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Irish Independent
3 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Independent
‘Britain Under the Nazis' review: Riveting documentary lifts the lid on the Nazis' overlooked occupation of the Channel Islands
Strangely, the factual story of Germany's five-year occupation of the Channel Islands has been, if not exactly ignored, notably under-exploited by fiction writers, historians and even documentarians. The superb two-part documentary Britain Under the Nazis: The Forgotten Occupation (Channel 4, Thursday, May 29, 8pm) should go some way towards rectifying the imbalance. Winston Churchill's famous 'we shall fight on the beaches' speech didn't extend to the beaches of Guernsey, Jersey or their neighbouring islands, despite his pledge to defend them. Since the islands were of no strategic importance, he withdrew all military presence from them on June 14, 1940, leaving 94,000 islanders on Guernsey to fend for themselves. Ships were laid on for those who wished to evacuate and 25,000 people left. But a breakdown in communication meant Germany didn't know the islands had been demilitarised. On June 30, the Luftwaffe struck, killing 44 people. The occupation proper began on July 1. Director Jack Warrender's film uses the first-hand testimony of islanders, drawn from their personal diaries, to tell the story of life under occupation, while historians Prof Gilly Carr and Dr Louise Willmot provide context with a light touch. Actors deliver the words straight to camera. Despite the irritating tic of occasionally showing the camera crew filming them, which takes us out of the story a little, it's a riveting account of a complex chapter in wartime history. 'I feel the tremor of bombs being dropped in the distance,' wrote Frank Falla, a reporter with the Guernsey Star. 'For the first time since the outbreak of the war, the full impact of what it means hits me. Despite the sunshine, I feel cold.' With one German soldier for every three islanders and the Swastika raised over government buildings, it must have felt like the war had already been lost. Falla and his colleagues had opted to remain at their desks, even if it meant being censored by the Nazis, rather than let the newspaper come completely under their control. ADVERTISEMENT Learn more He and others distributed their own underground newsletter featuring the news from the BBC. Hitler regarded seizing the Channel Islands as a valuable propaganda tool, even to the extent of drafting in slave labourers to build the Atlantic Wall. A picture in a Wehrmacht newspaper showed some islanders seemingly giving the Nazi salute. In fact, they were raising their hands in response to being asked if they spoke French or German. One Jersey islander who tried to spread the truth was artist and anti-fascist activist Claude Cahun, who shared a house with her 'stepsister' – in reality, her lifelong partner. As a lesbian and a Jew, she was in double peril. Nonetheless, she tried to persuade German soldiers to rebel by distributing notes she described as her 'paper bullets'. Viewed as incitement to mutiny, this was punishable by death. Women who had affairs, and even babies, with German soldiers were labelled 'Jerrybags' and ostracised after the war In one startling diary extract, Jersey's bailiff Alexander Coutanche wrote of keeping relations with the German officer in charge cordial. 'We agree mutually that we are enemies, but at least we can behave like gentlemen.' Things weren't quite so cordial later in the occupation when the mass deportation of Jews, as well as residents born elsewhere, began, and when concentration camps were built on Alderney. The tiny island is officially recognised as a Holocaust site. The lone German voice here is that of German officer Hans Max von Aufsess, who appears to have treated his time on Jersey as a holiday. He wrote euphemistically about the 'good understanding between German soldiers and English girls'. Women who had affairs, and even babies, with German soldiers were labelled 'Jerrybags' and ostracised after the war. Eighty years on, the collaboration, whether sexual or otherwise, of some islanders with the Nazis has left scars that still hurt. Both episodes of 'Britain Under the Nazis' are streaming on from today. Rating: Five stars
Belfast Telegraph
24-05-2025
- General
- Belfast Telegraph
Lest we forget: The 939 names set to be honoured on new Belfast Blitz memorial in city centre
Plans for the memorial had been discussed in 2019, and will now become part of Belfast City Council's plans for the transformation of Cathedral Gardens, the area between St Anne's Cathedral and Ulster University's Belfast campus. Northern Ireland War Memorial (NIWM) has been working in partnership with the council to create the memorial, which will include 937 names of the victims who died in four separate raids by the German Air Force during April and May 1941. Manager at the museum, Keith Beattie, said the expectation is that the monument will be in place by the end of 2026. 'We have had great public support for this,' he said. 'The sculpture will be the final piece in the plan for Cathedral Gardens and the timing of the unveiling will be dependent on how quickly those plans can proceed. But to limit the possibility of any damage from the works in the area, it will be the final installation. 'We're very excited. And what we will have when the work is finished is a wonderful place for people to visit, sit and reflect, and a fitting tribute to all those who died in 1941. 'Next year, we will be holding separate events to mark the 85th anniversary of the blitz and while this sculpture will form the centrepiece of the new gardens, we want to make sure it's exactly what the people of Belfast want. 'We have waited some time to be able to bring this plan to fruition and I believe it will all be worth it and a fitting memorial to the Blitz when it's complete.' The design is being kept under wraps for now, but will take the form of a sculpted monument, inscribed with the names of all those known to have died. The names to be included on the memorial have been compiled using official sources and government records. Luftwaffe bombers honed in on strategically selected targets of industrial and military importance across the city. Over the course of four nights, the German bombers attacked many of these targets but it was working-class residents in the city who paid the highest price. In particular, neighbourhoods in north Belfast and east Belfast suffered. Tightly packed, poorly built housing was no match for the high-explosive bombs, parachute mines and incendiary bombs of the Luftwaffe. The youngest victim was six-week-old William John Wallace who lost his life during the Easter Tuesday Raid at Eastland Street. His father William, aunt Annie and cousin David were also killed. Don Bigger, chair of NIWM, said the Blitz decimated Belfast — one of 17 major UK cities targeted, along with many smaller towns, in 1941. 'This memorial will be a compelling monument to a tragic time in Belfast's history,' he said. 'There were four nights of German bombing and they are remembered as the Dockside Raid (April 7-8), Easter Tuesday Raid (April 15-16), Fire Raid (May 4-5) and the Final Raid (May 5-6). 'The impact was devastating and the new memorial will recognise those who were killed 'as a direct result of enemy action' in the city. 'A total of 937 fatal casualties have already been identified and NIWM is working with Blitz historians Alan Freeburn and Dr Brian Barton to establish a definitive list of people who lost their lives as a result of these raids. 'Elsewhere in Northern Ireland, on the night of Easter Tuesday, a further 32 died due to German bombing in Derry/Londonderry, Bangor and Newtownards. In time, NIWM is also hoping to support memorials to mark these raids.' Belfast Lord Mayor Micky Murray said the Cathedral Gardens Memorial will provide the perfect location for people to meet and reflect. 'It's right and fitting that we remember all those who lost their lives in these devastating raids on our city,' he said. 'Our plan for Cathedral Gardens is that it becomes an easily accessible place, where everyone is welcome to meet up to relax, enjoy entertainment, or simply take in the beauty of a new living landscape and urban forest. 'Hopefully, in creating this Blitz Memorial and siting it in Cathedral Gardens, we will not only honour these Belfast residents, but also provide pause for reflection on the pointless destruction that war brings at a time when conflict sadly continues in many parts of the world.' Watch: Story of how Belfast Zoo's baby elephant was kept in backyard of house during Second World War Blitz Mr Murray said there may be other names of those who died during the Blitz who could still be added to the memorial. 'I urge those who know people whose name may not be on this list to contact NIWM with supporting evidence; and those who may have memories of this time as a child — or who have heard family stories passed down through the generations — to get in touch so that NIWM can document these through interviews,' he added. If you think a victim of the raids has been omitted, email supporting evidence to NIWM at info@ before June 30 Names of those to be remembered on Belfast Blitz memorial Addis, Mary Addis, Sarah Aicken, Alexander Aitken, Jane Allister, Martha Anderson, Elizabeth Anderson, Isabella Anderson, Mary Ann Anderson, William John Andrews, David Harold Andrews, Mary Armstrong, Martin Robert Artt, Isabella Ash, Stanley George Atcheson, Eliza Baird, David Baird, Murdugh George Ball, Samuel Ballance, Agnes Ballantine, Ethel Ballantine, William Vincent Balmer, James Barr, James Alexander Barr, Jeannie Barr, William Cathcart Beattie, James Beattie, James Beech, Margaret Eileen Williamson Beggs, Phyllis Irene Bell, Hannah Bell, John Bell, Joseph Bell, Thomas George Belshaw, Robert Bennett, Catherine Bennett, Robert Benton, William Bill, Thomas Bingham, Thomas Black, Annie Black, Eva Black, Evelyn Black, Hazel Black, Hessie Black, James Black, James Black, Mary Blankney, Roland Bleakley, Matilda Violet Bleakley, Thomas William Boal, George Boal, Winifred Bonnell, Hugh Emrys Bothwell, David Edward Bothwell, Ernest Bothwell, Lily Mary Bothwell, Peggy Mary Boyd, Edith Boyd, Elias Jones Boyd, Elizabeth Kate Boyd, Hugh Boyd, Jessie Boyd, Sarah Jane Bradley, Everhilda Bradley, Margaret Bradley, Sydney Bradshaw, Annie Bradshaw, David Kennedy Brady, George Robert Brady, Mary Braniff, William Brennan, Margaret Briggs, James Briggs, Leonard Briggs, Leonard Briggs, Rowland William Brooker, Herbert Montague Brookes, Wilfrid Mark Hamilton Brothers, Margaret Brown, Elizabeth Jane Brown, Florence Edna Brown, Georgina Brown, Georgina Brown, Henry Brown, James Brown, John Brown, Margaret Jane Brown, Mary Jane Brown, Rachel Brown, Sarah Brown, Stephen Brown, William Alexander Browne, Annie English Browne, William Thomas Bullock, Robert Burbage, Montague James Burdett, Dorothy Kathleen Burleigh, Betty Burton, Sarah Byrne, Eliza Sarah Caldwell, Francis Ernest Cameron, Annie Campbell, Arthur McLean Campbell, Elizabeth May Campbell, Hugh Campbell, Margaret Campbell, Margaret Christina Campbell, Roberta Carleton, Dona Carroll, Thomas William Carson, Edward Carson, Eileen Carson, Martha Carter, Alice Carter, Joseph Carter, Joseph Carter, Kathleen Carter, Mary Carter, Mary Ann Carter, Sarah Cash, Mary Ann Castles, Hugh Christian, Leonard Charles Christy, James Christy, Margaret Christy, Margaret Sylvia Church, Hannah Cinnamond, Arthur Moore Clarke, Cecil Clarke, David Clarke, Desmond Clarke, James Henry Clarke, Jeremiah Clarke, Jeremiah Clarke, John Clarke, Lavina Clarke, Mabel Alexandra Clarke, Robert Clarke, William Close, Albert Close, Mary Jane Close, William Cobain, Elizabeth Maud Cobble, Edward William Cochrane, Gertrude Cole, Patrick Conlon, James Connelly, Annie Connelly, Charlotte Connelly, James Connolly, John Convery, Jane Cooke, David McKee Cooke, Ernest Victor Cooke, John Cooke, Mary Anne Cooke, Mary Jane Cooke, Thomas Coombs, Frank Mundy Corr, Annie Corr, Frederick Corr, Mary Ann Corry, Elizabeth Corry, Henry Corry, Martha Corry, Samuel Costello, Mary Ann Costello, Stephen Craig, Rebecca Craig, Robert Creighton, John Creighton, Rachel Crossan, David Crothers, Alexander Crothers, Raymond Crotty, Mary Ann Cuffe, Denis Patrick James Curran, Patrick Curran, William Curry, William John Danby, Alice Danby, Arthur Danby, Emily Danby, John Danby, John Robert Danby, Kathleen Danby, Olga Danby, Peter Darragh, Margaret Davey, Henry Davey, Matilda Davidson, Jane Davison, John Deering, Martha Elizabeth Deering, Mary Dempster, Agnes Dempster, Agnes Ruby Dempster, Ellen Dempster, Robert Denby, Dorothy Ethel Denby, Harriette Macredie Denby, Isabella Denby, William Henry Dennant, Eric Doherty, James Doherty, Mary Doherty, Mary Christina Doherty, Sarah Doherty, Susan Dojan, Donald Dojan, John Donnelly, Annie Donnelly, Arthur Donnelly, Bessie Donnelly, Hugh Donnelly, Joseph Michael Donnelly, Maggie Donnelly, Marie Donnelly, Mary Donnelly, Patrick Donnelly, Robert Moorhead Donnelly, Susannah Donnelly, Susannah Hope Donnelly, Thomas Dorman, Annie Dorman, Mary Dornan, Harriet Dornan, Harriett Douglas, Emily Douglas, James Douglas, Margaret Douglas, Samuel Douglas, Sarah Douglas, William Dowds, Anne Dowds, Annie Dowds, Maureen Drummond, Martha Duff, John Murray Duff, Kathleen Duffy, Catherine Duffy, James Duffy, James Michael Collins Duffy, Josephine Duffy, Samuel John Duffy, Sarah Ann Dunlop, Agnes Dunlop, Elizabeth Dunwoody, Edith Dunwoody, Henry Dunwoody, Isabella Dunwoody, William Elkin, Mary Elkin, Alexander McNeill Elkin, Alexander Norman Elkin, William Ronald Elliott, Samuel Stewart McComb Erskine, Cecil Esdale, John Farrelly, Maurice Phillip Faux, Christopher Youraba Fee, Daniel Ferguson, Agnes Ferguson, Andrew Ferguson, Andrew Ferguson, Charles Ferguson, Elizabeth Shaw Ferguson, Mary Jane Ferguson, Richard Ferguson, Thomas Gardener Ferris, Daniel Finlay, Robert Finnegan, John Finnegan, Kathleen Fisher, John Joseph Fisher, Martha Fisher, Rose Flack, George Flack, Mary Fletcher, James Fletcher, Martha Flood, Thomas Flynn, Agnes Flynn, Ambrose Flynn, Kenneth Flynn, Rosemary Forbes, Elsie Forbes, James Forbes, James Forbes, Martha Forbes, Norman Forbes, Sadie French, John Frizzell, Eric Frizzell, Eveline Frizzell, Eveline Frizzell, Robert John Fullerton, Charles Fullerton, Dennis Fullerton, Elizabeth Gardner, Amelia Garrett, Allen Garrett, Bridget Garrett, John Gass, James Gay, Herbert Geddis, Agnes Geddis, James Gibson, Thomas Heeson Gilmore, John Gordon, Elizabeth Gordon, Georgina Gordon, Hugh Gordon, Kathleen Gordon, Samuel Gordon, Susan Gordon, Thomas Gordon, William Gowan, Samuel Hoy Graham, Francis Graham, Frederick Graham, Jane Graham, Violet Graham, William John Gray, John Gray, John Gray, Sarah Greaney, John Greer, Sylvia June Gribbin, Nancy Simms Grimes, Christopher Grimes, Sarah Guglielmazzi, Leon Guinnis, William Guy, Henry William Guy, Mary Guy, Mary Doreen Guy, Reginald Guy, Sydney Hagans, Alexander McIlwrath Haggan, Robert Hagin, William Halliday, Frances Halliday, Francis Halliday, Harold Cecil Halliday, Isaac V. Hamilton, Annie Brown Hamilton, John Nelson Hamilton, Kathleen Hamilton, Samuel Hanna, Annie Hanna, Doreen Hanna, Eliza Hanna, Letitia Hanna, Myrtle Hanna, Robert John Hanna, Samuel Hanna, Samuel Hanna, Thomas Harbinson, Robert James Harkness, Brice Harper, Ann Jane Harris, John Thomas Harrison, John Harron, Mary Elizabeth Harvey, Thomas Harvey, Thomas Douglas Harvey, William Thomas Hawkins, Elizabeth Hawkins, Elizabeth Hawkins, John Albert Hawthorne, David Henry Heaney, Edith Heaney, George Heaney, Joseph Andrew Heaney, Vera Hemelryk, Edward Valentine Henderson, Agnes Hendron, William Henry, Mary Henry, Susan Heron, Elizabeth Heron, Martha Higgiston, Mary Matilda Hill, James Stringer Hill, Joseph Hill, Margaret Hillis, David Hillock, Sarah Ann Holden, Charlotte Holden, Jean Holden, William Holmes, Mary Jane Holt, Archibald Joseph Adolphus Holt, Eliza Jane Holton, Arthur Henry Hood, Robert Dalzell Howard, Mary Elizabeth Howe, Maurice William Huddleston, Elizabeth Jane Huddleston, Ellen Huddleston, James Huddleston, Hannah Huddleston, Hans Patrick Huddleston, Mary Hughes, Sarah Hunter, Charlotte Hunter, Henry Hunter, Irene Hunter, Joseph Molyneaux Hunter, Kathleen Hunter, Margaret Hunter, Rose Hutchinson, David Hutchinson, Lily Hutchinson, Martin Hutchinson, May Hutchinson, Rita Hutchinson, Sadie Hutchinson, Sarah Hutchinson, William Hutton, Jesse Taylor Hynes, William Irvine, Agnes McQuoid Irvine, Georgina Irvine, Hamilton Irvine, Margaret Hill McQuoid Irvine, Robert McCullough Irwin, Albert James Irwin, James Jackson, Georgina Jackson, Thomas Jackson, Thomas Jacobson, Maurice Barnett Jamieson, Margaret Jamieson, William Samuel Jamison, Charles Frederick Jamison, Elizabeth Jamison, Mary Jamison, Samuel Jerwood, Albert Johnston, Margaret Jones, Daniel Rees Jones, Peter Jones, Stephen Henry Francis Kane, Robert Alexander Kater, Annie Jardine Kater, James Keane, Thomas Kearney, Elizabeth Keeney, Sarah Kelly, Albert Kelly, Annie Kathleen Kelly, Ernest Kelly, Vera Kennedy, Benjamin Kennedy, Oliver King, Joseph Kinghan, George Stuart Kingston, Ronald Victor Knight, Arthur Knight, Grace Knight, James Knight, Mildred Knox, Agnes Kyle, Stanley Lambert, Joseph Lancaster, William Larkin, William Larmour, Jane Leebody, Margaret Lemon, William James Lennon, John Lilley, Albert William Lilley, Edith Frances Ferguson Lindsay (Steele), Rosina Long, Ivers Long, Margaret Jane Long, Norman Long, Ralph Alonza Lucey, Ernest John Montague Lutton, Ellen Lutton, Robert Lutton, Robert Vincent Lynas, Jean Lynas, Richard Lyttle, Frederick Lyttle, Jane Johnston Macauley, Grace MacDonald, Angus Campbell Magee, Daniel Magee, Jane Magee, Mary Magee, Mary Magee, Thomas Magee, Thomasina Magill, Annie Magill, Hugh Magill, Margaret Magill, May Mahaffey, William John Malcolm, Dorothy Malcolmson, Evelyn Mallon, Anna Mallon, Annie Mallon, Cecil Mallon, John Terence Marasi, Felix Martin, John Andrew Martin, Sarah Mason, Anthony Gerard Mason, John William Oliver Mason, Mary Mason, Richard Mason, Rose Mason, Thomas Mateer, David Mateer, Florence Mawhinney, Charlotte Mawhinney, Elizabeth Maxwell, Joseph Maynard, Geoffrey Hiram Mays, William James McAdams, Andrew McAlea, Catherine McAnespie, John McAtamney, Mary McAteer, Adam McAteer, Kathleen McAteer, Martha McAuley, George McAuley, Joseph McAuley, Margaret McAuley, Walter McAvoy, Isabel McAvoy, James McAvoy, John McAvoy, Thomas McCaffery, Catherine McCallum, Cecil McCann, Annie McCann, Mary McCann, Sarah Baird McCarey, Josias McCartney, Matthew McCleary, William McClelland, Agnes McClelland, David McClelland, Edward McClements, Agnes McClements, Hamilton McClements, Hamilton McClements, Jane McCloskey, Gerard Patrick McCormick, Sarah McCready, John McCreedy, James McCreedy, John McCreedy, Mary Jane McCrickard, Margaret McCrickard, Mary McCrickard, Patrick McCullagh, Eliza Jane McCullagh, James Albert McCullagh, Lily Mary McCullagh, Mary Ann McCullagh, Sarah Jane McCullough, Agnes McCullough, Agnes McCullough, Brian McCullough, Eileen McCullough, Eileen Lovain McCullough, Mary Jane McCullough, Martha Neill McCullough, Ralph McCullough, William McCullough, William John McCunnie, John McDermott, Mary Ann McDermott, Mary Kathleen McDermott, Patrick McDonald, Archibald McDonald, Ellen McDonald, Martha McDonald, Thomas McDonald, Thomas Mahood McDowell, William McDowell, William Henry McElheran, Catherine McErlean, Evelyn McErlean, John McErlean, Pierce McFall, Joseph McFall, Joseph McFall, Martha McFall, Sarah McFall, Violet McFarlane, James McGarry, Georgina McGaughan, Sarah Jane McGee, Anne Jane McGee, Harry McGee, Henry McGee, Margaret McGennity, Bridget McGennity, Margaret McGennity, Robert McGennity, William Henry McGerrigan, Patrick James McGladdery, Samuel McGladdery, Sarah McGookin, Joan McGowan, Bertha McGowan, William Thomas McGrawn, Minnie McGregor, Adam McGroder, John McHugh, Annie McHugh, Sarah McIlveen, Eliza Jane McIlveen, Samuel McIlwaine, Elizabeth McIntyre, William McKay, Daniel McKay, Daniel McKay, Jean McKay, Marcus McKee, David McKenna, Frances McKenna, James McKenna, John McKeown, Margaret McKeown, Margery McKeown, Thomas McKinty, John McKnight, Maggie McLellan, James McLellan, James McLellan, Sarah McMeekan, Jennie McMeekan, Robert James McNair, William McNally, Agnes McNally, Elizabeth McNally, Hugh McNally, Mary McNeill, Hetty McNeill, Hugh Baxter McNeill, Lorna McNiece, Elizabeth McPolin, Annie Bernadette McPolin, Bridget McPolin, Hannah McShane, Patrick McSourley, Ann Philomena McSourley, Mary McSourley, Sarah McTernaghan, Eliza Jane McVeigh, Francis McWhinney, Bridget McWhinney, Eileen McWhinney, James McWhinney, Joseph McWhinney, Joseph McWhinney, Mary Meaklim, James Mells, Mary Jane Miley, James Thomas Millar, David Millar, David Millar, Elizabeth Millar, Francis Millar, Henry John Millar, John Alexander Millar, John Forsythe Millar, Margaret Millar, Rebecca Millar, Robert Miller, John Miller, Mary Jane Mills, Robert John Humphries Mills, Walter Charles Edmondbury Montgomery, Andrew Moore, Hugh Hanna Moore, James Simon Moore, Mary Robinson Moore, Thomas Moore, Trevor Moore, William Morgan, William George Morris, William Thomas Alexander Morton, Thomas Muldoon, Katherine Mulholland, Sarah Freeburn Murdock, Ellen Murdock, Margaret Murray, Margaret Murray, Mary Elizabeth Murray, William Neill, Annie Neill, Jane Nesbitt, Alice Nesbitt, Ellen Nesbitt, Jean Nesbitt, Samuel Nixon, James Johnston O'Boyle, James O'Brien, Jeremiah O'Hare, Josephine Patricia O'Hare, Mary Teresa O'Neill, Hugh O'Neill, Margaret Jane O'Neill, Maria Orr, Raymond Osben, James Owens, Frederick Park, John Thomas Park, Martha Patience, John Patience, John Cameron Patience, Robert Patterson, Emma Jane Patterson, Emma Jane Patterson, William Robert Perkins, Herbert Owen Perring, Alfred Frederick Peters, Harold Herbert Phillips, Edward Warburton Phillips, Henry Pickup, Harry Norman Pollock, William Martin Power, Bridget Power, Gerald Power, Patrick Power, Thomas Price, Thomas Pritchard, Joshua Pritchard, Margaret Pritchard, Margaret Pritchard, William John Quigley, William Quinn, John Roderick Redman, Myrtle Edwina Freida Rees, Ivor John Reid, Isabella Reid, Martha Reid, Robert Reilly, Mary Renton, Allison McClelland Renton, Elizabeth Renton, Muriel Lowry Renton, William Richardson, Charles Richardson, Ellen Riecken, Ernest William Riecken, Mary Louisa Roberts, Francis Edward Roberts, John Thomas Roberts, Sarah Robinson, Agnes Robinson, James Henry Rodgers, Evelyn Rodgers, James Rodgers, Jane Rodgers, Kathleen Rodgers, Phyllis Rodgers, Robert Rodgers, William Rogers, Daniel Rogers, Daniel Rogers, Mary Rooney, Joseph Ross, John Reynolds Rossborough, Minnie Rowley, Alfred John Rowley, Charles James Rowley, Emily Roy, Samuel John Russell, Sofia Saunders, George James Henry Savage, Thomas Scott, Albert Scullion, Bridget Scullion, James Seaward, Norman Leslie Shaw, Kenneth Lawrence Silverman, Anthony Meyer Simmons, John Thompson Simon, Florence Simon, Geoffrey Ronald Simon, Henry Nathan Simpson, David Cooper Skelly, Samuel Skelton, Audrey Skelton, Samuel Skinner, Albert Joseph Slavin, Henry Smith, Mary Smyth, Elizabeth Smyth, Elizabeth Smyth, Ellen Smyth, Hugh Smyth, Lawrence Smyth, Margaret Smyth, May Smyth, Sadie Smyth, William John Spence, George Spratt, Jean Spratt, John Stafford, Margery Staunton, Edith Staunton, Frederick Staunton, Herbert Staunton, Letitia Staunton, Robert Steele, Mary Sterrett, William John Stevenson, Ellen Stevenson, James Stevenson, Richard Stevenson, Samuel Stewart, Alice Stewart, Archibald Herbert Sanderson Stewart, Hugh John Stewart, Raymond Stewart, Stella Stewart, William Story, Rachel Anna Story, Susanna Sutcliffe, Richard Douglas Swann, John Swann, Margaret Isabella Swann, Martha Swann, Mary Swann, William Taggart, Elizabeth Taggart, Ellen Taggart, William Henry Tate, Elizabeth Tate, Ellen Ogle Tate, Evelyn Taylor, James Taylor, John Taylor, Kathleen Taylor, Mary Taylor, Patrick Thompson, Elizabeth Thompson, Hugh Thompson, James Thompson, Joan Thompson, John Thompson, Samuel Alexander Thompson, Sarah Jane Thompson, Una Timoney, Mary Ann Tobin, Joseph Todd, Ella Elizabeth Todd, Vera Todd, Violet Toogood, Margaret Toole, Patricia Anne Torley, Francis Totton, Agnes Totton, Geoffrey Totton, Thomas Turner, Mary Turpin, James Herbert Unsworth, Sarah Elizabeth Unsworth, Thomas Vannan, Ann Elizabeth Vannan, Mary Elizabeth Venn, Trephena A. Venton, William Anson Vigors, Patrick Forbes Waddington, Thomas Wallace, David Wallace, James Wallace, James Wallace, Jane Wallace, Jane Wallace, Kathleen Wallace, Sheila Wallace, William John Wallace, William John Wallace, William James Walsh, Catherine Ward, Sarah Ward, William Ward, Richard Fowler Warwick, Alice Warwick, Alice Winifred Warwick, Ann Jane Hughena Warwick, Joanna Payne Warwick, Nathaniel Boyd Warwick, Nathaniel James Warwick, Phyllis Iris Watson, Margaret Watson, William James Watt, John Webb, Minnie Welch, Angela Maureen Welch, Annie Angela Welsh, Phares Hill Wherry, Elizabeth Wherry, John Wherry, Margaret Jane Wherry, Martha Wherry, Mary Wherry, Robert White, Mary Wilson, Alexander Wilson, Annie Wilson, Annie Wilson, David Wilson, Dorothy Wilson, Edith Wilson, Elizabeth Wilson, Ellen Wilson, Ellie Wilson, Euphemia Wilson, James Wilson, James Wilson, Johanna Wilson, Margaret Wilson, Robert Wilson, Robert J. Wilson, Sarah Wilson, Thomas Wilson, Violet Wilson, Violet Wilson, William Wilson, William John Wiseman, Matthew Wiseman, William Wylie, Annie Wilson Wylie, Francis
Press and Journal
20-05-2025
- General
- Press and Journal
Remembering the day an RAF bomber crashed into Lossiemouth homes, killing 11
On May 20 1945, Lossiemouth was a town revelling in peace. World War Two was over in Europe. The daily diet of death, fear and insecurity was gone. It doesn't take much to imagine the joy and relief in people's hearts. Then abruptly, that quiet Sunday morning, tragedy struck the town. A Wellington bomber on a test flight from RAF Lossiemouth fell from the sky and hit a row of council houses. It resulted in the loss of eight civilians, six of them from the same family, and three RAF air crew. From a town celebrating the end of the war less than a fortnight earlier, Lossie was now a town in mourning. Lossiemouth's war had already had profound effects on the humble fishing town. RAF Lossiemouth opened in 1939 and played vital part in the war effort, particularly as a strategic base for bombing missions. The war came close to home on October 26 1940, when the base was attacked by the German Luftwaffe, killing one RAF officer and two air crew. A four-man German crew also died and were buried in Lossiemouth. Less than a year later, on July 11 1941, a German Junkers 88 fighter dropped four bombs over the town, possibly mistaking it for the RAF base. The first bomb hit Kinneddar Street resulting in injuries to members of the Souter family. The second bomb hit 6 Dunbar Street, killing Mr and Mrs John Wilson and their house guests Mr and Mrs Joseph Leighton, who had fled Portsmouth and come to Lossie to try and escape the worst of the war. Their daughter was married to an RAF officer at the base. Two more bombs were dropped that night, one fell on King Street, the other in a nearby quarry. But all that trauma was rapidly becoming history after VE day, and the community was looking forward to the future. Just before 10am on Sunday May 20, at RAF Lossiemouth, a Wellington bomber crewed by RD Rickard from Manchester; DR Cameron and CGW Mawby from South Ealing were preparing to take off on a test flight. At the same time, the Flood family were stirring at home in their upper council house on the block 43, 45 and 49 Church Street. John Flood and his 11-year old daughter Jeanie decided to treat the rest of the family to tea in bed, and were in the kitchen. Mum Joey Flood and her other five children were at the other end of the house. Their next door neighbours upstairs, Judith Allan, 66 and her adopted daughter Vera were also having a lazy morning before church. Meanwhile things were going wrong on the test flight. An eyewitness said the plane failed to gain height as it flew over Coulard Hill in an easterly direction, and was struggling, its engines cutting out. He told the P&J: 'The pilot was obviously making a supreme effort to get the bomber clear of the own and make for the sea. 'But the plane whirled three times, the engines suddenly became silent and the machine dropped like a stone on top of a block of flatted municipal houses. 'Part of the fuselage fell in front of the building and the other part in the garden at the rear. The plane completely disintegrated. There was a loud explosion and in a matter of seconds the plane and the block of houses were enveloped in flames. 'Had it gone three yards farther the plane would have missed the houses and fallen in the open space formed by the old Market Square.' In an instant, 11 people lost their lives. Vera Allan died in bed. Her mother Judith, who had lost a son in France in 1940 and whose surviving son was serving with the Seaforths in India, was charred and barely recognisable when she was found. Downstairs, other residents scrambled to safety. The fate of the Flood family was unimaginable. Mum Joey Flood and five of her six boys were trapped in their blazing home and perished in the flames. John Flood threw Jeanie, 11, out of the window, a 15ft drop, saving her life. He grabbed his youngest, three year old David and headed for the window, but the wall caved in from the force of one of the explosions. The boy, David, was wrenched out of his hands and died, while at the same time John Flood was blown out through the window. He and Jeannie were the only survivors from their family of eight. Joey, aged 37, Jack, James, Sinclair, Michael and David died. The boys ranged in age from three to 15. Fire tenders from the RAF base rushed to the scene along with wartime National Fire Service detachments from Lossiemouth and Elgin and civil defence personnel, but their efforts were in vain. Immediately after the crash, the Women's Voluntary Service went into action, seeing to the homeless and organising food and clothes for the survivors. The Floods were a well-known Lossie family. John, 38, was employed as a carter with Miller Alexander carting contractor in Ogston Place. A few days later came a funeral for all eight civilian victims. The Evening Express reported that practically the entire community turned out for the tragic occasion. 'The funeral took place from the old and now disused Chapel of Ease which serves as a public mortuary and where the bodies had rested. 'Fisherwomen in deep morning, many of them with young children in their arms, along with their menfolk, man of who had come straight from the fishing grounds earlier than usual to attend the funeral were amongst the crowd. 'Many wept openly during the funeral obsequies outside the Chapel where a short but impressive service was conducted by the Rev N M Sammon, of the High Church. 'The three young children were in white coffins. 'Behind them lay banks of wreaths. 'A tragic figure during the service was the bereaved husband John Flood, who in carpet slippers and able to walk with the aid of a walking stick, and his relatives, remained seated during the service, his eleven year old daughter Jeannie who was the only one of the family saved, clasped to his side.' Afterwards RAF personnel bore the coffins to RAF vehicles as the band, with muffled drums played Flowers of the Forest. Behind the cortege to Lossiemouth cemetery came 200 school boys, many friends of the Flood boys. 'Then followed a car with Mr Flood, his young daughter and mother and father. 'Then members of the Town Council and next of kin, detachments from the RAF rescue party, NFS coastguards and postmen with the general public taking up the rear. ' A memorial stone of the site of the tragedy was erected in 1995, with funds from the RAF, local clubs and Grampian Region councillors. At that time, survivor Jeannie then aged 60 and living in Hawick came to Lossie to carry out the unveiling. She said: 'I have never forgotten my mother and brothers. I was only 10 years old but it is still as fresh in my mind as the day it happened.' Her father John, who brought her up after the accident, died in 1965 when he fractured his skull falling down the stairs. To mark the 80th anniversary of the tragedy, Tuesday, May 20 2025, Lossiemouth Men's Shed have organised a wreath-laying ceremony. An RAF Lossiemouth detachment will attend, as will Lossiemouth Men's Shed and the chaplain and pupils from St Gerardine's school. Assembly at Mercator Green, Church Street, Lossiemouth is at 9.30am, with two minutes silence at 9.52am, followed by the wreath laying and dispersal at 10am. If you enjoyed this story, you may also like: Was your Aberdeen street hit by tragedy in WW2? Our map shows addresses of more than 1,000 victims
Mint
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Mint
Truth is the first casualty of war: Old wisdom with a new twist
I first read the maxim that truth is the first casualty of war many years ago, in high school. In order to write this column, I did a 'fact check' on the origins of the adage. I was not at all surprised to see that there are multiple possible sources: US Republican Senator Hiram Johnson in 1918, Samuel Johnson in 1758, and, most popularly, the Greek dramatist Aeschylus around 550 BCE. It's a sign of the times that there are multiple truth claims on a saying about truth. The argument in the axiom is simple and persuasive. Information is a powerful weapon at all times, but especially so during war. All parties in a conflict, governments in particular, seek to show themselves in a favourable light and make claims about the moral justifications for their own actions and the moral inferiority of their enemies. Also Read: Reality check: Political polarization makes people fall for fake news The tools that governments use are also well known. Propaganda, misinformation, disinformation and the suppression or censoring of facts. This manipulation of information has two audiences: the international community (which requires a whole other discussion) and, even more important, their own populations (for without public support, it is hard to sustain a war or ask the people to sacrifice). Hermann Göring, the Nazi war criminal who was the supreme commander of the Luftwaffe (the air force of Nazi Germany) declared during the Nuremberg trials that to get the public to acquiesce to war, 'all you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism… It works the same way in any country." Daniel Kahneman, a behavioural psychologist and Nobel Laureate in economics, wrote that a 'reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth. Authoritarian institutions and marketers have always known this fact." Also Read: Research: Who's afraid of the truth about fake news? What we have come to call 'fake news' about war is not recent. For example, the infamous 'Black Hole of Calcutta' came to signify for the British the cruelty and lack of civilization and morals among Indians. It became a public justification for empire. Later, it became a rallying cry for Indian nationalists. The story was certainly hugely exaggerated, if anything had happened at all. The Gulf of Tonkin lie launched the US war on Vietnam and the Saddam Hussein 'weapons of mass destruction' lie launched the US invasion of Iraq. One of Vladimir Putin's key justifications for the Russian invasion of Ukraine is his contention that the government of Volodymyr Zelensky (president of Ukraine and a Jew) runs on Nazi ideology. It's not hard to find big lies (such as the justification for an invasion) and small lies (so many enemies killed, so many fighter jets shot down) that litter the literal battlefield. Also Read: Deepfake distortion: Has Indian politics fallen prey to it? Historically, it is the state that creates propaganda and falsehoods. The actual disseminators of information, the media—newspapers, radio, TV, and now the internet—often simply repeat what they have been told. The media rarely, if ever, has independent means of verifying war claims. Media representatives are never in the rooms where national security decisions are taken and almost never at the scene of the action. They can therefore easily become loudspeakers of the state. But something newish appears to have emerged in last week's conflict with Pakistan. Social media forwards of purported TV screenshots suggested all manner of wild claims made by some TV channels with subcontinental audiences: for example, Karachi port and Islamabad had been destroyed and Pakistan's Balochistan province had become independent, or that India's airfield in Bathinda had been destroyed and Pakistan's digital retaliation had both crippled India and inflicted major economic losses on the country. While I am reasonably sure that very little of what was said happened (certainly not to the degree claimed), it's hard to know what was actually reported by various channels and what was not. No individual could have possibly watched the many hours of war coverage on television. Were tales told that felt true (in the sense of Stephen Colbert's ingenious term 'truthiness')? Are feelings all that matter in such times? Also Read: Combating fake news: Staying away from Google can be a solution I also feel as if I am in the middle of a fun-house mirror in which each image I see has been so distorted by multiple concave and convex mirrors that the original is unreadable. If truth no longer matters in broadcast news and if consumers of news know that it doesn't matter and that what they are consuming is not the true truth but their truth (the narrative that will give them satisfaction), then we are indeed in a new information realm. In this realm, the product being sold and consumed is not news, but patriotism. The apparent goal is not to inform but to generate a dopamine rush of pleasure. The dangers of this are obvious. The state no longer needs to manipulate and distort the truth of war because the media will do it willingly. Media outlets that refuse to peddle patriotism could find themselves left behind in the news marketplace, their caution and scepticism finding few buyers because they fail to provide the heady brew of patriotism. Noam Chomsky, the renowned MIT linguist, had famously argued that the US mass media is an ideological institution that helps 'manufacture consent" for wars that benefit the US economic and political elite. We may have gone beyond that point now. Consent does not need to be manufactured because it is taken for granted. What is manufactured instead is war euphoria. The author is a professor of geography, environment and urban studies and director of global studies at Temple University.
Leader Live
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Leader Live
Dunkirk edges Saving Private Ryan as the UK's favourite Second World War film
The 2017 movie also pipped films such as The Dam Busters (1955), Pearl Harbour (2001) and Bridge On The River Kwai (1957) in the poll by Deltapoll for the War Movie Theatre podcast, which covers both old and new war films. The Christopher Nolan-directed film starring singer Harry Styles, Cillian Murphy and Barry Keoghan depicts the Dunkirk evacuation which took place in 1940 and saw more than 330,000 allied soldiers evacuated from the French harbour. Saving Private Ryan (1998), which is directed by Steven Spielberg and follows the search for the titular character during the Normandy invasion, came second in the poll, followed by 1963's The Great Escape, which sees a group of allied prisoners attempt to escape a Nazi camp, in third. The Dam Busters, which depicts the true story of the RAF's Operation Chastise, finished fourth in the poll, while the Battle Of Britain (1969), which is a dramatisation of the battle between the RAF and the German Luftwaffe, came in fifth. The rest of the top 10 was made up of The Longest Day (1962), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Pearl Harbour, Schindler's List (1993), and The Bridge On The River Kwai. Journalist and author Robert Hutton, co-host of the War Movie Theatre podcast, said of the poll: 'Cinema has always been looking for great stories, and war provides everything, heroism, moral conflict, adventure, romance. 'Even as the Second World War was being fought, it was inspiring some of the greatest films of the last century, such as In Which We Serve or Went The Day Well?, which deliver moments of human drama and comedy as well as action. 'Afterwards, it became a way for us to tell ourselves stories about what had happened, and then a generation later, with Saving Private Ryan, it became a way to commemorate. 'It's not surprising that Dunkirk is top of the list, it's the most successful war movie of the last decade. But it's noteworthy that half the list is from the golden era of war movies in the 50s and 60s. Four of them were made within eight years of each other. 'I'm a little sad that John Mills, who seemed to be permanently in uniform on Sunday afternoon TV in my childhood, doesn't get a film in this list. 'And I'd have liked to see at least one of the great Alistair MacLean commando movies, Where Eagles Dare or The Guns Of Navarone, in there. But mainly I'm appalled to see Pearl Harbour on the list, which ought to be a war crime.' It comes after Europe commemorated the 80th anniversary of Victory In Europe (VE) Day on Thursday, May 8, which marks the end of the Second World War on the continent in 1945. War Movie Theatre is a podcast hosted by Hutton and fellow journalist Duncan Weldon and is available from Acast and a number of other streaming platforms. The UK's top 10 war films according to the War Movie Theatre podcast poll 1. Dunkirk (2017) 2. Saving Private Ryan (1998) 3. The Great Escape (1963) 4. The Dam Busters (1955) 5. Battle Of Britain (1969) 6. The Longest Day (1962) 7. A Bridge Too Far (1977) 8. Pearl Harbour (2001) 9. Schindler's List (1993) 10. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
