Tag: Alan Malcher Military Historian

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

HMS Barham 1941.

HMS Barham was one of five Queen Elizabeth-class Battleships built for the Royal Navy during the early 1910s. Completed in 1915, she was often used as a flagship and participated in the Battle of Jutland during the First World War as part of the Grand Fleet and saw action during the Second World War.

On 25 November 1941 Barham was sunk by U Boat U331 with the loss of 859 men. Turn up the volume to listen to the commentator.