11-11-2020, 02:11 AM
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Memorials
This is an unfinished project. I had intended to photograph and collate many more war memorials this year, purely out of personal interest, but my plans have been thwarted due to covid. Consequently there are only a view pics included here.Part of the Battle of Britain memorial near Dover, with a statue of a pilot sat in the middle of a giant propeller looking out to sea.
Poem on one of the memorial walls.
RAF roundel on another part of the memorial.
BoB (Battle of Britain) dog with "Hurrybus" behind. The Hurricane was made of wood and fabric and had a thicker wing than the Spitfire as a result. This meant that all four guns could be set together as indicated by the red strip on the wing leading edge. With this gun configuration it was particularly effective against enemy bombers, although it was still a very versatile and capable fighter aircraft even though it was slower than the Spitfire.
The Spitfire wing was too thin to do the same so the machine guns were set on their sides, the inner pair having their breech-blocks set back to back whilst the outer guns had to be positioned further apart. This gave the aircraft its characteristic one-two-one gun positions on each wing.
On the site of a former WW1 airfield on a windswept hilltop above Dover.
A Somerset village high street war memorial.
Preserved by the local council, near to the previous memorial, this road sign shows damage sustained by a German fighter/bomber that decided to have a pop at a nearby searchlight battery.
War memorial in Butcombe village churchyard. This is quite a common style of village church memorial by here.
Elvington Airfield, near York, gate guardian. In the latter years of WW2, the Free French flew Halifax heavy bombers from here. I suspect this may be the propeller form one such aircraft.
Part of a propeller from a crashed Lancaster heavy bomber in a Nottinghamshire churchyard, commemorating the lives of the aircrew lost during a training flight
A piece of tram-track embedded in the grounds of St Mary Redcliffe church, Bristol. A German bomb blew this section of track clean over a row of houses and is left to remind people how close the church came to being destroyed.
Chatham Docks memorial showing the perils our sailors had to endure.
Washington DC memorial to nurses killed during the Vietnam War. It is not historically accurate because nurses did not provide front line medical aid, but it should not detract from the bravery that medics showed under fire.
Ottawa, Ca. Two years after I took this photo, one of the memorial honour guards was shot dead by a terrorist.
Changing of the guard, Ottawa, Ca. Just to the right of the sergeant in the centre of the photo is a shabbily dressed chap leaning on a shopping trolley. After the guard was changed, he left his trolley with what looked like his worldly possessions, marched up to the monument, saluted, bowed his head, then marched off with his trolley. To this day I wonder what his story was.
Memorial at Killarney, Co Kerry, ROI, to Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, aka The Vatican Pimpernel. During the Nazi occupation of Rome, he was responsible for saving the lives of some 6500 souls, many of whom were British escaped PoWs, plus many Jews and other persecuted groups. Some of the persons saved were hidden in a building next to the Gestapo headquarters in Rome. He was eventually identified by the Nazis and torture and death threats were issued against him should he ever leave the Vatican perimeter, which he had previously done in disguise on many occasions. He would brazenly discus matters whilst stood on the Vatican steps just inside the border painted on the ground by the Nazis.
St Peter's church, Bristol. This sits in Castle Park which was originally the heart of the city. Several whole city blocks were destroyed during the blitz, and the remains of the church are now kept as a memorial to those killed during those raids.
I met a chap whilst I was in a local hospital during the early eighties. He had been a fireman during the blitz and told me of one of the raids on the city. When the raid started one weekend, fire-crews from nearby towns and villages were moved in to the city to support the local brigades. Crews from outlying towns and villages would move up to replace those that had moved into the city. When they were ordered in, crews from towns and villages further afield were moved up. When they were ordered in to the city, more crews from far away districts were moved up, and so on. One particular night, the gentleman whom I met was brought in to the city from Bridgewater, forty miles away.
The raid ended on the Sunday night, and the exhausted fire-crews finally brought the furnace under control, and by early morning began damping down.
In the morning, locals came out of the shelters or their homes. Many people had been killed. Many had lost their homes, yet that morning many started to file past the fire pumps, and as they walked by, despite rationing, they left tokens of gratitude for the fire-crews. A pack of cheese sandwiches, a bottle of milk, a single egg, a few ounces of butter, whatever they could spare was left for the brave firefighters.
When told this tale, I sat in my hospital bed and cried. I can only imagine the horrors these people went through.
At home we have a very personal memorial to my great Uncle William who was killed in WW1, as well as items brought home from family members who survived.
Great Uncle William joined the Somerset Light Infantry in 1915 aged eighteen. He was wounded in 1916, and killed during the battle of Passchendaele in 1917, aged 20. He has no known grave, but my bucket list includes a visit to the Tyne Cot memorial in Belgium where his name appears on one of the panels there.
Red for the blood that was spilled.
Black for the mourning of those left behind.
Green for the new growth on the fields of battle.
The leaf at eleven o'clock, symbolising the time when the guns fell silent.
11-11-2020, 12:23 PM
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Re: Memorials
Thanks all for the replies, and please add more pics of memorials, especially if they have a particular meaning to you.Red for the blood that was spilled.
Black for the mourning of those left behind.
Green for the new growth on the fields of battle.
The leaf at eleven o'clock, symbolising the time when the guns fell silent.
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