Snapper

The 10th Lincolns - the Grimsby Chums - were decimated on the 1st of July 1916 at La Boiselle. The battalion included a batch of men from Bermuda. This is their memorial seat at Lochnagar crater. Just a big hole in the ground to some, but the last resting place of many hundreds of men. The reflected lad in red is my son James who was eleven when we made this, our first visit, in 2003.

Probably accurate. Unpleasant though it is...

After all the fuss I managed to miss it, lighting damp sparklers in Grays. No fair exchange perhaps despite the goodness of the company. We will hopefully be bringing you an interview about this programme etc (which we would have got done a lot earlier if the tractor tyre market was not so parlous and my professional tea drinkers were not so professiona)l. MB

Correct. Remembrance Sunday is a British thing dreamt up in 1946 by the Attlee regime. They wanted to "move on" and free up the working week to forge the new post-war dream. Funny how we are slowly moving "back" a little. Nice pix Steve (as ever). Hope you and Lynne had a great time. MB

It's a still life.... I've been watching tandem coverage of the commemorations (without sound) on Sky and the BBC this morning, here in The Sun editorial newsroom. The main preoccupation is the new series of I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Outta Here, which begins filming in Australia very soon. For Australia, burdened with this motley crew of Brits, here is just one unsung hero of your own. Private Albert James Starr, aged 20 from Tenora, New South Wales who served with 20th Battalion Australian Infantry. He died on 01.06.1918 and is buried at Wimereux Communal Cemetery to the north of Boulogne-sur-Mer on the channel coast. He most likely died in the hospital there. Too Far Away For Us To See, But Not Too Far To Think Of Thee.

Would you just love that for your collection young scribe! I think these troops are East African Rifles. They don't look like Somalis but they are just like all the other Askari. This is a wonderful picture along with all the others.Thanks a million for sharing them with us.

THE WATTEN KRAFTWERK NORD WEST MANNSCHAFT BUNKER AT EPERLECQUES NEAR ST. OMER, FRANCE. The Germans began work to construct this huge factory for liquid oxygen fuel and assembly of V2 rocket bombs in late 1942. It is estimated that 120,000 cubic metres of concrete were used and that a slave and forced labour workforce of around 35,000 people were involved. The site came to the attention of the British in mid 1943 and was immediately subject to a succession of air raids which did little damage to the five metre thick roof of the main building, but achieved serious damage to part of the complexe. In June and July 1944 two RAF raids by Lancasters using Tallboy 22,000lb (6 ton)bombs did little damage to the building fabric, but caused small local earthquakes making it impossible to produce the highly combustible rocket fuel for the V2 on site. It is not known how many of the slave labour force died during construction and the air attacks. The building was captured by the Canadian army in August 1944. A bit arty - but I've always liked this shot.

Tyne Cot. There is nothing to add.

A sad grave at Tyne Cot.

POELCAPELLE BRITISH WAR CEMETERY. The much visited grave of Private John Condon of the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment who was killed on 24.05.1915. John Condon came from Waterford, and, at the reputed age of 14, is the youngest officially recognised British military casualty of the Great War. In recent years Condon's actual age has been disputed and it is suggested he was actually eighteen. The relevant John Condon appearing on the 1901 Census was born in 1896. It is thought a discrepency came about preparing the original records for casualties used by the Imperial War Graves Commission at the time the dead of several small cemeteries were concentrated into Poelcapelle in 1923. Some people believe the grave does not even contain the remains of John Condon but is that of Patrick FitzSimmons of the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles.

Sanctuary Wood. The famous trench complex at Hill 62 outside Ypres which is privately owned. This place is a bit like a car crash. You have to look, but I find it wholly inappropriate and unpleasant. It features in TV and school trips and is on the tourist trail. The atmosphere is wholly odd and creepy. I am not saying don't go..just that I don't like it.

One of the greats. Admiral Bertram Ramsay's memorial statue at Dover Castle.

Fusilier Stephen Satchell was killed by friendly fire in 1991 Gulf War. He was one of nine soldiers killed by US A-10 aircraft who attacked a British armoured column in disputed circumstances which the Brits and the Yanks may never agree on. Stephen is buried at Rye Harbour. It is a bleak place. The cemetery also has the mass grave of the local lifeboat crew who died together in the 1920s. The lychgate of the church records all the names of local men who served and who died in the Great War and it is sad to see that several survivors perished in the lifeboar disaster.

Memorial crosses afixed to the war memorial on Portland in Dorset. Families killed by German bombing include the Hardings; husband and wife Frederick Charles, 28, and Kathleen, 26, and their two year old daughter Rachel who were killed in their home at 14 Augusta Rd, Portland on 12.04.1941. Six members of the Farwell family died at 15 Queen's Rd on 15.04.1941. Archer Farwell, aged 51, his wife Nellie, 51, daughters Violet Christina, 18, Marion Diana, 14, and their son Gunner Charles Walter Farwell, aged 24, who served with 522 Coast Regiment Royal Artillery, and his wife Charlotte Mabel Grace, aged 20. This was a bloody cold day to be hanging around up by the memorial. We had stunning views of Chesil Beach. I was visiting Weymouth where my childhood friend Mike lives. He is a Greek Cypriot cockney and his wife is French. Their two daughters speak the Queen's English, which is a wonder of the education system.

Still 2003 and this time the famous American cemetery above Omaha beach at St Laurent-sur-Mer. It is a beautiful place. I remember reading a blog of sorts on an American students website about a battlefield tour made to Normandy and how the young Americans had found British headstones to be much more personal than the US type, which is in part modelled on the French. They may be right. I think American cemeteries are something of a spectacle - sending a message about collective sacrifice rather than individual. It makes no odds. The graves are all people and they are all treasured. The single grave is for the much loved Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jnr MoH. He'll always look like Henry Fonda to me.

Private Peter Sidney Finch, aged 22, of the 7th Battalion Parachute Regiment was killed on D Day and is buried along with many other paras at La Delivrande war cemetery. The light was beautiful during my visit in 2003 and I was using a digital camera for the first time. Even now I think I can almost step back into that afternoon with Grimmer John and our bunch.

The shared graves of five soldiers from 10th Battalion Hampshire Regiment part of 147th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps who were all killed in action on 17th and 18th July 1944 in Normandy. They were Trooper Charles George Brant, aged 34, of Loudwater Buckinghamshire; Trooper Frederick Percival Henning, aged 32, of Southampton; Corporal Harold Edward Carr, aged 31, of Alton Hampshire; Lieutenant Basil John Drinkwater,aged 24, of Stokenchurch Buckinghamshire and Trooper Frederick Murray, aged 31, of Kingswood, Gloucestershire.

At the going down of the sun. Sergeant Frank Milburn DCM was twenty-nine when he was killed on D-Day with 12th (Yorkshire) Bn the Parachute Regiment. He rests in Ranville Churchyard.

Fast forward to the picturesque Canadian cemetery at Beny-sur-Mer in 2003. This is one of those must visit places on any Normandy pilgrimage. The saddest thing for me is that the authorities did not bury the three Westlake brothers together. The attached snap shows two of them, Thomas and Albert, who died on the 11th of June. They served with the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada. Their brother George died on the 7th of June and I am sorry I do not have a snap of his grave to load up just now. He served with the North Nova Scotia Highlanders. The single grave is Lieutenant Fleming Ladd Irving, a 21 year old of the 1st Hussars who died on D-Day. This regiment operated Sherman DD tanks. Irving came from Winnipeg.

As it's almost the appointed day - here are some snaps from cemeteries I have visited. I am not overly fussed if they are repeats from other threads. Feel free to join in. MB This picture shows Preston Cemetery in Newcastle Upon Tyne. The nearest grave is my grandfather's - Lieutentant (E) Gordon Maurice Barnes RNR who died on 16.02.1941. This picture was taken in 1998 when I made my first and only visit to his grave.

Never got my masterpieces (:-D) added to this collection - so if anyone wants them, ask. I am (as ever) hugely backed up with stuff at the moment. But I do keep my promises eventually. The Barnes archive is currently in a storage unit a mile or so from my house - so I cannot do this for a bit. MB

Haven't seen it in any of my firm's titles, but a family noted that a set of medals stolen from them over twenty years previously had turned up on an "internet auction site". No names no packdrill. The medals include a complete MM set for a chap called Frederick Walton. I haven't seen the copy, so don't know the outcome, but assume they will have to get the medals back via their insurers and the boys in blue. Good.

That's top class. Just what we need. Any chance you can email me a copy of it for the project we have in hand? MB

What to when my house was worth more than my model car collection? Yeah, alright. I take it your phone call with is not one of these mentioned? I hope it's Basildon. God, I do. Think of the mess round Toys R Us! MB

Most wanted. Good Auscam though. Very pretty...do the tucker bags come in that colour as well? What's that on your hats, the ghost of Rod Hull?