Guestbook
This page is intended for general comments about World War II Today. Observations, corrections or appeals for information about specific events are probably best left with the individual entries – but we’ll see how it goes.
I am certainly no expert on the War, this blog is a process of exploration and learning for me. This is very much a generalist site covering as wide a perspective as possible. So I am always happy to signpost to places where people can learn more. Quite a few people have left encouraging comments but I am equally open to feedback of just about any kind – although as a general guide I have yet to approve any comment that has been signed off “Heil Hitler” or similar. Suggestions about material to cover, particularly from first hand memoirs or contemporary records, are always welcome.
Thanks for your support
Martin Cherrett
{ 85 comments… read them below or add one }
http://ww2today.com/17th-may-1943-speer-assesses-the-damage-done-by-the-dambusters
You make a very valid point. Far too many people have been taken in by Speer’s claims that he was able to keep the German war machine going despite all the bombing. The whole Nazi system was built on lies – and the leading figures were all past masters at manipulating the evidence so that they could get the approval that they all sought from the Fuhrer.
The sources that I use on this site are presented ‘as is’ – they are just what the people said at that particular time. I hope that they are all interesting in their own right. Nevertheless the historical value of any one of them has to be carefully assessed in the context of when and why they were written.
Interesting reading Albert Speers assessment of the British Dambusters raid. Having read his detailed memoir, written whilst serving his Nuremberg sentence (served to the very last second), I must say the man ‘who knew nothing’ does show a tendency for a rather selective memory. An honest presentation of an historic document that shows I think how he wrote to his friend (friendship apparently based on a mutual love of architecture) and put a toady spin on things. Drafts of his memoirs and the final published presentation to the world show an edited, selective and ‘creative’ tendency with an eye to his audience.
Without doubt the divergence of massive resources away from building the Atlantic wall, and the V weapons programme makes the Dambusters raid worth the sacrifice and effort alone.
ESTA ES UNA GRAN PAGINA DONDE SE PUEDE APRENDER MUCHO Y CONOCER LAS EXPERIENCIAS DE MUCHAS PERSONAS QUE SUFRIERON DURANTE LA GUERRA.
CONGRATULATIONS. GOD JOB MISTER MARTIN
Just found the site today as I need help with an essay on the Belfast Blitz. I think this won’t be my last visit to the site, well done!
Dear Martin, I have been following your website for some time, and find it utterly fascinating. Congrats.
I was 7 when the war started, living in a London suburb, so have vivid first-hand recollections of the Blitz. My 3 elder brothers were all in the Forces during the war, and all survived.
My novel “Finn’s War” follows the fortunes of one English family from Day 1 until the war’s end You might enjoy reading it. It has been written under my pen name of James Brown.
Adam
Many thanks for adding that extra bit of information to WW2Today. It is very striking to learn that those events are not a matter of history but continued to affect people’s lives for a long time, and still do.
I appreciate hearing these personal connections to the stories, and I know that many other people do too.
How old was your father Charles Gill at the time of the bombing?
Martin
My Dear Dad George Smith was Chief Petty Officer with Captain Donald Macintyre on HMS Walker and was on The Walker the night they captured Otto Kretschner .. I am desperate to find out any information regarding being able to claim his Arctic Convoy Medal .. my Dad died 31 years ago and would have been 100 this June had he lived ..
I would love to hear from anyone who was also on HMS Walker .. if they are still with us..
Thank you in anticipation
Angela Lodge nee Smith
Relating to the article 1st May 1940 first casualties WWII. Fredrick and Dorothy Gill where my grand-parents. My father Charles William Alfred Gill was in the house at the same time as his parents they were upstairs he was downstairs.
The limited family history on the event was that he was injured and after the explosion went back into what was left of the house to see if he could rescue his parents, but nothing was left, as the film footage verifies.
It is only recently I have discovered your information and newsreel on the incident. The family knew that dads parents died in the early part of ww2 and in Clacton, and that he was in the house and injured at the time but very little else. He did not wish to discuss the details of the events at any length.
All their belongings were destroyed by the bomb. So even to this day and through all my Dads life since the event, there have been no mementos, sentimental items, or pictures so I have no idea what my grandparents looked like .
Dad only had his memories which He mainly kept to himself, although I think scared, he didn’t let this affect our upbringing but saddened him later in life. He died in 2005….
Adam Gill
Peter
Sorry to disturb your morning like that, just got my scheduling all wrong.
It is always encouraging to get such feedback and good to know that there a is regular readership.
And it does help keep me going sometimes – it was rather a long a war!
Rest assured it is my intention to keep going to the end.
Martin
OMG – panic here in Orlando, Florida, this A.M. as I opened my computer to see no entry for 28 March 1943 !
Hope all is well, Mr. Cherrett as your site is near and dear to my heart.
Cheers to the war resuming sometime soon.
Sincerely -
Peter
The amount of rare articles and pictures on this site is amazing. I just keep on reading. Please keep on doing what you do, it is much appreciated!
Tornike
Many thanks for asking. See my email to you.
Martin
Steve, many thanks.
I thought that you would be interested in this article about a Valentine tank found in Poland last year. There’s also a video on youtube of this event.
Also, You saw the article about the P40 found in the egyptian desert, yes?
Hope all’s well.
Still enjoying your efforts – well done.
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/valentine-tank-from-world-war-ii-found-in-polish-warta-river.html
Yours,
Steve
Hello,
First of all, I would like to thank you for maintaining and developing such a great website with its distinctive purpose and extremely engaging stories. I have been researching the WW II topic for ten years now, and I need to say ww2today is a remarkable source of information for me.
For exactly this reason, I would like to inquire if I could have a right from you to translate selected occasional articles from ww2today into Georgian and publish them on a Georgian-language WW II blog (http://stormnthunder.wordpress.com) I recently started. Obviously that includes posting the link to the original post, as well as a note on translation.
Thanks in advance.
Great website! Reading it has become part of my daily routine.
Thanks for making this website it helped me with my homework
This is easily one of the very best historical sites for learning about World War 2. It humanizes that terrible conflict without editorializing.
Obviously, with the passage of time, veterans and survivors are starting to slip away. And so our view of the conflict is becoming increasingly muddied. This site then should be a mandatory component of any history curriculum attempting to teach our young people about the war.
My compliments on a superb visual layout, effective links to more information, and content that is compelling.
Best regards,
Mark Savage
if eastern front did not open Germany shud won war but when Hitler attack USSR hi open 2 front and send tanks to fight east so El-Almein left not fully redy to fight british force.
Fascinated by all things World War II and your blog is fantastic – I check it every day on my lunch break. The combination of a brief story, with photographs, journal entries, quotes, etc., and also the clean and effective site design, make the WWI Today blog continually interesting and readable. Thanks for putting in all the work!
At last we reach the turning point of the war!! Some say Stalingrad, or El Alamein….but without doubt the Royal Artillery won the war pretty much on its own, and the Germans never stood a chance once Gunner Spike Milligan was let slip! Glorious to read his diary amongst those of Mouchette, and Clostermann among others, it shows the two fingered salute from the forces across the Empire the and good humour in adversity that so baffled the Nazi high command. Against the language of Shakespeare they were hamstrung by a language only suited to marching songs and ranted orders.
Thanks for the feedback Damy, that’s useful. Unfortunately when the site is “translated” into a mobile version it loses some of its functionality and look. I am looking at other ways to run the mobile version. For the moment here is KV1 story …
http://ww2today.com/23rd-june-1941-the-germans-encounter-the-kv1
What a wonderful website for WWII enthusiasts. This world-wide event is recent enough to engage all current generations (the greatest ((who participated)), baby boomers, current, etc.) with more indepth research/leisure reading opportunities because of the advent of internet and the opening of previously closed archives now available to the public. Presently, how lucky we are to explore any facet of war to any degree imaginable because of the web and sites like yours.
Thank you for your efforts.
Loren Johnson
yes but i cant use it at phone
i can put in anything like kv1 but i cant do serch i need somthing like go key
Damy
Thanks for your comment. The Wordpress search engine, found on the front page, is very strict if you did not spell exactly correctly – Barbarossa was covered in a number of entries from June 1941 and does come up in the search engine for me.
http://ww2today.com/22nd-june-1941-barbarossa-the-invasion-of-russia-begins
I am working on some other ways of finding past material, guided tours etc – but at the moment getting the daily blog takes priority.
regards
Martin
I like this site and read it every day. But when I wish to find some things like Operation Barbarosa I need to go all to all the months, as I dont know which one is it – so can you put some search engine?
Mike
Glad you like the site. The Battle of the Bulge is generally acknowledged to have started on 16th December 1944 and so my current best estimate to start covering it is on ….. 16th December 2014.
To be fair if you are following on a mobile device the dates of the stories may not always appear correctly like they do when viewing on a computer – so it may not be obvious that all my stories appear 70 years after the event. I try to do this to the exact day if it is possible (but see FAQ for exceptions). I am trying to find out a way to sort the mobile dating issue – mobile devices seem to insert the date of posting by default, so 1942 always appears as 2012.
Hope you’ll still be following with us in 1944/2014.
best regards
Martin
Great site and I read it everyday. When will you detail the chronology and post pictures for the Battle of the Bulge? Thanks for having this available to us. Great way to start the day!
Barry
Absolutely. I found a little known gem when I discovered his book. Very amusing as well.
Glad you like the site.
Martin,
Fantastic website. Look at it everyday at the office. Today, you covered some of the escapades of Major Denis Forman. I hope you will cover some more of his career especially when Lt Col Forman tries to control Major Lionel Wigram and his Wigforce (Italian partisans – one was my cousin) in the hills of Abruzzo, Italy when you get to posting events for Dec 1943 – Feb 1944.
I think the issue is that ‘video’, strictly speaking, refers to magnetic tape or digital media, not celluloid cine film which was all that was available during the war. On the other hand many people refer to video as any time of motion picture, not distinguishing the method by which it was originally recorded.
Not sure what Luc below means about no video footage of WW2 or slaughter of Jews. Suggest he looks here: http://youtu.be/-tGwjwK9pIM
Hi Luc
I believe you refer to:
http://ww2today.com/15th-december-1941-the-skede-beach-massacre-of-the-jews-of-liepaja-latvia
I really meant video in the sense of motion picture but I take your point and have changed the entry.
Many thanks
Martin
Great job but don’t forget there was NO video during WWII.
So noboby was ever able to shot a video of any slaughter of Jews or anything because video was something that came much more later (late seventies).
I know it’s a detail but words are very important for us who try to keep History alive.
Keep on the good job.
Luc
ok thns for answer and i will be at site every day :D
The reason is that we are still in 1942 … and they haven’t happened yet!
Glad you like the site
Martin
i love WWII history and this is best site so far :D
but i not like this thing there is no battle of Kursk and operation Bagration
See my email reply
My partner has written a book “Farewell to Hamburg” Giving the reader some idea of life for a young boy in war stricken Hamburg and then his journey to a strange country – Wales and his life as “the enemy” .
Leopoldo
Thanks for your feedback. You make a fair point – I am always interested in hearing from anyone who can recommend a memoir, whether published or online from any nationality, particularly those whose story from WWII is not widely known.
This blog started out mainly as British WWII research project and it will always have that bias because that was the core of my research. With half the war to go I will continue to try to bring in as many perspectives as possible. But even if an event may be regarded as “important” it may be very difficult to find someone who had written a personal account about some aspect of it, so if I have to make a choice (and with so many things going on in so many different theatres from now on there is often a need to make a choice) I will tend to go with the best story.
Hope this explains things a bit. Suggestions always welcome.
Martin
This blog is fantastic, and gives a clear idea of what was happening during the most cruel time in history of mankind. The first accounts always gives us a very specific perspective of the times these men and women were living.
I would love to see postings in a broader and wider variety, and not only too focused from the “british” point of view… there has been some days that very important events occurred in World War II have been ommited from the blog for a note that seems no so relevant only to reflect the “home front” at Great Britain. Could it be possile to give the reader various points of view from the different sides that were involved in this brutal conflict?
Please don’t misunderstand me, this is a great blog still and the research job is simply delightful and magnificent!
Interesting take. Monty showed patience and skill in building reserves and morale for this battle.
Great family story – though rather less great for your grandfather! Thanks for adding this.
I have a connection with your entry for 1st May 1940 – the first civilian casualities of the war in Clacton on Sea. My late mother’s family lived 350 yards away from the crash site in Holland Road, and her father was one of the first ARP wardens to arrive on the scene and took the full blast of one of the bombs (there is a report in The Daily Sketch for 2nd May 1940 including a photograph of my mother and her father, but I have only ever seen a poor photocopy my mother obtained some years ago).
My grandfather was made deaf by the force of the explosion, though temporary (a few months) he suffered with hearing problems for the rest of his life. My mother and her brother were at the scene later on and the mistaking of a bomb for a hot water cylinder is part of my family’s history – my uncle sat astride the ‘cylinder’ and was moved on when it was realised it was a bomb!
What an interesting site. a good blend of personal stories and the wider picture. We have to learn from the past, and ww2 was surely a horrendous time to live through.
Thanks for taking the trouble to run the site.
Good to know you are still with us.
WW1 did cross my mind … but I probably ought to read something completely unrelated to war, novels or something, for a bit.
Well done Martin, still enjoying the blog everyday.
Only 23 months to go before the start of the Great War….any chance you could do another site for World War 1? There is only one years overlap (Aug 1914-Aug 1915 or Aug1944-Aug 1945).
Have a think about it.
Can I just say that this blog is a remarkable piece of work. You have done a fantastic job in bringing to light a record of WW2. I and several of my friends and colleagues read this every day and comment on it. Very many congratulations.
Just want to say Thank You! Thank for all the work you’ve been doing in the last months, gathering information and photos to put online a website like this!
Thank you!
Nuno
Been checking out your blog quite a bit as I finish up my first novel (set right before WW2). You have done a great job, and I wanted to thank you for your help in grounding myself each day before I get started. Keep it up!
Hi
For someone who did an open university course called Total war and social change with the Open University and now trying to write about both wars as seen through the eyes of my family generations and how it affected them, this site has been fantastic. My grandmother left me a huge legacy of her rich memories and i have been doing lots of research but you have life so much easier. The pictures, the comments, the information is so invaluable and so well presented. Well done and keep it up. It should be on every history teachers – since the 2nd world war is the GCSE syllabus in schools for history – bookmark page for sources and resources to use within the classroom to get some of the kids of today to understand the context and suffering of the war.
Please keep it up
Angela
Hi. Great site/blog. It’s a shame that you haven’t recognised my home town of Derry/Londonderry, as this small city played a pivotal role in the naval operations during the second great war.
What a wonderful job. I can’t stop reading the posts.
Keep up this amazing and important work.
Cheers from Brazil.
l.
My grandfather was one of the troopers killed on 21st November 1941 at Sidi Rezegh.
I was looking for information about him, but with no luck !
Great work you are doing. Altough Portugal – my country – was neutral I have colected some stories related with WWII around here. You can find them in a site and in a blog… I leave you with the links.
If there is some help I can give you, please let me know…
http://www.landinportugal.org/
http://www.landinportugal.blogspot.com/
What an amazing WEBSITE.. Well done…
Just wanted to add my thanks and appreciation for this excellent site.
Please keep up the great work!
Hi Martin,
What a fantastic blog you have. So many diverse stories give a more and more accurate overview of the war in all theaters.
Because most of the entries are written from a military point of view, I thought you might be interested in a historical account of the plight of civilians under Japanese oppression in the – then – Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia.
I am the author of a historical memoir partially based on my mother’s camp journal about the years we spent in Japanese death camps for women and children on the island of Java in Indonesia. We barely survived, but here I am to tell the world about it!
My book: Rising from the Shadow of the Sun: A Story of Love, Survival and Joy
ISBN 978-60910-753-6
Publisher: Booklocker.com
You may want to peruse my website for more information and also look at readers’ reviews on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
Hoping to hear from you at your earliest convenience, I thank you for your time.
Ronny Herman de Jong
http://www.ronnyhermandejong.com/books/
ronnyhermandejong@gmail.com
A rather neglected campaign in the war. Captain Partridge was one of the pioneers of dive-bombing by carrier based planes, he had a narrow escape in Norway on 27th April 1940.
Absolutely fascinating story told on Captain Partridge’s & Lieutenant Bostock’s ordeal in Norway – I am glad they came out alive. Henrik Mjoman, ex-Royal Swedish Navy, RIGA, Latvia
This blog has become one of my mandatory reads every morning, lunch hour, and night. I have to stop myself getting lost in the treasure trove of information you are able to so effortlessly dig up.
Great stuff, great work. Thank you!
- Craig
Martin, you have done a very good service in recording this history such that one can more closely experience the dire straits of these times.
Most books etc. tend to avoid the horrible aspects of war, even in some case glorify it.
It only due to the tremendous bravery and suffering of many individuals that the free world survived.
I have been fortunate in meeting some of these people in my life, just ordinary people who responded without expectation of any reward.
this blog is really interesting! please do keep it up. :)
however, I would like to read something about battles that are in Asia. a lot has happened there too. coming from Asia, from the Philippines in particular, I would like to trace history and am interested to know what happened during that time. thank you! :)
I wanted to take a moment to express my deep appreciation of this blog/website. WWII, for a variety of reasons, has always been a deep passion of mine. I find this site to be, in a word, simply superb. Keep up the great work and rest assured, it is noticed.
Sincerely,
Ed Foster
Martin,
You have done SUCH an amazing job with this site. I can’t imagine the work that’s gone into finding, editing, organizing and displaying the content for this incredible project. I especially appreciate the no-nonsense, straightforward tone of the excerpts. It brings home the reality of the war in a way that hollywood or sensational fiction have failed to do. I feel very lucky to have found your site. It is a treasure. Thank you!
This blog along with the Facebook and Twitter feeds is just absolutely fantastic. I log on every day to see what has happened in the war! Thank you for this great site and the effort you’ve put into it.
World War II Today gives excellent coverage of key events across all theatres of war. As March begins, the war in Malta now enters its most critical phase, and the Island becomes the most bombed place on earth. For a more detailed look at the siege, maltagc70.com follows events hourly ‘on this day’, from official wartime documents including War Diaries, and personal memoirs.
Just wanted to thank you for this site. It is an important and unique representation of the war, and I find myself checking it everyday. Great job, and thanks again.
Martin,
I’m almost lost for words – such an ambitious project, I’ve followed it for a while now and never once have I been disappointed in the daily ‘show’. Your choice of topics, combined with the extremely clean and professional layout of the site, has made this one of my daily stops. I’ve added a permanent link to my ‘Kent & Sussex History Boards’ at http://www.sussexhistoryforum.co.uk, so keen am I to spread the word about this fantastic resource of yours.
How on earth do you devote so much time to the project? However you do it, you have my undying gratitude for providing such an amazing resource for those of us with a keen interest in WWII. Keep up the good work, it is appreciated!
John
Glad to see a nice picture of HMS Argus. My dad served on her during the Malta and Russian convoys and with Force H..
So many interesting and diverse stories! I enjoy reading the personal accounts and look forward to learning more about the war with each day’s story.
Very interesting – just stumbled upon it. Thank you for the effort. I was born in
November 1945. Those that served our country literally saved the world. They
cannot be honored too much. Those were terrible times but the spirit of cooperation
and patriotism were magnificent.
Brilliant blog, wonderful in every aspect, you can easily loose yourself in the dramatic days of World War Two, looking at it from all sides, without prejudice.
All in all great to read and good for you to read.
Long may it continue!
Nice site. Love the sub pic on the front page.
Just fantastic to see the recapture of events and facts that have been forgotten or
distorted over time.
Wonderful work!!!
Thanks from Russia. I really love your site, there are lot of interesting information about World War II. I learn History of XX century, and your articles on this web site is very important for me.
Best regards.
Well Done Martin, keep up the good work….
Rob
Well done – nice website! One comment – on the page http://ww2today.com/further-anti-jewish-bureaucratic-measures, the significance of the “including Jewish shops” is that their Sabbath is Saturday and they therefore closed on Saturdays and, I assume, opened on Sundays.
This web site is a real revelation for me along with @realtimewwII.
I was a 4 year old living with my parents in Paris in April 1939. I and my birth family were all British subjects. My parents never told me very much about our stay in France which ended when we boarded an RN ship in Bayonne, France on or about June 23, 1940.
We eventually made our way back to Canada by July 13, 1940. About 10 years ago I began exploring Internet archives about France in 1939 and 1940. So I will no doubt find lots of useful information at this web site.
Sir,
I run a virtual WWII flight simulation squadron called Doolittle Raiders. We specialize in flying historic missions and have been flying them chronologically. We are currently flying missions in March 1944. One of the reason we fly historic missions is to honor the men and women who sacrificed and served during World War II to preserve democracy and defeat the forces of fascism. In that spirit it is important to remember that the pilots and crew of the aircraft we fly were real and human. Remembering their story is as important as anything we do to entertain ourselves with our virtual flying hobby.
As such, I have placed you website on a permanent link on our website at http://www.doolittleraiders.us. Your entries help us to stay focused on the human reality of the war we fly. Thank you sir and from us, a smart ‘salute.’
Very respectfully,
Maxwell Shaw
Doolittle Raiders
[Wichita Kansas, USA]
Martin,
This page should be read every day, in every American history classroom. A clear reminder of the meaning of “mortal danger” which we seem to have grown immune to the signs of that surround us clearly each day although from a different but just as dangerous enemy.
The piece from Willey Reese’s ” A Stranger to Myself” is superb
Bravo! The method that you are using to tell this story brings to light the personal horrors and tragedies that so often are overshadowed by the generalized “world view” of history. This second “War to End All Wars” was not only about nations or ideologies. Truly, it was a very personal experience for millions of people. The effect it had on humanity, the hard and horrific lessons that were learned, can not be forgotten. Sites such as yours will bring that humanity back to the surface and will bear the torch of that lesson for generations to come. Again, bravo and keep up the good work!
Martin, I’ve _so_ enjoyed reading your blog – it’s wonderfully entertaining and enlightening read – and comes so much more alive so due to its day-by-day chronological nature. Do keep up the great work : )
Al
Martin,
This is a wonderful site. It brings alive the terrible events of seventy years ago. I am editing several personal memoirs of those who were there and as their recollections are so specific one doesn’t get a sense of what is going on more broadly. This website provides a ‘feeling’ of what was going on all over the world at the time. Congratulations and thank you very much.
David
Writer and Editor
I just wanted to take the opportunity to say how much I enjoy this blog. As an avid reader of WWII literature and a former history minor at my college I relish any opportunity to learn. You do a great job of balancing facts with personal accounts allowing for a great perception of these war-time occurences.
Thank you! Keep them coming!