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The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
Announcements
- 1st of September 2024 marks 25 years since the launch of the Wartime Memories Project. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over this time.
- The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 25 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web.
- 19th Nov 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than
264989 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible.
- Looking for help with Family History Research?
Please read our Family History FAQs
- The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web.
If you enjoy this site
please consider making a donation.
Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our
Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. |
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Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted
photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them.
The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted.
World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion
Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a
Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.
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Want to know more about 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards? There are:1585 items tagged 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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L/Cpl. George Thomas Norton 2nd Btn. Grenadier Guards My father, George Norton always told his war stories. One was particularly horrific to us, but astonishing to him. I don't know where this happened, but his tank was caught by a land-mine and lost its tracks. Making sure his men got out, he sustained some bad burns to his legs and arms. He then jumped out and started to run across a cornfield. His best friend passed him, shouting "They might have my foot, but they're not getting me!".
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Gdsmn. George Thomas Critchlow 2nd Btn Grenadier Guards (d.16th May 1940) George Critchlow's name is listed on the Armitage (Staffordshire) War Memorial. He served with the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards.
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Gdsm. Norman Lund 2nd Btn. Grenadier Guards Dad, Norman Lund served with the Guards Armoured Division. He landed in France a few days after D Day. His Sherman tank was blown up whilst approaching Albert. The tank commander was Luit Stirton (later to become an MP). Stirton lost an eye in that action.
Dad and several of his crew walked back to the village of Bonnay where three tanks had been knocked out by an 88 mm gun the day before, killing Gdsm Ted Sault and Joe Bryant. Dad and the other guardsmen stayed in Bonnay for a about a week.
Many years later, Dad was invited to a mayoral reception in Bonnay by the mayor of that village. It was an amazing day with elderly French villagers showing us pictures of my Dad with his comrades as well as pictures of the destroyed Sherman tanks. It was a great day.
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Joseph Arthur Riley 2nd Btn. Grenadier Guards Joseph Riley, was a Grenadier Guard when WW2 broke out. He served in Tripoli and North Africa until the war ended in 1945.
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Gdsmn. George William Birkett 2nd Btn. Grenadier Guards  George Birkett was my father's older brother. He served with the Second Battalion, Grenadier Guards from April 1939 until discharged 26th June 1952. My father and his sisters, my aunts, worshipped him and we all loved him very much. He was very handsome and I have his photograph on my mantlepiece to this day. In those days, men did not talk about their war experiences, especially to their wives, mother's and sisters, but the following are the facts I was told before the passing of my parents and aunts on my father's side of the family.
My uncle was evacuated from Dunkirk following the aborted first invasion of France in April 1940, having spent time on the beaches being straffed by the Germans before the rescue boats and ships arrived. In June 1944 he was part of the British Expeditionary Force that landed in NW Europe. By this time the regiment were armoured and they were told to march to Nijmegan where the Americans would be waiting for them. The Americans were not there but the Germans were. My uncle's friend tried to make a run for it and was shot dead in front of him.
He was taken POW and marched into Germany. There was no food for the Dutch or the Germans and each town or village they marched through they found the people lined up at the side of the road spitting at them. He was taken to Stalag XIIA, which I understand was a distribution camp for POW's who were then transferred elsewhere. I do not know anything further other than his record shows he was repatriated on 16th May 1945.
He subsequently fought in Malaysia and left the regiment in June 1952. I am so proud of him. My only regret is not knowing more about his war experiences. He died in 1963 when I was 13 years old. His mother, my grandmother and his brother and sisters as well as his wife and 3 children were devastated. He suffered greatly from nerves after the war, not surprisingly.
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Gdsmn. Thomas Gordon Beaty 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards Thomas Beaty was my older brother. I remember him arriving home after Dunkirk, asleep on floor in living room and in sh.. order.
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Sgt. Leslie James Wright 2nd Btn. Grenadier Guards My father Jim" Wright was born in 1920. He volunteered in about June 1939 and served until May 1946 in 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards. He was in the battle of France and at the Battle of Dunkirk where he was evacuated, I think from the beaches. He was briefly in North Africa (Tunisia) in 1943. In 1944 he was in the Guards Armoured Division landing some days after D Day and went through to the end of the war including the battle of Nijmegen where he lost a lot of friends. He had 5 service medals in all.Like most of those who saw action, he never spoke about the horrors he has been through for over 25 years. I would be very grateful if anyone can shed light on the activities of 2nd Battalion because compared to men who served in other Regiments, few of the 2nd Grenadiers, if any, seem to have recorded their experiences in writing.
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Cpl. George Carlyle Lancaster 2nd Btn. Grenadier Guards As far as I am aware my father, George Lancaster, was part of the OTC joining the Grenadier Guards in June 1936. He was part of the BEF, commissioned in the field joining O.C.T.U. July 1940, joining the King's Own Royal Lancastrian Regiment then the commandos. He was an instructor, then combined ops taking part in several raids. In 1943 he was attached to the South Lancashire Regiment with 29 combined ops. He suffered a GSW to left thigh in November 1943 and was eventually repatriated medical category Em in March 1944, he left the army due to being cashiered in 1946, for what I don't know and only found this out after his death in 2004.
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Robert Allnutt 2nd Btn. Grenadier Guards My grandfather, Robert Allnutt, landed on the Normandy beaches (possibly a day or two after the initial landing) and pushed on towards Caen, where he and the battalion encountered fierce resistance as we all know. During this confrontation, his tank was hit. All escaped, some more injured than others, burnt and disorientated. My grandfather took cover by a hedge with another person. From what I remember, mortars were raining down and he was injured as a result. He was then recovered and taken out of the battle by half-track and eventually back to the UK. I hear that he visited one his other Sherman tank colleagues who was left with very badly burnt facial injuries. Another member of the tank team wanderered off blinded, after the tank being hit, into enemy positions and no one ever saw him again.
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L/Sgt Alan Lewis Marmont 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards (d.11th Aug 1944) My uncle, Alan Lewis Marmont, joined the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards in 1937. His Regiment was forced to retreat from the Belgian border to Dunkirk 1940 and was amongst the last to be evacuated from the beseiged port.
The 2nd Bn were part of the 5th Guards Armoured Brigade who fought in the Falaise Pocket Battle. He and several colleagues were killed when their tank ran over a land mine on August 11th 1944 near the Vassey to Vire road. Aged 24 he was originally buried at Burcy 4 miles north east of Vire before being re-buried at the CWG cemetrry at St Charles de Percy grave number III.F.3. The cemetery is the southern most of CWG cemeteries of the Normandy campaign.
Prior to the start of WW2, Alan took part in trooping the colour and was featured in pictures in the Daily Express during his preparation for the troop, he was pictured by the newspaper on Guard duty outside Buckingham Palace when crowds gathered outside the palace following Mr Chamberlain's return from his meeting with Hitler. This picture is proudly displayed in my home. I also have my uncle's scarlet tunic.
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