|
|
|
|
|
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. |
|
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.
|
|
Want to know more about 14th Field Squadron, Royal Engineers? There are:478 items tagged 14th Field Squadron, Royal Engineers 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. |
|
Cpl. Leslie Lewis Webb 14th Field Squadron Royal Engineers (d.21st Aug 1944)   Before the war, Leslie Webb learnt his trade as a bricklayer, a trade he continued when he joined the Royal Engineers in April 1941, becoming a Sapper. After training he joined 14 Field Squadron RE and served at various locations in the UK between 1941 and 1944.
On 19th June 1944 Leslie and his comrades embarked on the SS Standridge heading for France, landing at Le Hamel on the 25th June. 14th Field Squadron were attached to the Guards Armoured Division and supported them during operations in northern France. The Squadron's tasks were to clear minefields and repair roads and bridges. The personnel had only rudimentary mine clearance training. It was during a mine clearing task on the 21st August 1944 near Chenedelle, Lower Normandy, that a Reigel anti-tank mine exploded. Two Sappers were killed instantly, Leslie was seriously wounded and taken to a nearby dressing station where he succumbed to his wounds. Leslie is buried in the St Charles-de-Percy War Cemetery, just north of Vire, France. He is commemorated on the War Memorial in Stockton Churchyard in Shropshire and also a memorial bench outside ˜The Old School in Village Road, Norton.
Here follows an eyewitness account of the his death: 'The Germans had placed R Mines (Riegel anti-tank mines) in ditches alongside roads near Viessoix, and the French public reported this to the British Army. Cpl. Webb was driven by truck with his section (18 men) to the scene and a mine was picked up and placed across his knees. He asked his driver "Have you got a pair of pliers?" These were given to him. Most of the men continued to play cards in the truck. There was a loud explosion that left two men dead at the scene and two wounded, Cpl. Webb was found in a nearby field and conveyed to a forward dressing station. No further attempts were made to defuse these mines after this, instead, they were scooped up and transported by truck to a place of detonation. The eyewitness had been with Cpl. Webb since 1941.
|
Recomended Reading.Available at discounted prices.
|
|
|
