of the Mannheim cemetery, whose inscriptions stated that they contained the bodies of ‘Unknown British flyers shot down in Laumersheim 17.4.43’, and who were buried on 24 April — the same day Wing Commander Johnson had written to Mrs Bone.

One can only imagine the terrifying last moments of ED427. It was almost certainly hit by the flak battery at Frankenthal, five miles from the crash site. Flying at around 200 miles per hour, and at a height of perhaps 10,000 feet, it may well have taken over two minutes to have plummeted to the ground.

Alec Bone, if he had survived the impact of the flak, would have used all his considerable skill to try to keep the plane steady enough to allow the crew to bail out. If anybody could have done it, Bone could. But clearly the flak battery had done its work too well. Death would have been instantaneous as the plane ploughed five metres deep into the soft earth.
remains. The team dug five metres deep in a 100 square metre area and found sections of the fuselage, cockpit, landing gear, a tyre, a burnt parachute, tools and ammunition.




Commemoration: A minutes silence was held in respect by the volunteers. Members of the Bundeswehr reserve, part of the German army, are in uniform
It is thought the remains of the men will be buried in the same coffin in a single grave at a Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Germany.



Respect: A poppy memorial was erected as a mark of remembrance. It is thought the remains of the men will be buried in the same coffin in a single grave at a Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Germany

On May 15, 1947, Laughton-Bramley filed his report to the Air Ministry in London, in which he concluded that the bodies were the crew of ED427, and that the plane had been shot down by flak.
For some inexplicable reason —perhaps simply an oversight — the information was never passed on to the families as it should have been. And so the crew’s poor relatives remained in ignorance.

Light was only shed on the case when, in 2006, military historian Peter Cunliffe found a copy of the report in the Canadian Archives while researching the raid for his book. A Shaky Do, in the file of Pilot Officer Bruce Watt, a Canadian member of ED427’s crew.

Cunliffe made a copy of Laughton-Bramley’s report, and passed it to the German archaeologist Uwe Benkel, who had been investigating the fate of ED427. It tallied with the story told by Peter Menges, now 83, who was a child in the next village when the plane was shot down.

‘Peter saw the plane coming down on fire,’ says Mr Benkel, ‘and saw the explosion. His parents didn’t allow him to go and see the plane that night. He went the next morning and the German military were there. From what he saw the majority of the body parts were on the surface and taken away.’

Last week, Benkel and his team unearthed the remains of Lancaster ED427. Contrary to Bramley-Laughton’s report, which suggested all the bodies had been recovered by the Germans in the war, Benkel says that there were still body parts in the cockpit. Benkel concludes that they were those of Alec Bone.

For Alf, this finally ends the mystery of what happened to his beloved brother. ‘You have closed the missing page of our memory book,’ he told Uwe Benkel.

‘My mother would have been so relieved that we at last know something,’ he says.

‘I now want to go and pay my last respects on behalf of the family. My brother was a real professional — we were all amateurs. He was a gentleman and a gentle man.’

Families of other crew members share that sense of a chapter finally being closed. ‘It is a great relief to know what did happen,’ says Hazel Snedker, 72, the daughter of Sergeant Norman Foster, the plane’s Flight Engineer.

‘At least he will now have a grave with a headstone.’

The plan is for the remains of all the crew to be buried together. ‘They flew together and died together,’ says Mr Benkel. ‘It is only right that they should stay together

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210283/Solved-70-years-The-mystery-missing-Lancaster-bomber-crew.html

[Bev]

The remains of a German soldier killed during the Second World War have been unearthed during an excavation by volunteers dedicated to giving dignified burials to the war dead.

Bones and personal belongings were dug up during the excavation near the eastern German town of Klessin, which lies about 50 miles east of Berlin.

The area around the small town which lies close to the Polish border was the place of a battle between German and Soviet forces between February and March 1945 - part of the final push into Germany known as the Battle of Berlin.

As many as 200 of the soldiers who were part of the conflict are still missing today - instigating the dig.

The excavation was carried out by members of The Association for the Recovery of the Fallen in Eastern Europe who have been carrying out digs to help identify those killed in both the First and Second World Wars.

Known in Germany as Vereins zur Bergung Gefallener in Osteuropa or VBGO, the group is made up entirely of volunteers, many of whom are from Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine and the US.

Since they were founded in 1992 the group has recovered more than 7,000 sets of remains all over Europe.

But due to the level of decomposition they are only able to identify around 25 per cent of those discovered.


Discovery: An old German 'Wehrmacht' helmet lays on a pile of soil as members of the Association for the Recovery of the Fallen in Eastern Europe dig in Klessin

Fi

Findings: Personal belongings including glasses were also discovered during the groups most recent dig

The group have dug up the remains of a number of nationalities and they state: 'We are not looking for soldiers of the Wehrmacht, not for U.S. GI's, Marines, soldiers of the red army or Polish Military- not for infantry soldiers, sailors or airmen- not for good or bad.

'We are looking for people - sons, fathers, brothers.'



The not-for-profit association has now carried out 100 searches since they were formed 20 years ago and now has more than 200 members.

The dig in Klessin, which belonged to a defence line during the Battle of Seelöw Heights, was the seventh carried out this year, following excavations in Poland and Russia.

The area was defended by 800 German soldiers, against three Soviet-divisions during the war.

The overall offensive saw the Germans outnumbers by almost ten to one, as a million soviet soldiers took part in the final push that hastened the end of the Second World War.

It is thought there are more than 200 soldiers in unmarked graves around the small town, which was the scene of battle during the Second World War

It is thought there are more than 200 soldiers in unmarked graves around the small town, which was the scene of battle during the Second World War
Klessin lies around 50miles east of Berlin. when the German defences fell, it left a clear path to the capital for the Soviets

Klessin lies around 50miles east of Berlin. when the German defences fell, it left a clear path to the capital for the Soviets
THE BATTLE THAT BEGAN THE FINAL PUSH INTO BERLIN



A statue in Eastern Germany that commemorates Battle of Seelow Heights

The Battle of the Seelöw Heights (fought over three days, from April 16 to 19, 1945) was a part of the one of the last assaults on large entrenched defensive positions of the Second World War,

Known as Seelow-Berlin Offensive Operation (which lasted until May 2, 1945), this battle is often incorporated into the Battle of the Oder-Neisse - only the opening phase of the Battle of Berlin, which was the name given to the final push of the Soviet forces into the German capital at the end of the war.

Seelow Heights was where the most bitter fighting in the overall battle took place, but it was only one of several crossing points along the Oder and Neisse rivers where the Soviets attacked.

Close to one million Soviet soldiers, commanded by Marshal Georgi Zhukov, attacked the position known as the 'Gates of Berlin'. They were opposed by about 110,000 soldiers of the German 9th Army, commanded by General Theodor Busse.

By the end of 19 April, the German Eastern Front line had ceased to exist. All that remained were pockets of resistance, and the road to Berlin was wide open for the final assault.

Four days later the capital Berlin was encircled and the Battle of Berlin entered its last stage. Within two weeks, Adolf Hitler was dead and the war in Europe was effectively over.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210855/We-looking-people--sons-fathers-brothers-Volunteers-dedicated-finding-war-dead-unearth-remains-German-soldier.html

[Bev]

The remains of two Spitfires that were used for peacetime target practice by the RAF have been discovered on the same firing range nearly 60 years later.

In 1954, the surplus planes were dumped in the middle of the vast Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire for trainee pilots to strafe to hone their firing skills.

The wrecks, which are still worth tens of thousands of pounds in their current state, were left in the remote spot and over the years became covered in long grass and weeds.



The wreckage of two Spitfires used for peacetime target practice by the RAF have been found on the same firing range nearly 60 years later


The wrecks, which are still worth tens of thousands of pounds in their current state, were left in the remote spot and over the years became covered in long grass and weeds




But plans are now in place to salvage what is left of the aircraft after historian Mark Khan recently stumbled upon them during conservation work in the area.

The fate of the two planes seems quite incredible now given the legendary status attached to the Spitfire.



Fully restored versions of them are worth about £2million today.

Mr Khan looked through the MoD archives to identify these two as PK518 and PK519, two Mark 22 Spitfires made in 1946.
The fate of the two planes seems quite incredible now given the legendary status attached to the Spitfire

The fate of the two planes seems quite incredible now given the legendary status attached to the Spitfire
REACH FOR THE STATS

More than 20,000 Spitfires were built in 24 different marks.
It first flew in the RAF in 1938 and was retired by 1957.
One of the proposed names for the fighter was 'The Shrew'.
Its designer RJ Mitchell only lived long enough to see the prototype fly in 1937.
During the mid-1950s, many Mk 22 planes were sold to the Egyptian and Syrian air forces.

The machines remain in situ in the secret location on the plain - which is about the size of the Isle of Wight.

It is understood the Royal Air Force Museum plans to recover them in the near future.

Mr Khan, 51, said: 'A colleague and I really just stumbled upon one of them by accident up a small hill.

'I realised very quickly from the shape of it that it was the remnants of an aircraft. The wing clearly featured bays for guns.

'But it wasn’t until I got home and looked at comparison photographs that I identified it as a Spitfire.'

Mr Khan checked the national archives which revealed that it was one of two given to the School of Land Air Warfare at Old Sarum, near Salisbury, for target practice in 1954.

Mr Khan returned to the scene and found the wreckage of the second Spitfire 200 yards away from the first.

He said: 'I couldn’t believe that after all these years these two Spitfires that had lain untouched and unseen for so long had been found.'


Some 21,000 Spitfires were built during and after the Second World War, although most were sold off for scrap in the early 1950s due to a shortage of metal.

The emergence of the jet engine also hastened the demise of the propeller-powered aircraft.

Mr Khan, from Arundel, West Sussex, said: 'Spitfires were written off in the 1950s but there was a requirement for them to be used for training, like these two.

'On June 1, 1954 both aircraft were dispatched to Old Sarum.

'PK518 and PK519 were erected as targets on the ranges at Salisbury Plain.

'They would have been hit by the 30mm Aden cannon fitted to Hawker Hunters.



Some 21,000 Spitfires were built during and after the Second World War. Above, RAF fighter pilots run to their Spitfires during an alert in 1940

'I can only assume that the military chiefs thought they had been blown to pieces and left them there.

'The area is so remote that it has been seldom visited over the years and their whereabouts became forgotten.'

Mr Khan believes the wreckage is still valuable today.

He said: 'Spitfires that crashed in World War Two and were buried 20ft in the ground are still flying today after being salvaged.

'It depends on what parts are left but collectively they could be worth tens of thousands of pounds.'

Spitfire pilot and expert Matt Jones, who runs the UK’s only Spitfire flying school, said hardly anybody was interested in them after the war.

He said: 'They were no longer needed and the military didn’t know what to do with them.

'Some were sold for scrap and some just buried in the ground.

'It wasn’t until about 20 or 30 years ago that there was a big revival of interest in them.

'Because they are so scarce, if you found one buried in a crater in a semi-preserved state and it came out still looking like a Spitfire, it could be worth £500,000.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2212179/Spitfires-used-RAF-target-practice-60-years-ago-discovered-Salisbury-Plain.html

[Bev]

In 2003 as he campaigned to become the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger denied that in 1975 he had expressed admiration for German dictator Adolf Hitler.

But now he appears have had total recall of the facts of the statement he made in 1975, as the 65-year-old revealed in his autobiography he did make admiring comments about the leader of the Nazi Party in high esteem - but just his speaking abilities.


Arnold's controversial comments about Hitler occurred about three decades ago during a discussion with George Butler whilst filming scenes for the 1977 documentary Pumping Iron.

According to NY Daily News, in his autobiography Total Recall he writes: 'I philosophized that only a few men are born to lead, while the rest of humanity is born to follow, and went from that into discussing history’s great conquerors and dictators'.

Keen to put his comments into context he continues: 'I admired Hitler’s speaking ability, though not what he did with it."

Schwarzenegger's recent admission is in direct contrast to what he said during a late-night news conference at Los Angeles' Century Plaza Hotel in 2003.

Reports on Fox News, quoted the True Lies actor's denial regarding his words in 1975 as: 'I don't remember any of those comments because I always despise everything that Hitler stood for.'

Schwarzenegger, who's father Gustav Schwarzenegger applied to join the Nazi Party in 1938, then went on to call Hitler a 'disgusting villain' in the interview.


His words: 'I admired Hitler, for instance, because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power.'

Arnold's Hitler comment never made it into the final cut of Butler's film, but his words taken from the transcript of his interview with the director surfaced when ABC News and the New York Times received copies of an unpublished book proposal.

In the original interview, the Terminator actor allegedly said: 'I admired Hitler, for instance, because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power.

He added: 'I admire him for being such a good public speaker and for what he did with it.'

Arnold's representative confirmed: 'The governor said in the book something he, and countless others have said numerous times: that he had powerful oratory skills.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2214639/Arnold-Schwarzenegger-DID-express-admiration-Adolf-Hitler--just-powerful-oratory-skills.html

[Bev]

He's in there again....

It has taken seven decades, but a Russian pensioner has finally found the grave of her soldier father - and it's all thanks to her performance in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Natalya Pugachyova, 76, became an overnight star earlier this year when she and five other pensioners from the remote village of Buranovo, in Russia's Udmurtia region, came second in the continent's famous singing competition.

The Buranovskiye Babushki group performed a catchy tune sung predominantly in the Udmurt language, a distant relative of Finnish, mixed in with a few lines of the chorus in English.

At a press conference Pugachyova revealed that her father, Yakov Begeshev, had disappeared in 1942 while fighting the Nazis on Russia's Eastern Front during the Second World War.

The last contact she had with him was in the form of a letter sent from a battle in the Voronezh region south of Moscow.

In it, Pugachyova, who was just six at the time, said her father described the fighting as so fierce he was unlikely to survive.

Her story was heard by Nina Geryusheva of the Bailiffs Service and a group of volunteers set out to find the site where Mr Pugachyova's had been buried.

After numerous phone calls and official requests, they were able to identify the mass grave in which he had been laid to rest.



This weekend Russian state television showed Pugachyova's visit to the village of Malaya Vereika in the Voronezh region, where she saw her father's name among those engraved on memorial walls at a mass grave.

'Even I sobbed,' Pugachyova said. 'So many years, so many winters, I didn't know.'



Pugyachyova, third left performing in Russian the singing group Buranovskiye Babushki during the Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan's capital Baku



The Buranovo Grannies, pose with their certificate after a song contest in Moscow, Russia, earned them the right to represent the country at this year's Eurovision Song Contest


Nearly 27 million Soviet soldiers and civilians died in the Second World War, and tens of thousands are still listed as missing

Pugachyova brought a handful of soil from her mother's grave to mix with that of her father's, and took a handful back to do the same at her mother's grave because she said she wanted her parents to be together.

As the oldest and smallest member of the Buranovskiye Babushki, Pugachyova struck a chord with millions of devoted Eurovision fans who adored the group's kitschy fun.

Nearly 27 million Soviet soldiers and civilians died in the Second World War, and tens of thousands are still listed as missing.

War enthusiasts roam the forests and swamps of western Russia in search of the remains of soldiers and their aluminum dog tags that identify them.


Natalya Pugachyova hails from Russia's Udmurtia region and the mass grave containing her father's remains was discovered in Voronezh

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2215236/Natalya-Pugachyova-Elderly-star-Eurovision-Song-Contest-uses-new-fame-solve-70-year-old-mystery-missing-father.html

[Bev]

They were heroes in the Battle of Britain and the first line of our defence against Luftwaffe bombers.

But 70 years on from their Second World War heyday there are only a handful of iconic Hawker Hurricanes left.

Now a rare chance for fighter plane fans to snap one up at a public auction has come about - if they have £1.7million.


The fully-restored Hurricane comes complete with its throaty Merlin engine and 12 original Browning machine guns.

Tim Schofield, of auctioneers Bonhams, said: 'This is one of only a handful of these iconic aircraft still flying today, and is presented for sale in highly original condition.'




The remarkable single-seater, one of just a handful of survivors from the 14,000 Hurricanes built, dates from 1942.

It joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and is thought to have taken part in protecting convoys from German U-boats.



A Hawker Hurricane formation over southern England during the Second World War

The Hawker Hurricane was a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force

The Hawker Hurricane was a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force

HURRICANE: UNHERALDED CHAMPION OF BATTLE OF BRITAIN

While the Spitfire is fondly remembered as the iconic plane that defended our shores during the Battle of Britain, it was in fact the Hawker Hurricane that downed more Nazi planes.

Some 55 per cent of the 2,739 German losses were caused by the Hurricane. However, this has gone almost unrecognised due to the Spitfire's glamour, an appeal that resonated with wartime Britons as a result of successful government propaganda films.

Here are some Hawker Hurricane facts:

Introduced - 1937

Total number of planes built - 14,533

Wingspan - 40ft

Engine - Rolls Royce Merlin 1,185hp at 21,000ft

Max speed - 339mph

Armament - 4 x 20mm cannons, 2 x 226kg bombs

Number of Hurricanes at start of Battle of Britain - 2,309

Planes lost during Battle of Britain - 565

The Hurricane has been restored in Battle of Britain colours, and was kept at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire.

It is expected to sell for between £1.4million and £1.7million when it goes under the hammer as part of a sale of collectors’ cars and motoring memorabilia at Brooklands in Surrey on December 3.

The Hurricane, the Royal Air Force’s first monoplane fighter, had its finest hour during that battle, where it shot down more enemy aircraft than its famous service partner the Spitfire.

Brooklands, where the Bonhams sale will take place, has its own history with the aircraft. It was assembled and first flown in prototype form there in 1935, and altogether more than 3,000 Hurricanes were produced on site - one fifth of the total built.

Struck off charge from the RCAF in 1947, it was bought by a Canadian syndicate. It was later restored to flight, making its first post-restoration flight in 1989, before being acquired by the Historic Aircraft Collection in 2002 and housed at Duxford.

Other lots include the 1935 Ford used as Lance Cpl Jones’s butcher’s van in the classic TV series Dad’s Army. It is expected to go for £30,000.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2216013/The-Battle-Bonhams-Rare-chance-buy-iconic-WWII-fighter-1-7m-Hawker-Hurricane-goes-auction.html

[john-connor]

Originally Posted by Bev

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210855/We-looking-people--sons-fathers-brothers-Volunteers-dedicated-finding-war-dead-unearth-remains-German-soldier.html

These men were fighting the rapists and scum of the east.