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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.
- 18th Dec 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
265120 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 89th Light Anti Aircraft Battery, Royal Artillery? There are:11 items tagged 89th Light Anti Aircraft Battery, Royal Artillery 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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Gnr. William Henry Smith 89th Light Anti Aircraft Bty. Royal Artillery Dad, William Smith joined up after Dunkirk, into the East Kent Regiment in 1940. During the early years, they asked for people who could ride motor bikes to train as dispatch riders. He fell off and confessed that he had never ridden or driven a car.
He was kept on and for the rest of the war and rode motor bikes and drove jeeps.
During the drive towards Germany, at a very sticky time, he was sent with a message from his C.O. to the nearest Regiment on the flank, a sticky trip. The C.O. of the Regiment read the note, turned to Dad and said "do you know what it says?" No sir was the answer. It was an invitation to dinner!
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Gnr. William Meakin 89th Battery Royal Artillery (d.23rd Nov 1942) William Meakin died as a Prisoner of War of the Japanese at the time of the fall of Singapore. Just discovered that he is not named on the village War Memorial but now we know, we will remember him.
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Gnr. Frank William Payne 35th L.A.A. Regiment, 89th Bty. Royal Artillery (d.5th Mar 1943) Frank Payne was a very brave man, I just wish I could have met him, very little is known about my granddad as my father was evacuated to London when he was 5 years old, unfortunately his mum died when he was 18 months old and his father died as a prisoner of war so my Dad stayed with his foster family and made a life never knowing what had happened to his dad until a few years ago.
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Gnr. Herbert William Usher 35th LAA Regiment, 89th Battery Royal Artillery  Usher photo.jpg) My uncle Bill Usher served in the Royal Artillery 35/89 LAA. I know very little about uncle Bill (my mum's brother) other than what she told me about him.
Bill came home long after the war was over and he was a very sick man both physically and mentally. Mum said he never really spoke about it. But she did tell me he was a prisoner of the Japanese and was tortured by them (had his fingernails pulled out!). She also said that any time he saw a man that looked like he may be Japanese he would go mad. Sadly, Uncle Bill died in 1952 and mum in 1979, so I have no living relatives to give me more information.
He attested in 1940
and embarked from Scotland on the 12th of November 1941
and arrived in Singapore on the 13th of January 1942. Bill was taken prisoner on Java on the 8th of March 1942
He was transported to Singapore on the 11th of September 1943
and his Java Party of 16 was then transported to Japan on the 20th September 1943
They were
used as slave labour in Yamano Coal Mine, Inatsuki-cho, Kaho-gun, Fukuoka Prefecture.
Bill was Liberated from Fukuoka No. 8B Branch Camp on the 21st of September 1945
That is all I know at this stage, as I continue to find information piece by piece.
I will make sure my family learn about the immense sacrifice that was made by the Far East Prisoners of War, who endured such horrors. Not only those who suffered and died, but those who lived and had to endure the memory of their suffering.
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