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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 Operation Market Garden? There are:286 items tagged Operation Market Garden 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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Cpl. Peter Charles Williams 10th Btn. Parachute Regiment  My Grandfather Peter Williams was born 25th January 1915, we believe at New Tyle, Scotland. He originally joined the Welsh Guards but transferred to the Parachute Regiment.
He unfortunately died at only 32 years old from tuberculosis on the 15th January 1948.
My Mum Diann and her sister Joy know very little about him. He died when my Mum was only 7 years old. My Nan (now 93 years old with severe dementia) was not married to him and due to this fact has refused to tell us anything about him. This is very distressing for my Mum (now 73) who has spent her whole life wondering about him and her heritage and also for myself and my own daughter knowing nothing of the life of my Grandfather.
We do know he was married to a Margaret Lewis briefly prior to my Mum being born.
If anyone could help me with the smallest of information it would be very kind. I just want to help my Mum find some information regarding her Dad.
2733995 Corporal Peter Charles Williams served with the 10th Battalion, the Parachute Regiment during WW2. He died after war death records ceased from Tuberculosis which means he would not appear on the Commonwealth war Graves Records.
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WO2 Ernest "Pat" Tague Seaforth Highlanders (d.22nd Sep 1944)   My namesake Ernest Tague was killed at Nijmegn on the 22nd of Sept 1944, he was was eldest brother of my mother Jenny Tague. My uncle was a regular and also a sportsman winning cups in Hong Kong in 1937 for boxing and also was a good single skulls sportsman.
I remember him vividly on his last leave in 1944 when he came to see his mother and I remember how troubled he was at this time as he could not comfort his mother or say what he was doing. He was married to Margaret who lived in London and they had two children Marcus and Bee. I can imagine his feelings as when I packed my sea bags I had no idea when I would be back, difference then was we were in the toughest part of WW2.He died during operation Market Garden when going to the aid of I believe an American unit that was cut off, it would seem that he and a large number of his company, 7th Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders, were killed at Nijmegen and all eventually buried at the war cemetery in Mierlo which I visited a number of times when business took me to Europe, I think I was the only member of the family to ever visit the grave.
The telegram that arrived telling my grandmother of his death also killed her inside as she never was the same person again.
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Sgt. Raymond Henry Beagle 2nd Btn. A Coy. Parachute Regiment Sergeant Harry Beagle volunteered for airborne forces in 1943 from the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. He trained at RAF Ringway, Manchester, in 1943; his instructor noted that he was, erratic but shows no hesitation.
In 1944, he was a Sergeant in A Company, 2nd Parachute Battalion under Major Digby Tatham Warter and fought in Operation Market Garden in Arnhem. They were among the first men on the bridge.
From there, he was taken prisoner to Stalag XIB and repatriated at the end of the war. His PoW number was 118258.
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Lt.Col. George Harris Lea 11th Parachute Battalion Parachute Regiment Lt. Col. George Lea was commanding officer of the 11th Parachute Battalion at Arnhem.
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C.Sgt. Reginald Percy Davies 4th Btn. Royal Welch Fusiliers (d.20th Sep 1944) We adopted the grave of Reginald Davies.
He is one of the heroes who liberated us on the 17th of September 1944, our end of WW2 in Valkenswaard. He is buried at the war cemetery in my hometown, Valkenswaard.
My grandfather was a member of the Red Cross during WW2 and assisted helping wounded soldiers at the beginning of operation Market Garden which started in Valkenswaard. His home, where he and the rest of my mother’s family lived, was bombed when he was out for the Red Cross.
I am already trying for a while to find out more about Reginald to add information about him on the site of the foundation who tries to keep the memory alive of the men who liberated us and honor them, www.valkenswaardwarcemetery.nl.
I think I found out Reginald and his wife Margaret Elizabeth had a son, Peter Reginald Davies, who was born on the in 1936 and who died in May 1995.
It would be great to get, for instance, a picture to add to the name or find out if there are any living relatives of Reginald Percy.
Inviting relatives to Valkenswaard to remember the soldiers together would be very special, but a picture would also be great.
Could anyone please help me?
Arnold van den Nieuwenhuijzen
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Gnr. George Henry Charlesworth 196th Bty. 73rd Anti Tank Regiment Royal Artillery Grandad George Charlesworth was drafted into the Royal Artillery in 1940. We're waiting for his service records and currently have no information on his early years.
In mid 1943 he was in Hampshire with 196th Battery, 73rd Anti Tank Regiment training as a gunner with a 17lb static gun crew.
The training, although at the time they didn't know, was in preparation for the Normandy invasion, D Day. The regiment was mostly made up of men who were new to it due to severe losses in earlier campaigns.
George and his regigment would later serve under 30 Corps.(Also listed as XXX Corps) Led by Field Marshall Montgomery. The Regiment was made up of 4 Batteries each containing 200 men. There were a further 150 men for HQ consisting of Map readers, runners etc bringing the total to 950.
He was part of the D-Day landings and landed at Gold Beach, Normandy on the 7th of June 1944. The regiment landed in two waves, half on the 6th and the other half on the 7th.
After landing on the beach on D Day +1 they made their way to a French town called Crepon and waited 2 days for the rest of the battle group to catch up. The Americans were bogged down on Omaha beach where they lost 95% of those who landed on D Day. From there they went to Bayeaux where they fought the 21st SS Panzer Division consisting of hard core troops. The Regiment was to have many encounters with SS troops during the campaign. The successfully liberated Bayeaux with very few losses.
They spent 3 months in France and fought a major battle in an area called the Falaise Gap just outside Caen, which they later helped liberate, as part of Operation Overlord.
On the way to Arnhem the US 82nd Airborne Division had failed to capture the road bridge at Nijmegen. 30 Corps brought up boats, allowing two companies of the 82nd to assault across the river, eventually capturing the rigged-for-demolition Nijmegen bridge. The Guards Armoured advanced and quickly established positions on the northern bank. The 43rd Infantry (Wessex) Division was brought up to continue the offensive, and they managed to defeat elements of the 10th SS Panzer Division that penetrated the Nijmegen area, and advanced to the Neder Rijn and the area called The Island. There the 4th Dorsets successfully crossed the Rhine as a diversion, so that 1st Airborne could withdraw more safely, but many men of the 4th Dorset’s were themselves left behind on the north Bank of the Rhine when the Division withdrew.
Failure by the 30 Corps to arrive at the Arnhem bridge as planned caused most of the 1st Airborne Division to either die fighting, surrender, or withdraw to the Polish 1st Independent Brigade positions, and effectively ended the offensive. Further south, in the 101st Airborne sector, many units from the 30 Corps had to be detached to fight off repeated attempts by the German 106th Panzer brigade to cut the highway.
After the success in France and Belgium, General Montgomery commanding the 21st Army Group turned his attention to outflanking the Siegfried Line and invading the Ruhr. This required passing a number of choke points over water obstacles, the last of them a road bridge at Arnhem, allowing ground troops to trap the 15th Army, and split it from the 1st Parachute Army on the way around the northern flank of the Siegfried Line.
To do this, he requested from General Eisenhower to deploy the 1st Allied Airborne Army, with the US 101st Airborne Division dropped at Eindhoven, to secure the Son and Wilhelmina Canal bridges, the US 82nd dropped at Nijmegen, to secure the Grave and Nijmegen bridges, while the British 1st Airborne dropped at Arnhem, to secure the bridgehead over the Neder Rijn.
This would become the Market part of the operation. 30 Corps which consisted of about 50,000 men would advance along the main axis of the British Army's line of the offensive, and pass through Arnhem within 48 hours, and continue into Germany. This was to be the Garden part of the Market Garden operation.
During the Battle of the Bulge, units of 30 Corps moved to secure the bridges over the Meuse. On 27th of December 1944 the Corps pushed the 2nd Panzer Division out of Cells. After the German collapse, 30 Corps quickly advanced north-east and liberated Brussels and Antwerp. There the advance was halted because of a shortage of fuel.
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Spr. Elwyn Charles Locke 1st Parachute Squadron Royal Engineers Elwyn Locke joined the TA in October 1937, posted to B Company, 4th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment.
His trade at enlistment was that of carpenter and joiner.
In January 1940 he was posted to the 12th Division Royal Engineers at rank of Sapper.
On the 19th of April 1940 he disembarked in France with the British Expeditionary Force and on the 2nd of June 1940 was probably evacuated during Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Dunkirk. At this time he was posted to HQ 51st Division, R.E.
During the Christmas period 1940 he was posted as Absent Without Leave for 2 days and five hours and forfeited one days' pay. Probably to much celebrating during this time!
Again, in January 1941 he was awarded 27 days Field Punishment under Section 40 after neglecting to obey an order given by an N.C.O. However, he was released from FP after serving 10 days (time off for good behaviour?)
In August & September 1942 he was first posted to Home detail No.2 Depot Battalion RE then to No. 1 Company RE at Halifax, West Yorkshire. On 15th of May 1943 he embarked UK with the British North Africa Force, disembarking North Africa on the 27th.
Whilst there he was posted to the 3rd Battalion pending transfer to the Army Air Corps.
He disembarked the UK on the 7th of November 1943.
In June 1944 he was posted to No. 1 RE and in July he was attached to Airborne Forces and the following day to School Airborne Forces.
On the 17th of September 1944, the first day of operation Market Garden, he parachuted into the Arnhem area as part of the 1st Parachute Squadron, RE. On the 25th he was posted as missing in action in North West Europe but later found to have been taken prisoner and was a POW at Stalag X1B, near Fallingbostel, Lower Saxony. He was liberated along with the rest of the camp on the 21st of April 1945.
During July 1945 he was posted to the 2nd Division RE and the following day to B Battalion RE at Aldershot.
Once again, during July, he was again posted as AWOL from 23.59hrs to 08.00hrs the following day and was forfeited one days' pay.
In September 1945 he was posted to the 1st Airborne Division RE and the following month proceeded overseas as part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, No.1 Airborne Squadron as Sapper, returning to the UK in April 1946 then to reserve TA.
On the 19th of May 1947 he was discharged from service, although medically fit as his services were no longer required having enlisted into the TA into 1560 Company, Para Brigade, Royal Army Service Corps, TA.
0n the 4th October he married Iris Daisy Locke at Wood Green, London, N22.
On the 1st of October 1948 he was transferred to Artists Rifles, Army Air Corps then to 21 SAS (Artists) Regiment TA.
On the 27th of June 1950 he was discharged from the TA at his own request.
He had served in France for two months, Africa for 6 months and as a PoW for seven months.
Medals awarded: (This may not be totally correct) 1939-1943 Star, 1939-1945 Defence Medal and France and Germany Star.
Conduct Exemplary.
Elwyn died suddenly aged 50 in May 1971.
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Pte. Alexander Hendry Purcell 7th Btn Kings Own Scottish Borderers My father, Alexander Purcell was captured at Arnhem and was sent to a PoW camp in Germany. I have his war papers and it states he was a PoW in Germany for 6 months and 6 days. I was contacted by another soldier a few years ago who was with my father then and he sent me a photograph of them in Normandy.
His name was Fred Tattershall. I believe he has now passed away.
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Bmbdr. Ernest Leslie Fletcher 2nd Airlanding Anti Tank Regiment Royal Artillery Ernie Fletcher was awarded the Africa Star, Italy Star, France and Germany Star as well as a few other medals. He never told me (his son) much of his war efforts other than he was a part of the 1st Oban Regiment. But he did say he flew in a glider across to Arnhem. Lots of gliders crashed in the soft mud causing many casualties. He was told to stay behind at the landing point with others to assist his comrades from their gliders where possible. It was there that he was captured by the Germans and sent to prisoner of war camp Stalag 12a. He did say whilst there, when they saw a rat, they all tried to kill it to eat as rationing was hard.
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Dvr. John Edward Potter 4th Field Squadron Royal Engineers  Jack Potter joined up in July 1940, after the fall of France.
He was sent to Egypt, completing his basic training while on board ship.
He was posted to the 4th Field Squadron, Royal Engineers.
Jack served against the Italians in the Western Desert in 1940, then Rommel and the Afrika Korps.
He was then detached to the Australians and sent to Greece, in 1941. The evacuation from Greece saw him twice sunk in Piraeus harbour aboard Navy ships, before escaping on a liner commandeered by the Australian Army in Alexandria. Back to the desert war, and the battle of El Alamein, the capture of Tunis, and the surrender of the Afrika Korps in 1943.
Next was the invasion of Sicily, followed by the invasion of Italy, and the slow pushing back of the Germans to Monte Cassino. After taking part in the opening stages of this battle, his unit was transferred back to the UK for a refit prior to D-Day.
He saw action on D-Day, in the battles for Normandy, the invasion of Holland, Arnhem, and finally the invasion of Germany, before de-mob in Feb 1946.
Not one home leave during his entire service!
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