Month: Dec 2023

French Resistance: 27 members of the resistance. The men were executed shortly after this photograph was taken.

I would like to thank Dr Christine Quintlé for the following information.

Twenty seven members of the French Resistance being taken away for execution after a trial before a German military tribunal in Paris on 14 April 1942.

The trial has been called “Procès de la Maison de la Chimie” (trial of the House of Chemistry) as it took place there. Twenty-three of the accused were executed on 17 April at Mont Valérien. André Kirschen, the son of a Romanian Jews was only fifteen at the time of the trial and could not be sentenced to death under German military law. Simone Schloss, who was Jewish, was beheaded in Cologne on 2 July 1942. The image is as still from a German propaganda film.


The young man sticking his out tongue out in defiance after the trial is Jean Quarré who had been with the students and school teenagers who demonstrated against Germany at the Quartier Latin, Paris on 14 July 1940 and on the on the Grands Boulevards, Paris on 13 August 1940. He joined the Résistance in 1941. The other man is Karl (Carlo) Schoenhaar.

Four recipients of the Victoria Cross during the Great War. IWM image dated 1917.

From left to right:

Private Michael O’Rourke VC, MM 7th (1st British Columbia) Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force, awarded the VC in France on 15/17 April 1917.

Sergeant James Ockendon VC,MM of the 1st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers, awarded the VC in Belgium on 4 October 1917.

Private William Boynton Butler VC, 17th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment, awarded the VC in France on 6 August 1917.

Corporal Ernest Alfred Egerton VC, 16th Battalion Sherwood Foresters, Awarded the VC in Belgium on 20 September 1917.

British Homefront during WW2: Bomb Disposal.

Colourised image by DB Colour but original B&W source not indicated.

Lieutenant Robert Davies GC, Royal Engineers standing on a 1,200 lb bomb after a Luftwaffe air raid on London. Photograph taken on 25 November 1941 in Dalston, London after Davies defused the bomb.

By DB Colour (original source not known)

London Rifle Brigades during the Great War, December 1914.

Colourised image by DBCoour. Original B&W source not listed)

Members of the London Rifle Brigades in Ploegstreet Wood, Armentieres Belgium. According to the London Rifles Association during the Great War 10,016 were killed during enemy action, 2,644 wounded and 303 captured. Part of the wood is now used by the Commonwealth War Greaves Commission.

Alan Malcher

Mosquito Aircraft (RAF and RAAF) attacking shipping in Norway. 5 December 1944.

Whilst looking for German shipping hiding in Norwegian fjords, Coastal Command aircraft were forced to dive steeply between precipitous, snow-capped mountains. On December 5th, 34 Mosquitoes of Coastal Command, Banff Wing, armed with cannon and rocket projectiles, attacked enemy shipping lying in the eastern end of Nordgulen Fjord Norway. The aircraft dived from a height of 5,000 ft to mast height at an angle of 45 degrees at a speed of over 300 miles an hour. They also had to run the gauntlet of flak from merchant vessels averaging 3,000 tons each and two escort vessels were attacked – all the ships were left burning. (Film includes good aerial shots of a Mosquito of No. 248 Sqn RAF and attacks on ships in fjord.)

Another clip of the same attack.

Operation Banner (Northern Ireland) and the Good Friday Agreement to cease hostilities.

Before the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) was signed on 10 April 1998 over 500 convicted terrorists were released from prison and an unknown number of terrorists who were on the run received comfort letters from the Blair Government so they could not be prosecuted for murder, bombings and other terrorist offences.

Since the signing of the GFA, Northern Ireland veterans continued to be persecuted and investigated about alleged crimes going back more than fifty years and many veterans see this as the government appeasing Sinn Féin/IRA and having nothing to do with justice. The following news reel of three terrorist murders helps illustrate the resentment of many Northern Ireland veterans towards the Blair Government who signed the agreement and successive governments which many veterans feel supported convicted terrorists at the expense of those who served and is posted here for debate.