Archives for History - Page 5
Pte William McColgan MM – Died of Wounds 9th June 1917
Portrait of W. McColgan. Image kindly provided by Marlborough memorial project (2009). Image has no known copyright restrictions. Private William McColgan MM was my great, great-uncle. His older sister Mary married John Kemp in 1900, William would have been ten years old then. Before the War William McColgan was born in 1890 in Old Kilpatrick. His mother was Catherine Mulholland and his father Patrick McColgan. On the 1891 census he had three older siblings, and more were to follow. Sometime before WW1 started he emigrated from Scotland to New Zealand. He worked for a Mr Lucas on Opawa Farm near Blenheim at the north end of the South Island. I couldn't find this on the map, the current Opawa Farm is several hundred miles to the South near Christchurch. I assume that he worked on a farm near the Opawa…
A Child At Arms by Patrick Davis Book Review
A Child at Arms by Patrick A. Davis My rating: 5 of 5 stars A Child At Arms should be on reading lists for junior officers and anyone involved in military policy. It compares well to Sydney Jary's 18 Platoon, which was held up as an excellent example of a platoon commander's war by the British Army. A Child At Arms - review Gurkhas advancing with tanks to clear the Japanese from Imphal-Kohima road India (Photo credit: Wikipedia) In A Child At Arms Patrick Davis gives a his imperfect memory of his time in the army. Davis came straight out of school into officer training, and volunteered to join the Gurkhas in the Far East. At the age of 19 he joined 4/8th Gurkhas at Kohima just as they were withdrawn to rest. Davis is very honest in his account.…
Dominion by C.J. Sansom [Book Review]
Dominion by Sansom My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was recommended Dominion by a couple of friends after my review of the TV version of SS-GB. Dominion is a huge tome, it's 700 pages long, and my first thought was that it probably needed some more editing. However I found it an easy and compelling read. Sansom's style is more descriptive than others I've read, but the extra detail adds to the flavour of the story. The title has multiple interpretations. Britain is a Dominion of nazi Germany, the key protagonist works for the Colonial Office liaising with the Dominions. Dominion - the review Unsmiling, Chamberlain (left) and Hitler leave the Bad Godesberg meeting, 23 September 1938. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Dominion takes a far more believable point of departure for its alternate history than SS-GB does. In Dominion Lord…
SS-GB [review] BBC Adaptation of Len Deighton’s SS-GB
I watched the BBC Adaptation of Len Deighton's SS-GB last night. I read the book a long time ago, it was probably one of the first alternative histories that I ever read. I've also enjoyed Young Lions by Andrew Mackay which is also set post-German Invasion of Britain. SS-GB Review The bombed-out ruins of Buckingham Palace as depicted in SS-GB. Image © Sid Gentle Films Ltd. SS-GB has a lot of elements that I enjoy. It's an alternative history, it's a police procedural, it has espionage/intelligence aspects and it's set during WW2. It also has another element that fascinates me. When do you remain loyal and when should you change sides? I was always going to watch this programme. The story is set in 1941, fourteen months after a successful German Invasion of Britain. In the opening shots we are…
The Nazi Hunters by Damien Lewis [Book Review]
The Nazi Hunters by Damien Lewis My rating: 4 of 5 stars A very well researched account, with a lot of detail on the SAS operations in the Vosges. While it does cover the post-war war crimes investigations most of the book is actually about the period leading to the war crimes. This is very interesting, and shows how they were operating and why so many SAS soldiers ended up in enemy hands. It also sort of explains the personal nature of the SAS War Crimes Unit's all consuming involvement in hunting down the perpetrators. The Nazi Hunters The defendants at the Nuremberg War Crime Trial in Nuremberg, Germany (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The Nazi Hunters is well researched, but it's wrapped in a little hyperbole about it being a previously untold and largely unknown story. During WW2 Hitler issued an…