We’re the D-Day Dodgers out in Italy,
Always on the vino, always on the spree…
—“The Ballad of the D-Day Dodgers”, a #WW2 soldiers’ song collected by Hamish Henderson
Sung by Rod Paterson
(The term “D-Day Dodger”, an insulting reference to Allied troops fighting in Italy in 1944, was widely attributed to Viscountess Astor, a Conservative MP – although she denied saying it & there is no record of her using this phrase)
Alexander Scott landed in Normandy with the Gordon Highlanders, & saw action in the Ardennes & crossing the Rhine. He later became Head of #Scottish#Literature at the University of Glasgow, & was president of ASL from 1976–79
Published in FROM THE LINE: Scottish War Poetry 1914–1945, ed. David Goldie & Roderick Watson
"ABC News' Juju Chang travels to Camp Amache, a former Japanese internment camp, that's on its way to becoming a National Historic Site, as the stories of those once kept there are brought to light."
I always feel uncomfortable at events that are memorials of Britain's wars.
I consider myself patriotic and British but not in the way that many people interpret the terms.
The obsession with the past is holding us, as a nation, hostage to something that we no longer are (or should want to be).
Why do we have to live in the military past?
Surely there's so much to celebrate about how we live in peace.
British MKIII Valentine tanks make their way through a town in Tunisia - April 1943. More than 8000 Valentine tanks were produced and used mainly in the North Africa Campaign proving to be both strong and reliable #ww2#worldwar2#valentine#tunis#tunisia#tank#britisharmy
Despite the serious subject, I can't help but find this funny. Look at this corner of Lärbro churchyard's little Jewish quarter, surrounded by a low shrubbery. It was originally rectangular. But then the parish discovered that the death camp victim they had buried second from the end was a Gentile with an Italian name. 1/2
They swapped his Jewish headstone for a cross and added a little loop of shrubbery. Technically this Catholic now rests outside the Jewish quarter, though both of his neighbours are Jews. ♥️ 2/2
Hundreds of Polish Catholics and Jews liberated from death camps in 1945 were treated at a military hospital in north #Gotland. Many of them died and were buried in Lärbro churchyard.
Discover the testimony of 19-year-old Ustaša, Joso Orešković, detailing his participation in the events at the Slana camp on Pag Island, #Croatia during World War II.