John Kenneally, VC

For reasons too complex, and probably not too fascinating I was googling anyone who was Irish who had been awarded the Victoria Cross when I came across this obituary in the Times. Here's a taster

John Kenneally won his VC as a lance corporal in the Irish Guards during the penultimate phase of the Tunisian campaign in April 1943. . . John Patrick Kenneally was an assumed name. He was the illegitimate son of a wealthy Jewish textile manufacturer in Manchester. . . His mother was an 18-year-old un-married daughter of a Birmingham pharmacist, who was disowned by her family. His mother earned enough as a lady's hairdresser and a high-class prostitute to give him a good education at King Edward's, Birmingham. . . He deserted, joining a gang of rough Irish building labourers, whose leader purloined for him an identity card and national insurance number, belonging to an Irishman. Armed with this new identity, he enlisted in the Irish Guards - no questions asked.

You can read the whole thing HERE....it really is fascinating. There's some more HERE, including some photographs

The Battle of Britain

I’m a couple of days late here….I’ve been busy! However, we should remember those incredible times when so many young men, on both sides, were killed during the summer of 1940.

Thursday was the 68th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Britain. It began on 10 July on that everyone agrees. However, there has been debate ever since amongst historians as to how long it lasted and how many phases of battle there were. Most agree that the first stage of the campaign was very much a - testing the enemy phase - by the Luftwaffe. By attacking ships in the channel, mounting small raids on the North of England and sending over reconnaissance aircraft the Germans were able to probe and test the preparedness of the RAF fighters; it also allowed them to partially test the RAF’s tactics. For the Germans there was the bonus of every RAF fighter lost was one less with which Britain could defend herself come the main attacks. The attacks on Merchant Navy convoys in the channel were helping to rob Britain of valuable food and materials supplies.

10 July 1940 was very cloudy, with intermittent showers, and shortly before 2 p.m. a large German formation showed up on the radar; it was just west of Calais heading towards the Kent coast. There were close to 80 aircraft in all, including 24 Dornier 17s and the rest being a fighter escort of around 30 Me.110s and a similar number of Me.109s. Initially it was mostly Hurricanes that were scrambled from Manston, Biggin Hill and Croydon, along with Spitfires of 74 Squadron from Hornchurch; later on around half a dozen Spitfires were also sent up from Kenley.

While the Hurricanes of 111 Squadron from Croydon attacked the Dorniers, who themselves were busy attacking the convey, the remaining fighters engaged the escorting fighters. With so many aircraft the sky quickly became a mass of vapor trails and soon aircraft were going down. Later that day a force of around 70 bombers attacked both Swansea and Falmouth. During the night bombs were dropped in a number of locations in the south, and on the Isle of Mull in Scotland. RAF losses for the day amounted to eight aircraft, with two pilots killed.
 The 
Luftwaffe lost 20, including badly damaged, aircraft, and lost 23 aircrew either killed or missing as well as ten more wounded; one of the ships in the convey was sunk. That was not how German Radio reported the day’s events.

“Our bombers yesterday achieved effective successes on an airfield in South Eastern England, and on harbour installations on the South and South¬ West Coast, and upon armament works. Especially at the munitions depot near Pem¬broke, and in the harbours of Plymouth and Swansea heavy explosions and large fires were observed. The oil storage tanks at Pembroke and Portland were also set ablaze. Further, in the course of an attack on a convoy in the Channel, ten enemy fighter 'planes were shot down in air battle. During the air battle yesterday 35 enemy 'planes and one barrage balloon were shot down. Seven of our own 'planes are missing.”

German Radio 11 July 1940

Not so much a case of this is my truth; tell me yours - as our propaganda’s better than your propaganda.

Bombing London

London has had more than its fair share of bombings over the course of the last one hundred years; in particular during World War 2. Today when someone says "the Blitz" we all know what they are talking about, the raids on London by the Luftwaffe that began in 1940. Blitz is short for Blitkrieg - lightning war- but those raids of sixty seven years ago were not the first time that London had faced bombardment from the air. In the First World War London was bombed in May 1916, albeit accidentally, and before the year was out there had been over twenty more raids directed against various cities, but mostly London, in which almost 300 people were killed and 700 injured.

German Zeppelin LZ 77 was one of the airships that was used to drop bombs and it was shot down by anti-aircraft fire over Revigny in France on 21 February 1916.

Raids gradually decreased as the air defences improved but in all 550 were killed by air raids and by the time the last one occurred in August 1918 almost 6,000 bombs had been dropped which had also injured a further 1,400 people. While these raids had little significance in military terms they did raise the spectre of fear in the build up to the Second World War - a major contributory factor towards the evacuation of so many children on the first weekend of World War Two.

The WW2 Blitz lasted until May 1941 and around two million homes were destroyed in Britain, 1.2 million of which were in London. Almost 40,000 were killed and over 50,000 people were seriously injured. The majority of those who lost their lives were in London. The devastation to the City of London was terrible with 30% of this historic area totally destroyed.

War Stories Then & Now

There's news today from Afghanistan that the 60th British soldier has been killed in the fighting there, since 2001. He was from the 1st battalion the Grenadier Guards. Our perspective on war now has been totally changed by the coverage that the media and in particular TV offers. Every loss is scrutinized. In the 19th century during the second Afghan war at the Battle of Maiwand in July 1880 the 1st Grenadiers had 366 men killed. Of the 2,476 British troops engaged, facing 25,000 tribal warriors, the British and Indian force lost 21 officers and 948 soldiers killed. Eight officers and 169 men were wounded. The Grenadiers lost 64% of their strength. Back then with no photography on the battlefield people 'back home' had to rely on newspaper reports and paintings to give them some insight into what had go on. This is 'the Last Stand of the 66th Foot' painted by Peter Archer. Partly as a result of this action it was decided that regimental colours would no longer be taken into battle. The dog in the picture was the regimental mascot and he survived the battle only to be run over in London by a cab!