Sunday, 29 January 2012
It has been a long time hasn't it
Well it's been a long time and a great deal has happened over the intervening months. My journey is discussed on my blog Canada Eh?
So I'm starting to settle in to my new life in the Great White North; and it is indeed very cold. Meanwhile, my project to chat with Polish veterans looks like it will gather pace as I've made good friends with a Polish society and veterans’ branch here. I'm really looking forward to chatting with some of the contacts they have possibly lined up. The work on my interviews has gone well, although progress is slow. There are two reasons for this. My own lethargy and the lack of time. I'd say it was the former rather than the latter that is the more problematic. I must contact some of the veterans I spoke with back in the UK and ask if they can supply any photos of themselves when they were young. I've got a couple but it would be nice to have a more full set to accompany the interviews.
I'm also going to try and come up with some articles for a British magazine called Military History Monthly. This could be a good opportunity to get some extra pin money and keep my name in type. I'll have to come up with some good pitches. Finally, I'm frustrated by my inability to get hold of the webmaster of Firstworldwar.com. I'm annoyed that under his new format 1) my name is shoved at the bottom of the articles I wrote as though it was a footnote and 2) I'm not overly happy that the site is now plastered with adverts - some of which link to my work which I gave gratis. I've tried contacting him, but so far incommunicado... Basically, I’m fine with him continuing to use my work but think that I should have at least more of a byline in an obvious place. A link to my website would not go amiss. After all, if you google up Xmas Truce or Horses in World War One, it is my articles on firstworkdwar.com that come up first (just under the inevitable wiki entry). So quid pro quo…
Friday, 7 October 2011
A new blog on Canada
I've decided to take the plunge and set up a new blog on Wordpress about my emigration to Canada. I will still run this blog as it's been a part of my life for several years now. But please check out my new one at:http://uppercanada.wordpress.com/
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Monday, 8 August 2011
Real inspiration
Well it's been a while - again. I've been spurred on to write something now that I have a little more time to spare. Plus, a friend of mine has just started a new blog, reminding me how neglected this poor old slice of cyberspace is.
I have been making some excellent progress in my project to record the Polish veterans of WW2. I have around eight interviews done and I'm about to conduct several more over the next week and a bit. Sunday will see me travel all the way down to Devon, around 100 miles plus. It's worth it, because there is no other location where so many retired Polish veterans live under one roof!
I'm still thinking a great deal about the two chaps I talked with recently. One had gone through the hell of the gulag system; people often forget that Soviet methods were just as brutal and bloodthirsty as the Germans. As a side point, this has always left me wondering why it is okay to wear a communist star. Frankly, it's the same as wearing a swastika in my book.
But I digress. This contact went on to join the Polish Parachute Bde and faced the drop at Driel, near Arnhem, which quickly turned into a bloodbath. The stats speak for themselves: 73 dead and countless others injured. An overall casualty rate of 23% for its officers and 22% for other ranks. These percentages are almost approaching WW1 levels of horror. One of those who died was a close friend of my contact's and, even to this day, I can tell it is a raw subject for him.
As was the treatment of the Polish Independent Parachute Brigade by British high command. Honestly, it's not an easy subject for me to come to terms with - the behaviour of the top brass, including Montgomery, was shameful.
Today, my contact hold his head high and is proud of what he and his comrades tried to achieve. That the Dutch still remember them and do all that they can to welcome these veterans is a testimony to fulfilling their duty in honouring these men.
The British government... well that's another story perhaps.
The other person I interviewed was a survivor of Auschwitz, which had - as most people know - had its own special horrors.
But not many people realise how large the Auschwitz complex became. The site was on a vast industrial scale and survival was a case of wits, luck (lots and lots of it) and mental and physical toughness. Without these prerequisites, a person was doomed.
My contact arrived in Summer 43 and was suddenly moved out in the spring/summer of the following year. He went with the bulk of the Poles in his section. The Germans had become fearful of major Underground Army infiltration (they were right to be suspicious, infiltration on a far-reaching scale had indeed occurred). He was sent on to Stuttgart to help in clearing bomb damage and then to work on rebuilding the rail lines.
Not long after, he was sent to work on the railway near the Siegfried Line defences. He worked on - and I had no idea this existed - a concentration camp on rails. He was finally liberated by the Americans. Not long afterwards he was sent down to Italy and, when his fitness had returned, started intel work with II Corps.
What struck me most, was my contact's ability to remember funny events in the middle of all the misery. His ability to laugh and remain resolutely positive was utterly inspirational.
I have been making some excellent progress in my project to record the Polish veterans of WW2. I have around eight interviews done and I'm about to conduct several more over the next week and a bit. Sunday will see me travel all the way down to Devon, around 100 miles plus. It's worth it, because there is no other location where so many retired Polish veterans live under one roof!
I'm still thinking a great deal about the two chaps I talked with recently. One had gone through the hell of the gulag system; people often forget that Soviet methods were just as brutal and bloodthirsty as the Germans. As a side point, this has always left me wondering why it is okay to wear a communist star. Frankly, it's the same as wearing a swastika in my book.
But I digress. This contact went on to join the Polish Parachute Bde and faced the drop at Driel, near Arnhem, which quickly turned into a bloodbath. The stats speak for themselves: 73 dead and countless others injured. An overall casualty rate of 23% for its officers and 22% for other ranks. These percentages are almost approaching WW1 levels of horror. One of those who died was a close friend of my contact's and, even to this day, I can tell it is a raw subject for him.
As was the treatment of the Polish Independent Parachute Brigade by British high command. Honestly, it's not an easy subject for me to come to terms with - the behaviour of the top brass, including Montgomery, was shameful.
Today, my contact hold his head high and is proud of what he and his comrades tried to achieve. That the Dutch still remember them and do all that they can to welcome these veterans is a testimony to fulfilling their duty in honouring these men.
The British government... well that's another story perhaps.
The other person I interviewed was a survivor of Auschwitz, which had - as most people know - had its own special horrors.
But not many people realise how large the Auschwitz complex became. The site was on a vast industrial scale and survival was a case of wits, luck (lots and lots of it) and mental and physical toughness. Without these prerequisites, a person was doomed.
My contact arrived in Summer 43 and was suddenly moved out in the spring/summer of the following year. He went with the bulk of the Poles in his section. The Germans had become fearful of major Underground Army infiltration (they were right to be suspicious, infiltration on a far-reaching scale had indeed occurred). He was sent on to Stuttgart to help in clearing bomb damage and then to work on rebuilding the rail lines.
Not long after, he was sent to work on the railway near the Siegfried Line defences. He worked on - and I had no idea this existed - a concentration camp on rails. He was finally liberated by the Americans. Not long afterwards he was sent down to Italy and, when his fitness had returned, started intel work with II Corps.
What struck me most, was my contact's ability to remember funny events in the middle of all the misery. His ability to laugh and remain resolutely positive was utterly inspirational.
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Some thoughts on Norway
This blog comes after three weeks of hectic madness. Well, one week of doing nothing and two weeks madness. Firstly my notice came to an end and I left my job. It was such a joy - a real weight off my mind to finally get out of the door. It's strange but a wave of disbelief hit me and I felt quite emotional really. Not for leaving - but for surviving!
So one week was spent relaxing; rather like taking a holiday, or a staycation as some call it. Then I've been trying to get myself together and organise things. It's been tough and the last five days have been real 'horror show', as they say. But here I stand (literally) sans bed, sans, books, sans TV, sans chairs. If it weren't for my laptop and ipod I would have totally disconnected from the 21st Century!
On a much wider level, my Norwegian friends are having to contend with the pain of mass murder and bombing. One friend was five minutes away from the Oslo blast. Thankfully, she was fine, albeit very unnerved. Strangely, my response to the Oslo bomb was quite considered; as Londoners, we experience this type of outrage sadly too often and, while shocked, soon get back to business as quick as possible.
More disturbing was the slaughter of innocents on the nearby island, which utterly appalled me.
Sadly, I don't think the perpetrator of this outrage is mad. This label has already been used by the defence, but it downplays the terrifying truth. Indeed, in some respects it is a mere tool for those seeking to understand and compartmentalise the inexplicable. From my perspective, this man is behaving in a way very much akin to those who were involved in the death camps of ww2. A veneer of civilisation covering the heart of a cruel killer. A disconnect from the morality of society, while at the same time asserting moral superiority. These are the elements that I find so disturbing and hard to think through.
But perhaps we shouldn't care about this man or his motives at all; perhaps it would be best to send him to his own private circle of hell, away from the publicity. In the meantime, we should listen to the survivors and offer them any help and assistance that can be afforded.
So one week was spent relaxing; rather like taking a holiday, or a staycation as some call it. Then I've been trying to get myself together and organise things. It's been tough and the last five days have been real 'horror show', as they say. But here I stand (literally) sans bed, sans, books, sans TV, sans chairs. If it weren't for my laptop and ipod I would have totally disconnected from the 21st Century!
On a much wider level, my Norwegian friends are having to contend with the pain of mass murder and bombing. One friend was five minutes away from the Oslo blast. Thankfully, she was fine, albeit very unnerved. Strangely, my response to the Oslo bomb was quite considered; as Londoners, we experience this type of outrage sadly too often and, while shocked, soon get back to business as quick as possible.
More disturbing was the slaughter of innocents on the nearby island, which utterly appalled me.
Sadly, I don't think the perpetrator of this outrage is mad. This label has already been used by the defence, but it downplays the terrifying truth. Indeed, in some respects it is a mere tool for those seeking to understand and compartmentalise the inexplicable. From my perspective, this man is behaving in a way very much akin to those who were involved in the death camps of ww2. A veneer of civilisation covering the heart of a cruel killer. A disconnect from the morality of society, while at the same time asserting moral superiority. These are the elements that I find so disturbing and hard to think through.
But perhaps we shouldn't care about this man or his motives at all; perhaps it would be best to send him to his own private circle of hell, away from the publicity. In the meantime, we should listen to the survivors and offer them any help and assistance that can be afforded.
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