Southern Africa

Winged Chariots -Part 10: A Close Shave

Then there was the first daylight operation, flying in Vics of three to attack the German military academy...

Sisters in the Printing Trade in War and Peace by Alice (Franks) McKay

Between the Wars: In 1924, a year after their Mother's death, Gwen was offered a Monotype Keyboard...

Madagascar

After my first session that's how I saw it, beautiful graceful palm trees waving in the cool breeze off...

Training the RAF Behind the Front Line

The following morning we arrived at a port which I subsequently discovered was Liverpool and we boarded a...

After VJ day for the RAF in India

You got to Durban from Cape Town... So we left Cape Town, thru the Red Sea....

Reminiscences of a Veteran Sapper - 3

On return from a short leave to the main camp of the Engineers at Sonderwater I found myself rated as a...

Socotra — 1943

To assess the possibility of a staging post aircraft landing site on the island of Socotra, situated off...

Part 5 RAF Pilot Training - Geoff Wright

Posted to Aircrew Despatch Centre, Heaton Park, Manchester. 30.11.45 Posted to RAF Station at Dunholme...

My Dad's War: Posted to Rhodesia

Dad was a machinist at the JAP engine factory until the depression and after nine months unemployment...

Rommel Was on His Way to Cairo

We settled in in South Africa where I started school, and the next thing I remember was travelling back to...

My First Experience of Evacuation

We stayed there until November 1940, and then moved to Johannesburg, which is about 1,000 from Cape Town. I...

Wartime travels

At that time there were soldiers from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa coming over to the deserts....

Reminiscences of a Veteran Sapper - 1

No doubt there are many others who can tell quite a different story and who experienced very different...

I Was Singing in the Choir

I then went to Port Alfred flying school and then I was posted back to Capetown. My wife was stationed at...

From Liverpool to Egypt on the SS Andes, 1940 - 1941

"After survivor's leave, I went to Oswestry and thence to Liverpool, where we embarked on the...

The Halfway House

Olive lived in Cape Town, and was only twelve when the war started... The Naval base, which still exists,...

With the RASC to Capetown

As a fully trained soldier with the RASC in Alfreton in 1940 I was put to work at a place on Highstairs...

War in Europe, Serving with the Queens Own Royal West Kents

We spent 4 days in Cape Town and were told that we weren't aloud to go into District 6 of the city...

Evacuated to Durban (South Africa)

But, instead of sending us home to England to the Blitz, we were all shipped off to Durban in South Africa,...

Getting Back in Condition: HMS Ceylon's Visit to South Africa

So it was that with a new Captain, Captain Harkness, DSC, RN in command, she sailed on the 9th December...

VJ Day - All at Sea

The Stirling Castle was also a Union Castle Line ship, like the Durban Castle on which I had arrived in...

Snippets of Wartime Memories: In Surrey, Leicester and South Africa

Snippets of memories of World War 2 Some snippets of memories gathered by volunteers at the Epsom and Ewell...

From 25,000 Ton Ship to 10,000: Sailing to Bombay

Collision with another boat in Greenoch Bay while forming a large convoy, our ship the Stirling Castle...

An Unexpected Arrival in Kenya, and a Long Journey Home to England

My father, Bertie Miller Logan, was simply not expecting my mother Jean to arrive in Kenya in 1942 - even...

Polish Refugees

Having unloaded H.M. Troopship Nevasa at Karachi, then in India, now West Pakistan they were tasked to sail...

British Cargo Steamer City of Shanghai

On May 10th 1941 the Cargo Steamer City of Shanghai on which my dad`s brother Harry was the Quartermaster,...