The Second World War

It's no exaggeration to say that the world in which we live was created in the white heat that was World War Two. As a social and cultural historian, I find myself less interested in the geo-political or economic arguments and considerations - important as they are - and more intrigued by the thoughts, hopes and goals of the individual and how they tied in to the overall experience of society.

We are the last generation of historians able to question those men and women who were alive and in the centre of events. Yes oral history is full of pitfalls and often raises more questions than answers, but not to record the voices and memories of those that are left would be nothing short of an academic loss of unimaginable proportions.

I hope readers will find the stories of the Poles in WW2 of particular interest. The Poles' war record, while ably recorded in their mother tongue, has, for one reason or another, often been overlooked by English-speaking historians.

	Click on images to view articles          Through machine gun and mortar fire, the Poles manage to defeat the Germans in the bloody fight for the monastery.       Polish paratroopers fought, bled and died at Arnhem, yet their sacrifice is still often overlooked.       The story of a Polish bomber pilot who flew with 301 Squadron. Of the four crews that joined at the same time, only his survived.       Within the Artic circle, in atrocious weather conditions, the Poles joined the Allied effort inching forward to recapture Narvik.       Fighting for the Free Polish when France collapsed, Zbigniew Kowalski's road to freedom was a long and hard one.       The mission: intercept a Japanese transport filght. The target: Admiral Yamamoto, mastermind of the strike on Pearl Harbor.       Volleyed and thundered: How the British 1st Armoured Division charged the guns in France 1940.        With the collapse of the Third Reich, millions of German and Axis servicemen became POWs. How did they fare in Allied captivity?       RETURN TO HOMEPAGE

True grit

This section of my site is dedicated to the fantastic men and women I have met who witnessed the Second World War. Some were at the sharp end, others were on the Home Fronts. All of them did their duty.