When war was declared on Germany on 3 September 1939 Britain immediately began to mobilise its forces. Whilst the bulk of the Royal Navy was focused on convoy protection and controlling the North Sea the Royal Navy Patrol Service (RNPS), comprised reservists from both the Royal Navy Reserve (RNR) and Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR), […]
Although many thousands of British evacuees were evacuated by steam train during the Second World War, others travelled to their new homes by steam ship. George Osborn recalled the excitement of his journey from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight: The great engines, powered by steam from the coal-fired boiler, slowly turned the […]
On the 24 October 2015 I gave a brief lecture at the ‘Pop up University’, designed for 14-16 year olds at the Make and Craft Kitchen in Fratton. My paper was based upon my PhD research: women’s subjective experiences of the Second World War in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. The event was designed […]
In June 1940, 17,000 people were evacuated from Guernsey, to Weymouth, just days before their island was occupied by Germany – see http://porttowns.port.ac.uk/1940-evacuation-st-peter-port-guernsey-england/ The evacuation ships reached Weymouth where the evacuees sat for hours, waiting for permission to disembark. As Winifred Le Page stepped onto dry land, she was approached by French interpreters, “They didn’t […]
In May 1940, as Germany invaded France, fears arose in Guernsey that a German invasion might take place. The closeness of Guernsey to Cherbourg left it wide open to attack by both sea and air. On 11 June, the British War Cabinet considered that Hitler might occupy the Channel Islands to “strike a blow at […]
