I just got this great CD set recently, and I'd recommend it highly for others like me that have a hard time finishing a book, but love to hear personal stories of WWII Vets! In their Own Words features 16 testimonials on 8 CDs, which amounts to over 8 hours listening. I'm only halfway through listening to them (first time) but I can tell they will get plenty of use! Some of the names will be more familiar than others, but all the stories are good, and important to hear. This might even be a way to get the kids and grandkids to learn something! Two of the gentlemen on this set are probably my two favorite to listen to...Len Lomell of the 5th Ranger Btln, who blew up the 155 MM's on Pointe Du Hoc on D-Day, and Belton Cooper. author of Death Traps. I like these because I can even listen in my car if I want to. I think you'd enjoy them and I'm sure you can find a used set for sale (like I did) on ebay or Amazon.com
How interesting. I was invited today to take part in an online questionaire. This is what I received:
PLEASE GIVE US YOUR OPINIONS
Now that we have an approved site for a national presidential memorial and have begun preparing for design, we are seeking opinions from interested citizens on what might be appropriate themes and concepts to be emphasized by the memorial.
We have developed a brief online questionnaire which sets out possible ideas for you to rank and has opportunities for you to type in your own suggestions.
On 10 May 1940 Hitler’s armies struck westwards across Europe. Within three weeks Holland and Belgium had surrendered and German Panzer (tank) divisions had split the British and French armies. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and a substantial number of French troops were trapped in a diminishing pocket of land centred on the port of Dunkirk. On 25 May Boulogne was captured and on the following day Calais fell. That evening the Admiralty signalled the start of Operation Dynamo - the evacuation of the troops stranded on the beaches at Dunkirk.
Operation Dynamo was masterminded by Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay, who had been given less than a week to prepare. From his headquarters in tunnels beneath Dover Castle, he directed and inspired a small staff who had the awesome task of planning the evacuation of up to 400,000 British and French troops under constant attack from German forces. By 26 May Ramsay had assembled 15 passenger ferries at Dover and a further 20 at Southampton. These it was hoped would be able to embark troops direct from the quays at Dunkirk. To help in the evacuation and to provide escorts for the merchant ships Ramsay had a force of destroyers, corvettes, minesweepers and naval trawlers. These ships were augmented by cargo vessels, coasters and some 40 Dutch self-propelled barges.
Minefields and shelling from German batteries on the French coast forced evacuation convoys to take longer routes to Dunkirk. The first convoy, after sustaining heavy air attacks, found the port of Dunkirk and its oil tanks ablaze and only the passenger ferries ‘Royal Daffodil’ and later the ‘Canterbury’ succeeded in berthing. By the end of the first day only 7,500 troops had been rescued and it was clearly impossible to use the port. Captain Tennant, in charge of the naval shore party at Dunkirk, signalled for the rescue ships to be diverted to the beaches east of the town. But here shallow waters prevented the large ships getting within a mile of the shore and troops had to be ferried in smaller craft from the beaches to the ships. There was an alternative, a spindly concrete pier with a wooden walkway, never designed to have ships docking against it but it was found that it could be used. Differences in loading speeds were dramatic HMS ‘Sabre’ took 2 hours to load 100 troops from the beach, but from the pier it took only 35 minutes to board 500 troops.
In London the Admiralty’s Small Vessels Pool had been collecting all available seaworthy pleasure craft. With volunteer crews, many of whom had never sailed out of sight of land before, they were checked at Sheerness Dockyard and then sent to Ramsgate to await final sailing orders. The pleasure craft were joined by lifeboats, trawlers, Thames sailing barges, tugs and other small craft. The first convoy of ‘little ships’ sailed from Ramsgate at 10pm on 29 May and by the next day they were streaming across the Channel in seemingly unending lines. The dangers were great, ships, both large and small, were targets for German fighters, bombers, submarines and coastal batteries plus the random danger of mines. Fortunately, throughout the evacuation, the seas remained abnormally calm. Most of the small craft headed for the beaches to act as tenders, while some of the larger trawlers and drifters loaded troops directly in Dunkirk Harbour.
On the evening of 2 June, with the German forces closing in, Ramsay despatched a large force of ships, including 13 passenger ships, 14 minesweepers and 11 destroyers. At 11:30 pm Captain Tennant sent the historic signal from Dunkirk “BEF evacuated.†By now, the German forces were nearly in the outskirts of the town. Only one more night evacuation was possible. On the night of 3 June a final effort was made using British, French, Belgian and Dutch ships to bring out as many of the French rearguard as possible and over 26,000 were saved.
Between 26th May and 4th June 338,000 troops were rescued from Dunkirk, over 200,000 of them passing through Dover. During the nine day period the Southern Railway laid on a total of 327 special trains, which cleared 180,982 troops from Dover. 4,500 casualties were treated at the town's Buckland Hospital and all but 50 of these seriously ill men were saved.
Lee and I saw a wonderful news item yesterday on TV. They showed a vet who served in the ETO and was sent to the hospital for an extended stay in England just prior to the Battle of the Bulge.
Well he went to check his mail the other day and lo and behold there was a large package addressed to him from Belgium. He thought, what the heck. Well he opened it and much to his surprise, there was his duffle bag with his name on it. He was flabbergasted.
Seems a young man who is trying to keep the history alive in Belgium, stumbled upon this and other items, and managed to locate this vet and send it back to him after ALL these years.
Needlesss to say the veteran was overwhelmed with thanks and couldn't believe that it had survived intact after many, many decades. He is very grateful to this young man and in fact is going to mount it over his fireplace. Ain't that great?
Tried to find the story on the internet, but no such luck yet. If I do, will post the whole story here.
