Japanese wooden cities burned easily, and their citizens in them. ibid.
June 8th 1944: VE Day. Victory in Europe. After years of struggle an explosion of joy and of relief. ibid.
‘We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing.’ ibid. Winston Churchill
In February 1942 Japanese bombers attacked the Australian mainland. The World at War 23/26: Pacific
Sickness and disease were obstacles as formidable as Japanese bullets. By the end of 1942 the threat to Australia had been removed. ibid.
On August 5th the world’s first Uranium bomb was loaded into a B29 bomber named Enola Gay. The World at War 24/26: The Bomb
The war had ended but not the dying. ibid.
Europe lies in ruins. The dead are gone for ever. The living carry on. The World at War 25/26: Reckoning
A time without pity. A time of brutality. Rape. Revenge. ibid.
Americans are in Japan to stay. ibid.
The Allies are starting to fall out with each other. ibid.
Down this road on a summer day in 1944 the soldiers came. Nobody lives here now … The day the soldiers came the people were gathered together … Here, they heard the firing as their men were shot; then, they were killed too. The World at War 26/26: Remember
Remember the day. ibid.
Waiting and smoking and sleeping and waiting. And waiting. ibid.
Remember the dead. ibid.
Remember the Russian dead. Twenty million. ibid.
Remember them all. 55 million dead. ibid.
July 4th 1943: The fourth year of the Second World War – a plane carrying the Polish prime minister in exile, Wladyslaw Sikorski, takes off from Gibraltar, and sixteen seconds later plunges into the sea. To this day mystery surrounds the plane crash. Was it an accident? Was it sabotage? Or political assassination? Churchill’s Betrayal of Poland, Military Channel 2012
Stalin himself complained about Sikorski. ibid.
Was it pure coincidence that Mayski and Sikorski were in Gibraltar at the same time? ibid.
Ireland remained neutral ... Germans bailing out over the South were interned. Fergal Keane, The Story of Ireland 5/5: Age of Nations, BBC 2011
It was the prisoner of war camp no-one was meant to escape from. Colditz – The Legend, Yesterday 2014
All of them were officers, and most had already escaped from at least one POW camp. ibid.
The Colditz inmates will try everything they can to break out. ibid.
The Kantine Tunnel Escape January 1941, the Naked Escape October 1942, & the Franz Josef Escape September 1943, & the Glider January 1944, & the Final Escape 25th September 1944. ibid.
Allied forces surrounded Colditz ... The Americans began shelling it. ibid.
On September 13th 1940 an Italian army of 80,000 men marched out of Libya and into Egypt to threaten the epicentre of the British Empire. Jonathan Dimbleby, Churchill’s Desert War: The Road to Alamein, BBC 2012
In the space of a month the British had taken 130,000 Italian prisoners. ibid.
Churchill was besotted by Tobruk. ibid.
In the spring of 1941 the town of Clydebank experienced Scotland’s biggest loss of civilian life ... Over 1,200 people were killed. Clydebank Blitz, BBC 2011
The truth about the raid never hit the headlines. ibid.
Clydebank was riddled with military targets. ibid.
In the summer of 1940 Britain was in terrible danger: Nazi Germany was planning to invade our shores. Only the fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force could stop them. Colin & Ewan McGregor: The Battle of Britain, BBC 2012
Most of its fighter pilots had never been in action before. Facing them was a truly formidable enemy. ibid.
The RAF put up a good fight: German planes were shot down at a rate of 2:1. ibid.
There were 1,700 Hurricanes and less than 400 Spitfires. ibid.
Luftwaffe pilots called it Black Thursday. ibid.
18th August 1940 the Hardest Day ... Goering’s new strategy was to destroy the RAF not in the air but on the ground. ibid.
Many pilots were being scrambled into action four or five times a day. ibid.
This shortage of pilots was the critical issue as the Battle of Britain reached a decisive point. ibid.
That unforgettable smell of leather and oil and grease. ibid.
15th September 1940 Battle of Britain Day: RAF Uxbridge was the nerve-centre. ibid.
The appearance of so many RAF planes shattered Luftwaffe moral. ibid.
With fighter command controlling the skies the invasion couldn’t take place. ibid.
They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind ... There are a lot of people who say that bombing can never win a war: well, my answer to that is that it has never been tried here. And we shall see. Air Marshall Sir Arthur Bomber Harris
The average age of air crew was 22. Some were as young as 18. Over 55,000 were killed in RAF Bomber Command. Stephen Fry, Who Betrayed the Bombers Boys? Yesterday 2013
The US 8th Air Force lost around 26,000 airmen. ibid.
Who betrayed the bomber boys? ibid.
Just 17% of air crew would complete a tour of thirty operations. ibid.
The Germans would fire over 9,500 V1s at southern England during the summer of 1944. ibid.
June 1940: German forces raced across Europe and swept into northern France. In the Channel Islands they could hear the war approaching. Nazi Britain
March 1941: German is made compulsory in island schools. ibid.
June 28th 1940: German aircraft scream down on the harbor of St Peter Port in the Channel Islands … This was the Nazi version of Shock-n-Awe. Hitler’s Island Madness, Military Channel 2012
The most fortified place on Earth. ibid.
Hitler was immensely proud of his only British conquest. ibid.
By 1942 there were over 15,000 soldiers – nearly one for every civilian. ibid.
The Allied forces swept past them and into mainland Europe. ibid.
Orders Of The Commandant Of The German Forces In Occupation Of The Island Of Guernsey. Evening Press 1st July 1940
They were evil. It was almost like a nightmare. And it was their voices and the smell of their uniforms ... that haunted me for many many years. Kay le Cheminant
Twelve months for digging a potato. Guernsey war-time newspaper article
Attention – Warning: Any persons found marking walls with V-signs or insults against the German Armed Forces are liable to be shot. A reward will be paid to any person giving information that will lead to the arrest of these offenders. General Graf von Schmettow, German Military Government
Like in the West the German leaders rely on the concept of the Blitzkrieg in the East too. Tank units roll over Soviet lines, surround entire divisions and push forward immediately. The Red Army taken by surprise loses a large part of its armed forces in a few weeks. Dying for Hitler
In 1941 alone more than 3,000,000 Soviet soldiers are taken into German captivity as prisoners of war ... More than half of the prisoners die in German camps. ibid.
What is not destroyed in the fighting is commandeered by the German occupiers. ibid.
They are beginning to realise just how vast Russia is. ibid.