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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.
- 26th Mar 2025 - 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
265607 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 Special Air Service? There are:1461 items tagged Special Air Service 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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Pte. William Arthur Ward Royal Signals My father, William Ward, joined the Royal Signals at Catterick in 1942 at the age of 35. After training at Catterick, and Ireland he left for Egypt in 1943. I have a photograph of him showing his cap badge was SAS and remember an embroidery we had at home displayed in a fire-screen with the message 'To our friend Bill' and showing the SAS badge snd the Greek sacred Heart Badge
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John Arthur Mouzer 2nd Regiment Special Air Service My uncle, Jack Mouzer's photograph is in many of the books on the SAS. He is the one in the middle. He and the other two men were parachuted into the area of Cuneo, Italy in April 1945 to support the partisans.
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Pte. Alf Parker 11th Btn. Special Air Service My father Alf Parker was captured during Operation Colossus in 1941 and was sent to P.G. 78 at Sulmona. He managed to escape and returned home.
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Joe Masson 1st Rgt. SAS My granddad Joe Masson was born in Arbroath and I think he was in the 1st SAS Regiment during WW2.
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David "Tich" Alcock SAS My uncle, David Alcock served with the SAS in Egypt in 1941.
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Ronald Douglas "Bruce" Woodcock Parachute Rgt. My father was in a parachute regiment and saw service in the 8th Army up until 1945. He was at El Alamein and Tobruk and was one of the first of 36 parachutists into Sicily. He trained in the desert for the first unofficial SAS and was involved in the mopping up work at the end of the war in France. He was also one of six on an operation in Czechoslovakia that neither the British or the Russian Army wanted to be associated with.
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Gdsman Stanley Bolland 2nd Btn. Scots Guards (d.20th November 1941) My uncle Stanley Bolland, Guardsman, served with 2nd Btn Scots Guards, No. 8 Commando and "L" Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade. He was killed on 20th November 1941 in a failed attack on Tmimi/Gazala landing strips in North Africa. Does anyone have any further information about my uncle?
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John Hodgson Parachute Regiment I am trying to find information about my great great uncle, Jack Hodgson. We understand he was involved with the Parachute Regiment, British SAS. He was involved in operations at the liberation of Changi, Entebbe Hijacking and India, as well as being involved with the formation of the Rhodesian SAS. Can anyone help?
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Cpl. Jeffrey Edward Holland MID. 21st Regt. Special Air Service
Jeffrey Holland was mobilised with the Royal West Kent Regiment on the 1st of September 1939, he was 17 years old. He saw action in France, Malta, North Africa, Palestine, Syria, Dodecanese Islands, Castelorizzo and Leros. He was held in Stalag VIIA until its liberation by Patton's 3rd Army in April 1945. He served until April 1946 and lost his younger brother, F/Sgt. R.J. Holland (RAF), on 6th of October 1944, who is buried in Airborne Cemetery, Oosterbeek.
The Aegean Mission: Allied Operations in the Dodecanese, 1943 is a book written by Jeffrey Holland in an attempt to understand what is known as "The Dodecanese Disaster".
Jeffrey passed away in Fairfax, Virginia in 1993. He is survived by seven children from three different marriages. Images from his war time log have been included for this project.
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Pte. Alexander McLeod B Squadron 1st SAS Regiment (d.7th July 1944) Alexander McLeod was one of thirty members of the B Squadron, 1st SAS Regiment, all 20 year olds and all killed on a special mission, though details not known. They were buried together in the village cemetery at Rom in Deux-Severs 5km west of Couhe-Verac on the D14 road.
Would love to know more of the details surrounding their deaths.
Update
From June to August 1944, B Squadron, 1st SAS was working behind the lines in German-occupied France. They were tasked (Operation Bulbasket) with blocking the Paris-Bourdeaux rail line near Poitiers. This was to hold up any German reinforcements which were needed near the D-day beach heads. The 2nd SS Panzer Group (Das Reich) was a unit which, it was believed, was heading to Normandy and a train carrying fuel intended for them was spotted by the SAS men. This was reported by the SAS and an RAF bombing mission later destroyed the train. B Squadron's base was near Verrieres. It was here that they were betrayed and the camp attacked. Some 33 men were taken prisoner and murdered. Another three wounded SAS men were later murdered in hospital. These murders were carried out in accordance with Hitler's order of 18 October 1942, usually referred to as the `Commando Order', whereby Allied commandos or saboteurs were to be killed without trial. After the war, this was designated a war crime and some Germans were brought to justice.
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Recomended Reading.Available at discounted prices.
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The Aegean Mission: Allied Operations in the Dodecanese, 1943Jeffrey Holland
This well-researched study explores a virtually unknown and largely enigmatic aspect of World War II--the nature of amphibious operations in the Aegean Sea in 1943. More than an historical account, it is designed to interpret and reassess the crucial decisions which influenced the outcome of what has become known as the Dodecanese Disaster. The British operations in the Aegean at that time present many parallels with the recent conflict in the Falklands in terms of scale and order of battle, the critical difference being that operations in the Aegean resulted in tragic failure. The author leads the reader through a web of intrigue, incompetence, fantasy, and cover-up to find the truth. He vividly portrays the tensions between American and British perspectives in the strategy for the war against Germany
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