Research continued from the BBC WW2 site. Topic No.1 CASSINO

Hi everyone.

Quite a lot of questions were left un-answered when the BBC site went 'ARCHIVE'.

Please feel free to leave your query here by clicking on the POST A COMMENT link below and give details of your research item. One or more of the team will try to answer your question or put you on the right track and others , of course, are free to join in and thereby make a 'thread'.

To the public in general

Please note that this blog has now gone public. Up until now only Members could comment. I have now altered this so that non-members can comment on any post.

The BBC WW2 Peoples War Archive

The BBC have told us that the new Archive should be up and running within a month of the old site 'closing down'.
Back in 2005, on the 15th of August to be precise, 'useability' trials of the proposed Archives were held at the White City Studios and I was lucky enough to be asked to participate.

One of the side benefits was the chance to meet with some of the BBC WW2 Team and I took the opportunity to capture the scene for posterity.
In the photo, from left to right, can be seen:
Penelope, Ron, Katherine and Deborah

Good luck messages

The day before the BBC site closed we were pleased to receive this message from the BBC Team.

Well done all Site Helpers
Posted 15 Hours Ago by WW2 People's War Team

Dear Ron, Peter, Tom, Frank and all the WW2 Helpers,

Well, it's the last weekend of the project. There are now over 45,000 stories and 15,000 photographs on the site. It's a terrific achievement, but something else that everyone should be proud of is the sense of community which has been generated on the site - this has all been down to you. Your good will and commitment has brought so much to the site. Thank you for all your contributions and support over the last two and a half years.

Good luck with the blog, I'm sure it's going to be a very popular spot. Over the next month or so, we'll be building the Archive site. We'll let you know when it's live.

I look forward to keeping in touch,
thanks again to you all.

Katherine and the WW2 Team

BBC - Radio 4 - Coming Home

BBC - Radio 4 - Coming Home

The above link takes you to the series of five programmes presented by Charles Wheeler. I was in the second programme Home Again, broadcast on Tuesday, 10 May, 2005. Something I said, 'Home Again' gave the title to this episode. I was 16 at the time, not 10 as Charles Wheeler implies.

The programmes begin with the end of the news, so be patient.

To kick off our blog, why not add your memories of coming home? Demob really depended on the date you joined, and many men and women had to wait a year or more. Let's have your memories and your impressions of the changed world you found.

N.B. Send your story as a Comment to this Post.

Blog Rules and Guidance

I've expanded the introduction giving directions on how to become a Contributor. Shortly I'll begin tidying up and getting rid of these teething problem posts and discussions. Any particular ones you want kept?

Re Bad Eyesight

As you can see, I've restored the original white background. As to the blog text, are you using the most suitable viewing size Frank? If you are using Internet Explorer go to the browser View menu and then to Text Size. The default is Medium, but there are two further increases available: Large and Largest. Try one of those.

I am Posting this as I suspect that if it is sent as a Comment it won't be read. It really should be in the Bad Eyesight thread started by Frank. Sorry for setting a bad example. The sooner we get threads going the better.

Picture test

I give up, why is it I can get a picture to the main blogg and not to the Biog box.
Hold it whilst I go chew a carpet.
Frank

Very short threads giving the needle :)

Lads

This is a copy and past job lifted from my comments in another thread. I'm repeating what I said there because I suspect it might lay buried and never be seen:

I've tried to expand one or two threads but my comments are only getting a rare reply. How is it that every email between us invariably gets a response, yet here there is nothing?

None of us had any difficulty whatsoever posting and commenting on the BBC WW2 site - the blog is different, yes, but not in the least more difficult. Posting photos, here is far easier and less restrictive - so what's the problem?

To assist in you going back to comment (purely as a temporary measure) I'm going to lift the 4 post restriction and have all posts on view (actually I've simply increased it to 100, the limit is a massive 999). I'll tidy up before we go public.

To remind you ! BBC - WW2 People's War - What will happen to your story?

Gentlemen

Only 4 Days to go before it is too late to post any more articles on the BBC site.

Will the last person to leave the site please switch off the light and lock the door !

BBC - WW2 People's War - What will happen to your story? - A1056142

Worth your attention Lads !

It has been fascinating to read this first class account by Peter Green (49th LAA, who else !) of what it was actually like to lay the smoke at Cassino. As a Wireless/Op all I did was to send the messages that told these poor bastards where to lay their smoke!
Click on link to see the article.
BBC - WW2 People's War - Monte Cassino - "Smoke Trains". - A8738003

A superb blog tool!

Click here for BBC - WW2 People's War - A Childhood in Nazi-Occupied Italy

I failed yesterday to realise the full significance of the Blog Button on the Google Tool Bar. Go to any page you like on the web (Ron and Tom might go to their many published articles on the BBC WW2 site) then simply click the blog button and the link is sent to our blog site with no coding needed by you.

To test this I went to my story on the BBC site and beamed it in. Brilliant! Well done Google!

Do give this a try.

So what is the URL for a Profile photo?

Here is a very quick way to post a photo to your Profile.

This is the URL of my Profile photo:
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3990/2078/640/P1000012.jpg

But you don't want mine, you want your own. So here's what to do:

1. Post your photo as a normal 'post'
2. Go into Edit mode and copy the photo URL.
3. Go to your Profile page and paste in the URL
4. Delete the 'post'

Addendum

The correct way is Ron's way. Handsome devil too!

None shall pass.

At long last I have waded through the maze more by good luck than management.

This is at Genifa early 1948 guarding a German POW camp not to keep them in but marauding Arabs out.

Frank.

A memento from the BBC WW2 Site (when we were still known as 'Researchers' !)

This is a test posting (Tom might like to keep this a souveneer!)

The blog banner

This is the image on the left. It is a still from a colour film, it shows the end of the Afrika Korps, German PoWs being escorted by French troops, A British Red Cap can be seen on the left.



The image on the right is a wrecked British troop carrier on King Beach on D-Day. So it must have belonged to the 69th Brigade; they came in with two battalions side by side, the 5th East Yorkshires and the 6th Green Howards, supported by tanks of the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards.




I didn't realise that huge placards were erected on the beaches to facilitate identification. Makes sense really, since they faced out to sea. A lot had been learned by 1944. King Beach was a subdivision of Gold Beach.

The center image needs no explanation. I chose it to represent the civilian contribution to the war and in particular that of women.

Start of a TV career?

Some shots of my TV debut







On a serious note, this shows that the size of the photos is not restricted. Click on them to enlarge to full size.

Testing posting a pic (now amended by Peter !)

Welcome Frank!

Glad to see you've made it at last. You were just about to be posted AWOL.

Welcome Tom!

Glad to see that you too have made it. Everything will seem a bit strange at first but I'm sure we'll all soon get used to it.

British Army Insignia of Rank

Welcome Ron!

Glad to see you made it. To post a fresh message just click on the Blog icon at the top left. The blog is hosted by Google and will stay as long as Google, so a good few decades. I'm having to find my way around as much as you :) so just experiment away. To comment on a post (i.e., respond) just click on 'comment' at the end of the post. If you want to edit one of your own posts, just click on the pencil icon.

Welcome

Welcome to a new venture! This blog was formed by a group of us who met on the BBC website WW2 - People's War. To our surprise we learnt in late 2005 that the site was to close down on 31 January 2006, and as I write this the clock is ticking away.

For the moment this site is confined to Members Only, but after we have solved the inevitable teething troubles I suggest that we throw it open to the public and invite them to submit stories. So how will it differ from the BBC's site? Well, for a start, we shall be in control and whilst we shall defend free speech and constructive argument (Frank and I on history, and no doubt Tom and me on the merits/demerits of Montgomery :) ) any stories which are clearly bogus will not be accepted.

So who will decide this! I suggest that the sole Monitors are Ron, Frank, Tom, and myself. If three are against and one in favour, the story will stand subject to discussion and review. After a full review a majority decision will decide. Any stories gaining a 50:50 backing will be accepted.