Fraser Barton ‘Barry’ Sutton D.F.C. As deeper plunges the diver the less he sees so the pilot climbing in the sky becomes more enclosed in a dome of unreflecting light the blue above becomes purple then black, as sunlight fades So wrote Fraser Barton ‘Barry’ Sutton some forty years after the end of the Second World War in which he flew, fought and was thrice posted ‘missing in action’. Having had strong Jersey connections all his life, he returned here in retirement and spent his last years living in The Boathouse on Rozel Harbour. He lies buried in Holy Trinity Churchyard. The quotation abov ..read more

An Invasion of Britain 16 July 1940: Hitler’s Directive No.16 German personnel undertaking a Verladungsübung, or loading exercise, in the Boulogne area while training for Operation Seelöwe in 1940. (Historic Military Press) As dawn broke on the morning of Tuesday, 16 July 1940, fog enveloped much of northern France and south-east England. These conditions, from an air fighting perspective at least, severely curtailed operations, providing an opportunity for the day fighter squadrons, of both the RAF and Luftwaffe, to enjoy some rare off duty time. Nevertheless, 16 July was a date of enormous s ..read more

Kurt G.W. Lüdecke was born into a wealthy family in Berlin in 1890 but the death of his father saw the family fall on hard times. He found the most productive way of providing for the family was by defrauding and swindling, mostly women, as he travelled all across France, England and the United States in the years before the outbreak of the First World War. He avoided conscription due to a minor medical condition and spent the war working in a psychiatric hospital in Heidelberg. At the university there he attended lectures on racial theory given by of Professor Alfred von Domaszewski that led ..read more

My mother’s friends and the Guards’ Chapel incident, 18 June 1944 It was June 1944 and my mother, Enid Sykes, was lodging at the YWCA in Penywern Road, Earls Court. She was a final year student at King’s College, London. She was originally from Cudworth and was the first of her family to go to university. She had been evacuated with the College to Bristol University for the first two years of her course; it was there that she met my father, Alan, at a dance. As part of their “war work” as students, they were required to carry out regular fire watching on the roofs of the university buildings ..read more

William Dudley Pelley; An American Fascist ‘The time has come for an American Hitler,’ said William Dudley Pelley while campaigning for the United States presidency in 1936. As leader of the Christian Party, he campaigned under the banner of ‘For Christ and the Constitution’ and went on to say, ‘When I’m president…I’ll do away with the Department of Justice [and form] a Christian government.’ The party’s manifesto called for disenfranchisement of Jews and limitations placed on their rights to employment.2 When the votes were counted, he had won a paltry 1,598 against Rosevelt’s 27,757,333. Pe ..read more

The start of the Doodlebug campaign, 13-16 June 1944 The V1 flying bomb (known to the Germans as Vergeltungswaffe 1, Vengeance or Retaliation Weapon No 1) was a small jet-propelled and unmanned aircraft, a type of early cruise missile. Initially launched from ramps in the Pas de Calais, the V1s came in over the Channel at between 1,000 and 2,000 feet at speeds approaching 400mph. They proved a difficult target to intercept, much less to bring down and destroy. They were very effective weapons, cheap to manufacture and with no need for supplies of bombers, fighters or pilots to support their at ..read more

The Commonwealth Division Athletics Meeting, Korea 19 June 1953 In June 1953, during the Korean War, my father Frank Merritt was posted to the 1 Commonwealth Division. He was a Royal Engineer and war photographer. Frank quickly discovered the arduous terrain of Korea that he was to be working in, demanded peak physical fitness. This would be achieved through vigorous training. To encourage this and create a good working relationship among the international mix of regiments making up the 1 Commonwealth Division, a range of sporting activities was organised. Soldiers, from regiments rotated off ..read more

This second blog of the D-Day commemorative period, is a very abridged overview of the amazing life of Captain Robert Marcel Charles Benoist, French L’Armee de l’air pilot in WW1 and Special Operations Executive Agent WW2. He waqs a tenacious racing car driver during the interwar period, born in in Rambouillet outside of Paris. There are many facets to the life of Robert Benoist – Grand Prix champion, Le Mans winner, World War One fighter pilot and World War Two resistance hero. He was a truly remarkable character who ultimately gave his life in the service of his occupied country. Benoist’s c ..read more

There would have been no justice if I had left Boeing’s Fortress story incomplete and not gently pushed to write the history of the final ‘Fortress, the B-52 Stratofortress. On 15 April 1952, the B-52 made its first flight, a staggering 72 years ago and nearly 17 years after the B-17s first flight. With the design of the B-52, Boeing appeared to take the most successful elements, and more favourable experiences gleaned from its B-17, B29/B-50 and B-47 aircraft created something truly remarkable. Indeed, of the three Fortresses, the B-52 was the acme of the Very Heavy Bomber doctrine manifest ..read more

It is the first part of June, and it may be a few days late, but it seems appropriate to commemorate the life of racing driver and D-Day veteran Ken Miles. One of the protagonists of the movie ‘Le Mans ‘66’ or also titled ‘Ford Vs Ferrari’, the story of how in partnership with Carroll Shelby and the Ford Motor Company, Ford dominated the Le Mans 24 Hour race during the second half of the 1960s. With my interest and enthusiasm for historic motorsport and military history, Shelby and Miles were the inspiration to create the book ‘Motorsport’s Military Heroes’ along with Murray Walker, Raymond Ba ..read more