"Specialising In Military History Memories"
Background picture: Rorkes Drift Mission Station, Natal Provence, 1879.
Whats New:
We recently visited the Somme Battlefields. This photograph is of Mill Road Cemetery where 1,200 men rest, over half are unknown. All were killed during the 1916 Somme offensive.
The grave stones lie flat here due to the regular subsidence of the ground due to extensive tunneling by the Germans in what was then the Schwaben Redoubt. Between the wars farmers regularly lost animals that fell through to the vast underground chambers and one can only wonder what perhaps still remain of these.
We recently visited the Somme Battlefields. This photograph is of Mill Road Cemetery where 1,200 men rest, over half are unknown. All were killed during the 1916 Somme offensive.
The grave stones lie flat here due to the regular subsidence of the ground due to extensive tunneling by the Germans in what was then the Schwaben Redoubt. Between the wars farmers regularly lost animals that fell through to the vast underground chambers and one can only wonder what perhaps still remain of these.
Picture Of The Month
Located overlooking the English Channel at Le Tréport and dug into the chalky cliff face the impressive Kahl-Burg German bunker HQ was intended to serve as a command post for the German Army (245 and 348th Infantry Divisions). It was built during 1942, following the ill feted Dieppe Raid "Operation Jubilee", when extensive defensive work was undertaken along this stretch of the coast to repel further Allied attacks.
Blasted and drilled out of the hillside by mainly "Requis Tréportaits", the French labour force and Ukrainian prisoners of war, many of whom were women; working in squalid conditions it was by it's capture in September 1944, largely unfinished. Visited briefly for a few years after the war, the complex remained abandoned for nearly 60 years. Successively looted, degraded, and cluttered with garbage, Kahl-Burg has since become a French historical preservation success managed by a handful of forward thinking volunteers that undertook restoration back in 2001. Today it can be visited on sporadic weekends throughout the year and by appointment only for small groups of people. It makes for an interesting visit and the brick laying workmanship alone leaves one aghast!
Located overlooking the English Channel at Le Tréport and dug into the chalky cliff face the impressive Kahl-Burg German bunker HQ was intended to serve as a command post for the German Army (245 and 348th Infantry Divisions). It was built during 1942, following the ill feted Dieppe Raid "Operation Jubilee", when extensive defensive work was undertaken along this stretch of the coast to repel further Allied attacks.
Blasted and drilled out of the hillside by mainly "Requis Tréportaits", the French labour force and Ukrainian prisoners of war, many of whom were women; working in squalid conditions it was by it's capture in September 1944, largely unfinished. Visited briefly for a few years after the war, the complex remained abandoned for nearly 60 years. Successively looted, degraded, and cluttered with garbage, Kahl-Burg has since become a French historical preservation success managed by a handful of forward thinking volunteers that undertook restoration back in 2001. Today it can be visited on sporadic weekends throughout the year and by appointment only for small groups of people. It makes for an interesting visit and the brick laying workmanship alone leaves one aghast!
We are always receptive to new stories, particularly those that all to often start off as hearsay and finish up as terrific and long forgotten facts waiting to be rediscovered; so if our readers know of any stories that we should be covering then please get in touch.
Disclaimer:
We acquire material for this website from a number of very different sources ranging from the interviewing of local people, the generosity of museum staff, the National Archives and extracts from relevant existing publications both long out of print and current. Where exact sources can be traced and identified we will always endeavour to credit accordingly; any omissions or lapses of this procedure are purely accidental and no malice is intended. Should a reader of this website feel that improper attention to the crediting of a source has occurred then please let us know immediately so that the oversight can be rectified?
We acquire material for this website from a number of very different sources ranging from the interviewing of local people, the generosity of museum staff, the National Archives and extracts from relevant existing publications both long out of print and current. Where exact sources can be traced and identified we will always endeavour to credit accordingly; any omissions or lapses of this procedure are purely accidental and no malice is intended. Should a reader of this website feel that improper attention to the crediting of a source has occurred then please let us know immediately so that the oversight can be rectified?
Copyright Steve Sullivan, October 2018
Email: blighty-at-war@outlook.com
Email: blighty-at-war@outlook.com
