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Messages - paulcheall

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1
World War Two / Re: Dunkirk - Records of Troops Evacuated
« on: Wednesday 27 March 19 21:48 GMT (UK)  »
Hi Cathy and welcome to the forum. It’s funny but I posted here previously at a time when I hadn’t had my dad’s memoirs published nor had I produced a podcast. Yet I’ve now done both and if there’s anything I’d say to you is don’t give up. Your dad’s records are there to be found and you only need the right key to unlock them. You might give the ww2talk forum a try for more advice on this front. But I can assure you there are lots of true Dunkirk stories and beyond which will help you paint the stories that you’re looking for to represent your dad’s war. If you come up trumps tracing his records please do report back to this forum. In the meantime you might like to take a shufty at some of my not for profit podcast Dunkirk episodes which have some great stories sent in by listeners. I hope it’s not spamming the forum to tell you it’s at WWW.FightingThroughPodcast.co.uk. Best of luck with your endeavours! Paul.

2
World War Two / Re: Green howards
« on: Monday 20 June 16 00:25 BST (UK)  »
Did he survive the war? If he was killed in the war I'd recommend this search engine to find him?
http://www.hut-six.co.uk/cgi-bin/search39-47.php
My Dad was a Green Howard from Middlesbrough, he mentions a J Kelly on his web site at http://www.fightingthrough.co.uk/#/indices-names-ww2-g-r-war-b/4544226859 - no relation I presume?

Paul

3
World War Two / Re: Dunkirk Evacuation - Ship Captain Tom Woods OBE amazing memories
« on: Wednesday 26 November 14 23:35 GMT (UK)  »
Thanks for that Drew - noted.
Paul

4
World War Two / Dunkirk Evacuation - Ship Captain Tom Woods OBE amazing memories
« on: Wednesday 26 November 14 17:41 GMT (UK)  »
There have been various bits of correspondence on the subject of the Dunkirk evacuation and thanks to Bluebell66 I would like to draw forum members' attention to some new pages on my web site. A relative of Captain Tom Woods, Bluebell66 has sent me various papers, letters and photos which as well as being of historic interest, also allude to a conspiracy theory of sorts about a mutiny amongst some members of ships crew aboard the ferries which were evacuating large numbers of troops. The ship in question is the Lady of Mann, who rescued my Dad from the beaches so it's fascinating for me personally to hear about the rescue from a different angle. But for me the crew and captain are to be regarded as heroes and indeed Tom Woods was awarded the OBE for his services not just at Dunkirk but in other theatres too.

The material includes letters home, a report to his bosses, photos and historic telegrams containing orders. Go to http://bit.ly/mannww2 to see the pages, which provide a fascinating insight into the drama of Dunkirk.

Meanwhile, here's a few pics to whet your appetites

Thanks

Paul

5
World War Two / Re: Dunkirk
« on: Monday 03 November 14 16:33 GMT (UK)  »
Sarah - I think the messages below got a bit mixed up but if you are sayong you will send me some material please forward to
Mod comment. Email address removed as per Rootschat anti spam policy. Please use Rootschat Pm system to exchange details instead
Many thanks
Paul
PS Please note when posting a reply to anything you need to position your cursor at the very start of the note to avoid typing into the middle of the previous note

Quote from: Bluebell66 on Wednesday 29 October 14 09:06 GMT (UK)
Quote from: paulcheall on Tuesday 28 October 14 12:10 GMT (UK)
i am new to this site and am not sure how it works. If you give me your email address I can forward a few things of interest.
I have inherited lots of memorabilia relating to my great grandfather. He was in his sixties when he took the Lady of Mann to Dunkirk and went for days without any sleep. I have a list of crew but no passenger lists, am sure it would have been too chaotic for that. Probably the most interesting thing we have is copies of his daily letters home to his wife. The originals are now in the archives of the Manx Museum. Regards, Sarah
It is nice to hear about your Dad. I would love to post some info about him and a few photos if you have any, on my web site at www.fightingthrough.co.uk. My dad and Britain owes him a debt of gratitude.

Paul

Quote from: Bluebell66 on Monday 27 October 14 22:59 GMT (UK)
Thank you for posting this. My great grandfather Tom Woods was the captain of the Lady of Mann. Lovely to hear a first hand account of what it was like at Dunkirk. He made several trips, saved thousands of lives and we are all very proud of him. I know that the ship was packed well beyond capacity on some trips.

6
World War Two / Re: Dunkirk
« on: Tuesday 28 October 14 12:16 GMT (UK)  »
Dad often mentions the DLI and RASC in his memoirs, in particular paying tribute to the important role in ther war played by the RASC. Re lists of soldiers boarding the Dunkirk craft, Dad certainly implies this was not done. Many soldiers got separated from their units and when they all got back, to Cardiff for many of them, they had to be sorted out carefullt to make sure there were no infiltrators amongst them.

Paul

Quote from: barryd on Monday 27 October 14 23:57 GMT (UK)
My father was at Dunkirk with the Durham Light Infantry. Later on during the War he saw a notice for volunteers for the RASC as the Army needed office staff to organize in the background. He was accepted but at El Alamein he was delivering supplies in army lorries and had hearing problems from the shelling. So much for pen pushing. Injured playing football he was in the background in the organizing of the Italy Campaign and was given the Italy Star but was not near the battlefield.

German War Crimes were fairly frequent at Dunkirk. Some of their leaders were caught after the war.

I would imagine there are no lists of which soldier sailed in which ship crossing back over the channel.

7
World War Two / Re: Dunkirk
« on: Tuesday 28 October 14 12:10 GMT (UK)  »
It is nice to hear about your Dad. I would love to post some info about him and a few photos if you have any, on my web site at www.fightingthrough.co.uk. My dad and Britain owes him a debt of gratitude.

Paul

Quote from: Bluebell66 on Monday 27 October 14 22:59 GMT (UK)
Thank you for posting this. My great grandfather Tom Woods was the captain of the Lady of Mann. Lovely to hear a first hand account of what it was like at Dunkirk. He made several trips, saved thousands of lives and we are all very proud of him. I know that the ship was packed well beyond capacity on some trips.

8
World War Two / Re: WW2 podcast - Dunkirk, N Africa and more
« on: Saturday 06 April 13 12:33 BST (UK)  »
So sorry to people who could not access the link which had been truncated somehow, anyhow here it is again:

http://www.fightingthrough.co.uk/#/podcast-war-diary-story-book/4575313237

Just in case anyone is not familiar with podcasts - you will be surprised at how straightforward it is to listen to one - it's as easy as click and listen online.

Regards
Paul

9
World War Two / WW2 podcast - Dunkirk, N Africa and more
« on: Saturday 06 April 13 11:11 BST (UK)  »
I thought members might be interested in a podcast which I've launched on aspects of my Dad’s war such as Dunkirk, North Africa and D-Day. The aim of the podcasts is to give you snippets from the book of Dad's memoirs as well as some fascinating updates on his so-called Band of British brothers, some of whom wrote their own memoirs too. So you’ll be hearing quite a lot of great previously unpublished history. There really is some good material, especially from Wilf Shaw and Brian Moss in the 2nd episode on Wadi Akarit.

The podcast can be found via iTunes - just search on WW2 or cheall or click this link which gives you more info -

http://www.fightingthrough.co.uk/#/podcast-war-diary-story-book/4575313237

They are free to download and good if you have any relatives with visual impairment. Once downloaded, you can locate the file onto your hard drive (iTunes makes this easy) and copy across to a CD or memory stick or your ipod etc so can listen while driving or anywhere you would normally listen to the radio, but don't drop it in the bath!!

 Any feedback on the podcasts will be gratefully received.

 Many thanks

 Paul

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