Whilst the principal focus of the Centre is the collection of personal testimony of life and times in the period of the Second World War – these lives cannot be separated from events and the Key Aspects of living through those times.
Examples of some of the Centre’s collections are featured in these pages, illustrating the wide scope of our holdings, including a slightly more detailed look at the role of the WRNS during wartime, love letters, personal experiences on the Home Front, and a focus on our wartime artwork.
Many of the Lives on our website will have been involved with or around the events mentioned in this section, as you explore here or via the Collections or Timelines you will have the opportunity to find and explore these connections.
This section will be extended and updated often so please come back again soon.
“For you Tommy, the war is over”. Not necessarily so. Escape and Evasion in Europe
As part of the Eighth Annual Lecture Series, Dr Peter Liddle, Life President of the Second World War Experience Centre, explored the rich testimony of those who escaped and evaded capture during the Second World War for his lecture at Harewood House. We are delighted to include an illustrated transcript of this fascinating talk.
Dunkirk
We commemorate the successful evacuation of 340,000 British and French troops from the beaches of Dunkirk May/June 1940.
Norway 1940
In April 1940, the ‘phony war’ ended when Britain and France fought Nazi Germany for control of Norway. This campaign was abandoned with the fall of France and ultimately led to the resignation of Chamberlain.
Operation Chariot – The Raid on St Nazaire, 28 March 1942
On the night of 28 March, 1942 Royal Navy and Army Commando units launched a raid on the heavily defended docks at St Nazaire.
Events in North Africa – June 1942
In June 2002 we look back at the events sixty years ago in the western desert of North Africa.
The Russian Convoys – July 1942
In July 2002 the hazardous operations of the Russian Convoys are remembered.
Operation Pedestal – August 1942
An urgent but dangerous convoy to deliver much-needed supplies, especially oil, to the beleaguered island of Malta. An Hour of Glory: The Strike at the Luxembourg Post Office, 1 September 1942. Article by George C. Kieffer The article was first published in Issue 3 of Everyone’s War.
El Alamein and Torch 1942
The second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942 and the Torch landings of the following month heralded the beginning of the end of the campaign in North Africa
The Strike at the Luxembourg Post Office – 1 Sept 1942
In this small country, with its close-knit community, where everybody knew everyone else, resistance to the Nazi invader was always fraught with danger from the quislings in its midst, which it is difficult to imagine in England or indeed anywhere which has not suffered the iniquity of enemy occupation. Resistance meant certain death, if caught. Talk was certainly safer than action…..
Godfrey Talbot – The Voice of the Desert and the Eighth Army
Godfrey Talbot relayed the action, as it happened, to the families at home.
The Warsaw Ghetto and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
In commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April 1943, we feature the story of Janina Bauman who, as a Jewish girl, was forced to live in the Ghetto before escaping to hide in the ‘Aryan’ side of the city.
Operation Chastise – The Dams Raid May 1943
The Dams Raid of May 1943 was an important morale-raising attack undertaken by members of the 617 Squadron.
Operation Husky – the Invasion of Sicily
July 1943 saw the large scale attack on what Churchill called “the soft underbelly of Europe”.
The Italian Campaign
Recollections of the Italian D-Days, Monte Cassino and the River and Mountain Crossings from the Centre’s archives. Victory! VE Day Celebrations on the British Home Front. Dr Ian Whitehead’s look at celebrations across Britain. The article was first published in Issue 11 of Everyone’s War.
The Thai-Burma Railroad
Personal experiences of prisoners of the Imperial Japanese Army, who laboured on the construction of the infamous Thai-Burma railway. This material illustrates the horrendous living and working conditions suffered by the prisoners. We also include recollections of Far Eastern Prisoners of War held in other camps who suffered similarly. It does not make for easy reading but we should remember the men who survived and the thousands of prisoners who didn’t make it home.
Aspects of Life on the British Home Front
An abridged version of Dr Ian Whitehead’s detailed look at life on the Home Front in Britain during the Second World War. The full article is available in Issue 6 of Everyone’s War.
Fulfilling a need – the role of the Women’s Royal Naval Service
An introduction to the wide-ranging roles undertaken by Wrens, who won over those sceptical about their abilities and paved the way for a permanent service.
The North East of England project has been generously funded by The Sir James Knott Trust, The Barbour Trust and The Eventhall Family Charitable Trust.
Love Letters
Here we display a selection of the Centre’s extensive collection of Love Letters, written by husbands and wives, parents and children.
The North East of England during Wartime
Here we consider experiences of life on the Home Front and for those in the Armed Forces in the North East.
The North East of England project has been generously funded by The Sir James Knott Trust, The Barbour Trust and The Eventhall Family Charitable Trust.
Voices from the Battle of the Atlantic
By Kate Tildesley, Curator at the Naval Historical Branch. An examination of the “Battle”, or series of campaigns, which lasted throughout the War, against, and in defence of, Allied merchant shipping.
Not the Image but Reality: British POW Experience in Italian and German Camps
Dr Peter Liddle and Dr Ian Whitehead examine the ‘barbed-wire enclosed existence’ from the Centre’s archives.
Kindertransport
Between December 1938 and August 1939, the Kindertransport programme evacuated almost 10,000 Jewish children from Germany and Austria to Great Britain. The Second World War Experience Centre holds recorded interviews and documents from several of these children including Clive ‘Teddy’ Teddern and Ken Ward who went on to serve with the British Army in Normandy, Holland and Germany.
RAF Special Operations
by James Holland
The Work of Women in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
Experiences in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force from the Centre’s holdings.
Victory! VE Day Celebrations on the British Home Front
The unconditional surrender of Germany was public knowledge on 7 May 1945. Sir Montague Burton, writing to his son, perceived a collective sigh of relief at delivery from danger, combined with a strong sense that this had been a victory worth fighting for…
The Battle of Britain: an Anthem for Youth
Article by Stephen Bungay, Director of the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre