Latest news with #BritishTroops
The Independent
5 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Listen: Keir Starmer refuses to rule out war with Russia
Sir Keir Starmer has refused to rule out sending British troops to Russia, stating that the UK cannot 'ignore the threat' Vladimir Putin poses. Asked on the BBC 's Radio 4's Today programme whether the UK might have to send forces to Nato's eastern border to 'possibly die', the prime minister replied: 'I hope not.'. On Sunday (1 June), German's chief of Defence, General Carsten Breuer, told the broadcaster that Russia would attack again within the next four years, highlighting Lithuania and Poland as particularly vulnerable. On Monday (2 June), Sir Keir told BBC's Nick Robinson that in order to make sure British troops aren't sent to the frontline, the UK 'has to prepare'.
The Independent
22-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Nearly 2,000 Afghan children living in hotels, military bases and other temporary accommodation in UK
Nearly 2,000 children of Afghan families brought to the UK because of their support of the British are living in hotels, military bases and other temporary accommodation, new data has revealed. There are 3,880 people, brought to the UK under the Afghan Resettlement Programme, who are living in transitional accommodation while waiting for a more permanent home, government data released on Thursday showed. The government has said that 'around half' of these 3,880 were children as of the end of March 2025. The families are being housed in military bases around the UK, as well as Home Office hotels and other temporary accommodation. The resettlement scheme is designed to help those Afghans who worked for or closely with British troops, or who supported British government objectives during the war - many of whom face persecution under the Taliban regime. The number of people being brought to the UK under the Afghan schemes is on the rise. Data shows that there were 7,736 people resettled in the year ending March 2025, a 17 per cent increase on the previous year. Military bases being used have included sites in Leicestershire, Wiltshire, South Wales, Inverness and Dorset. The Afghan families are living at the bases on a transitional basis before they are moved to homes on other barracks, council properties, or more permanent homes ring-fenced for those in the forces. The MoD has run out of more permanent homes for these Afghan allies and some hotels have now been opened to house Afghan families while they wait. The MoD and the Home Office are also liaising with local councils to find extra housing for them. The number of Afghans living in this transitional accommodation in the UK has increased, with 3,035 people recorded as living in this temporary housing at the end of September 2024. Data obtained by The Independent earlier this year showed that 1,015 service family accommodation homes were being used for Afghan allies as of 1 January 2025. These homes are available to families for up to three years. The MoD is currently undertaking a review of some 2,000 resettlement applications from Afghans with credible links to two special forces units CF333 and ATF444, who served closely with UK special forces soldiers during the war in Afghanistan. The review was prompted after failures were identified in how their applications for sanctuary were refused.
Daily Mail
22-05-2025
- Daily Mail
The tiny detail that unmasked fleeing Nazi monster Heinrich Himmler... before he committed suicide with hidden cyanide and was buried by British troops in an unmarked grave that remains hidden to this day
As the right-hand man of Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler was perhaps the most feared man in Nazi Germany. Under his command, the monsters of the SS had carried out unspeakable horrors, not least the murder of millions of Jews in the Holocaust. But on May 22, 1945, Himmler - who had been on the run with two SS henchmen after the Nazi surrender to the Allies - was stopped by British troops in northern Germany. Wearing an eye patch and posing as a lowly sergeant called Heinrich Hizinger, Himmler had handed over his false identity documents in the hope that they would pass muster. Instead, he was given away by a stamp that his own people had placed on the document. British military intelligence had already spotted it being used by members of the SS who were trying to flee, and so Himmler was held. The following day, having been taken to a detention camp, he made the stunning admission to his captors that he was Heinrich Himmler, the most wanted man in Germany. It was a fantastic result. The hunt for one of the world's most wanted Nazis was at an end less than a month after Adolf Hitler's suicide, and it was the British who had pulled it off. Wearing an eye patch and posing as a lowly sergeant called Heinrich Hizinger, Himmler had handed over his false identity documents (above) in the hope that they would pass muster. But he was held after British troops spotted a stamp that British military intelligence had already spotted being used by members of the SS who were trying to flee But what happened next was catastrophic. Medical officer Captain CJ 'Jimmie' Wells was asked to check Himmler. The examination initially proceeded as normal. Knowing that he might have a cyanide capsule hidden somewhere, Captain Wells looked at Himmler's chest, between his buttocks, inside his nostrils and ears and between his toes and fingers. Two capsules had been found about his person. So when it came to checking his mouth, Himmler realised the game was up. Having seen that Captain Wells had spotted the blue capsule hidden in the corner of his mouth, Himmler clamped down on his finger. After a struggle, Himmler wrenched himself away and then cracked open the capsule with his teeth. It was 11.14pm. Within minutes, Himmler - now in agony - would be dead. Describing the disaster, Captain Wells later wrote: 'The dramatic rapidity of death I anticipated but slightly. 'There were a slowing series of stertorous breaths which may have continued for half a minute, and the pulse for another minute after that. 'The stench coming from Himmler's mouth was unmistakably that of hydrocyanic, and the dose must have been enough to kill an elephant.' He added: 'I felt a vague surge of distinct anger. Not because I had been outwitted but oddly enough because of a feeling of contempt and disgust that a man in his position should choose this way out from the wreck and torture which he had had such a large hand in creating. 'I could not see a Churchill or Montgomery, or a thousand others, under any circumstances even contemplating such an action.' In 2011, a startling unseen image of Himmler's corpse emerged. It had been taken by one of the SS chief's interrogators, Corporal Guy Adderley of the Military Intelligence Corps. Taken just minutes after his death, it showed him lying backwards with his glasses on his face and his hands resting on his stomach. Adderley's family had been set to sell the image at auction, but then withdrew it. Himmler's fake documents came to light in 2020 after being donated to the Military Intelligence Museum in Shefford, Bedfordshire, by the great niece of former wartime intelligence agent Lieutenant Colonel Sidney Noakes. Experts believe that he may have been one of two MI5 interrogators who questioned Himmler before he was medically examined. Himmler's suicide made the front page of the Mail. Under the headline, 'Himmler Poisons Himself Inside British HQ', the story said: 'Heinrich Himmler, once the most-feared man in Europe, committed suicide at four minutes past eleven last night at the headquarters of the British Second Army. 'To-night the body of this man, architect of the horror camps, Chief of Hitler's police, and Minister of the Interior, lies in the red-roofed villa which is the army headquarters. 'Grey faced, bespectacled, the thin-lipped face turned to the ceiling, half covered with a grey British blanket. 'The body is collarless and is clothed in a British Army shirt, Army slacks, and Army socks.' The BBC said in a German-language broadcast: 'The most devilish figure which Nazism created has committed suicide. 'Ad head of the Gestapo and the SS, he was responsible for the atrocities inside the concentration camps. He topped the list of the war criminals'. Moscow Radio announced: 'The Devil's lieutenant has returned to his master'. The BBC said in a German-language broadcast: 'The most devilish figure which Nazism created has committed suicide. 'Ad head of the Gestapo and the SS, he was responsible for the atrocities inside the concentration camps. He topped the list of the war criminals'. Responsibility for burying Himmler's corpse fell to four British soldiers. They took it to an unmarked grave on Luneburg Heath. The Mail reported on May 26, 1945: 'Himmler's body was buried in a secret, nameless grave on the edge of the heath here at dusk this evening. 'A small party of British soldiers carried the blanket-swathed body to the heath and dug the grave. 'An Army chaplain said the last rites as the body was lowered. The grave was immediately filled in and left unmarked.' With the precise location of his remains kept top secret to this day, conspiracy theories about Himmler's fate have abounded. Some have suggested that he lived for years beyond his supposed capture, and that the man who fell into British hands was a mere lookalike. It has also been claimed that Himmler was murdered by British agents to keep secret the alleged fact he had been negotiating with the Allies behind Hitler's back. The notion that there were talks and that they went on for months is not backed by substantive evidence.
