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How we took the good news from Grosse Tychow to Fallingbostel
A diary of the forced march undertaken by prisoners of war 6 February 1945 to 26 April 1945
I abandon now
Three verses poem about fear, despair and resolution.
Interview with a survivor of the bombing of Berlin
She tells of her life in Berlin before, during and after the war. She lived with her mother in a block of flats close to the home of her grandparents. Her father died when she was nine years old. During the war she collected shrapnel as souvenirs…
Interview with a survivor of the Cordenons bombings (informant A)
The interviewee recalls her wartime years at Cordenons, starting from the day the outbreak of the war was announced on the radio. She describes how she anticipated the air raid siren with a mixture of elation and fear, being somewhat eager to skip…
Interview with a survivor of the Cordenons bombings (informant B)
The informant remembers wartime episodes in Cordenons and the Pordenone area. Mentions aircraft en route to Austrian targets contrasted by anti-aircraft fire, while she was taking shelter in a ditch. Reminisces the bombing of Casarsa and the Meduna…
Interview with Ada Dellaferrera
Ada Dellaferrera (b. 1928) recalls aircraft strafing the railway station and how she tried to hide next to a wall. Remembers when her mother sent her out in the blackout and the fear of the dark she has had ever since.
Interview with Adriana Ventriglia
Adriana Ventriglia remembers the bombings of Milan. She provides details about her evacuee life in the Lodi countryside and describes how her father was injured in a train strafing. Mentions her early life in a mixed family, the impact on…
Interview with Alan Pugh
Alan was born in Western Victoria in Australia. After two years in the Air Training Corps, he asked to join the Royal Australian Air Force. He was selected to go to Somers No. 2 Initial Training School on No. 46 course. Alan chose to be a…
Interview with Alessandra Rivalta
Alessandra Rivalta recalls her early life, first as member of Opera Nazionale Balilla then as an undergraduate student at the faculty of humanities. Describes the start of the war, early anti-aircraft precautions and wartime life: food shortage,…
Interview with Alfie Martin
Alfie Martin was born near Belfast in 1920. He applied for the Air Force but his mother was worried about the dangers and so he withdrew his application. He joined the army and when the RAF advertised for soldiers to transfer the RAF he volunteered.…
Interview with Alfred Huberman
Alfred Huberman volunteered for the RAF when he was eighteen and trained as an air gunner. He describes the training and emphasises how physically hard it was. He flew 31 operations from RAF Elsham Wolds in Lancasters. These included operations over…
Interview with Alfred Marshall
Alfred Marshall volunteered for the Royal Air Force and was called up to serve with two others from his home town of Birtley, neither of whom survived the war. He flew operations as a navigator with 192 Squadron from RAF Foulsham including Special…
Interview with an eye-witness of Milan bombings
The informant describes two bombings he eye-witnessed in the Sesto San Giovanni and Niguarda area. During the first, he was in a basement adapted as underground shelter: he recollects women reciting the rosary and a queasy sensation in the stomach…
Interview with Angela Bianchi
Angela Bianchi remembers wartime life in the outskirts of Pavia, where she lived on a farm with other families. Recalls her experiences of being bombed while working in a clothes factory situated close to one of the most important Ticino bridges,…
Interview with Anna Maria Serafini
Anna Maria Serafini recalls her teenage life in Bologna as the fiancée of Luigi Pasetti, a civilian pilot later enlisted as torpedo bomber pilot. Describes how she got married and mentions Italian First World War pilot, Ferruccio Ranza, who acted as…
Interview with Annamaria De Manzano Vici
Annamaria De Manzano Vici recalls her wartime childhood in Trieste. Describes the struggle of her women-only family, coping with fear, hunger, and difficulties in finding food supplies. Remembers the run to the public shelter and the terror felt…
Interview with Annunciata Buffadossi
Annunciata Buffadossi recollects her wartime life in Milan. Annunciata stresses poor-quality housing in a low-class neighbourhood close to potential targets; emphasises how much she feared Germans and Fascists; and speaks with affection of her old…
Interview with Arthur Emlyn Williams
Arthur Emlyn Williams talks about his life before volunteering and what lead him up to volunteering. His parents were upset about his decision to join the RAF. In September 1943, he was accepted for training as an air-gunner. He started his first…
Interview with Arthur Emlyn Williams
Arthur Emlyn Williams was working as a pump operator at the mines, before he volunteered for the RAF. His mother hid his first recruitment letter. He trained at Lord’s Cricket Ground, and Number 2 Air-Gunnery school at Inverness, on Ansons. He…
Interview with Arthur Loudon
Arthur Loudon was born and raised in Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia. He talks about his early life, jobs and family, before he enlisted in 1943, aged nineteen, into the Royal Australian Air Force. He was trained as a navigator at various…
Interview with Arthur Sidney Woolf
Arthur Woolf was working in an office before he volunteered for the RAF. He was keen on flying and would cycle to Castle Bromwich airfield to watch the aircraft. He was accepted for aircrew training and became a wireless operator. After joining a…
Interview with Betty Hedges
Betty Hedges grew up in South London in the final years before the war and she recalls a happy childhood. She describes a close family and community life where the children played unworried in the streets and she talks about the games they played and…
Interview with Bill Lucas. One
W E (Bill) Lucas joined the Royal Air Force in 1940, where he trained as a fighter pilot flying Miles Magisters and Miles Masters, before being posted to RAF Lossiemouth and moving into Bomber Command, flying the Vickers Wellington 1C.
Flew 14…
Flew 14…