Chalk Facebook Page

We've noticed that more and more people and LH groups are now using Facebook as means of communicating with others. We've had this blogsite for a number of years and it has proved very useful and popular but in an effort to reach out further we've made the decision to create a brand new Facebook page!

The blogsite will remain active but we won't be updating it from this point forward and it will instead become an online archive.

From now on we will be updating the FB page, although we might resurrect some of the blogsite material in order to share it with new friends on Facebook.

Please feel free to 'like' the Facebook page and become a friend of the group in order to stay up to date with our activities.

All the best
Chalk Living History

Link: Chalk Facebook Page

XXI Independent Parachute Company

So what's the connection between XXI Independent Parachute Company and the Glider Pilot Regiment?... All will be revealed in the fulness of time.

Airborne Forces Memorial - Tatton Park, Cheshire

I actually visited this memorial last year on a journey back from Shrewsbury but only just found the photos on my phone.

Tatton Park in Cheshire was the original drop zone for parachute drops from nearby Ringway Airfield (the home of No.1 Parachute Training School [No.1 PTS] of the Central Landing School) which later became Manchester Airport we know today. Between 1940 and 1946 Ringway provided training to 60,000 allied paratroops including Americans, Belgians, Canadians, Czechs, Dutch, French, Norwegian and Poles.

The memorial sits in the grounds of Tatton Park and overlooks the surrounding countryside, a very nice spot indeed.

The inscription reads:

Throughout most of the Second World War

Tatton Park was the dropping zone for

No.1 Parachute Training School, Ringway.

This stone was set in honour of

those thousands, from many lands

who descended here in the course of

training, given or received, for 

Parachute service with the Allied Forces

in every theatre of war

As the men of the Glider Pilot Regiment were known as Total Soldiers there were even plans for pilots to attend No.1 PTS and become qualified parachutists! As far as I can find out this scheme was short lived although certain individuals may have completed the course - if anyone has any details or information please get in touch with us.

Please note: the image of a parachute drop over Tatton Park was taken from the website: www.591-antrim-parachute.info

Operation Varsity 70th Anniversary Memorial Service

On Monday 23rd March I travelled down from Leeds to Marks Hall in Essex, met up with friends to pay our respects to the men of the Glider Pilot Regiment, British 6th Airborne Division, RAF and their U.S. Counterparts who took part in the largest (one day) Airborne invasion in history.

Some of us spent the night at the White Hart Hotel and Inn in Coggeshall then after a hearty breakfast we headed up to Marks Hall Estate Arboretum for a welcome coffee and a catch up with other GPRA members and friends.

Attendance at the service was superb, with veterans and their families, family members of veterans who are no longer with us, The Army Air Corps honour guard, military band and of course members of the British Legion. A fly past of two Apache helicopters added to the ceremony and the weather behaved itself well.

Afterwards, we all made our way down to the visitor centre for an excellent curry provided by the AAC catering staff. And over a coffee we made new friends and caught up with others.

My journey back up to Leeds was long but uneventful (as all good motorway journeys should be) and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again at the National Arboretum in May.

I forgetfully left my camera at home so was limited to using my iPhone to record the day.

News from the RAF Museum Cosford

Posted today on Facebook... Sad, but inevitable unfortunately. We can only hope that either the Museum of Army Flying at Middle Wallop or IWM Duxford can step forward and offer a home to these two... 

Post D-Day Glider Retrieval

Many times I'm asked if the wartime gliders were ever made to be used again, before I can answer someone else (with a bigger mouth) usually answers by saying...

"No! They were designed to be crash landed, can you believe that?!" 

At this point I wait patiently and then quietly inform that in certain cases, if the damage wasn't too bad and the area allowed for it then the aircraft could be salvaged and returned to duty... proof below...

Men of a Detachment of the Heavy Glider Servicing Unit repairing a damaged Airspeed Horsa in a field near St Aubin-d'Arquenay, Normandy. Photo courtesy of IWM.

A carpenter of a Detachment of the Heavy Glider Servicing Unit repairing the centre fuselage bulkhead of a damaged Airspeed Horsa in a field near St Aubin-d'Arquenay, Normandy. Photo courtesy of IWM.

Image courtesy of Flight Magazine Archive as previously reported on this site.

New Book: Arnhem on the Horizon

Countless books have now been written about Operation Market Garden, more generally referred to as 'Arnhem', that it would be easy to dismiss any new projects as unnecessary. However, in this instance, that would be a great mistake. Here, David Pasley tells the story of his Grandfather Sgt. Johnny Wetherall a member of the Glider Pilot Regiment who took part in one of the most famous battles in modern history.

I found it easy to read without being dull, informative without being stodgy and extremely moving. Many books written so long after the war can be rather removed from the human element of warfare, refreshingly David paints a fully rounded picture of his Grandfather which makes a refreshing change.

The book explains the overall plan of action for the battle and interlaces Sgt. Wetherall's experiences throughout, including the uncertainty of capture.

I'm fortunate to have many books relating to Market Garden, the Glider Pilot Regiment and British Airborne Forces as well as general Second World War accounts, I'm more than happy to sit this book alongside any of those on my bookshelves. You should be too.

Link: Amazon

Merry Christmas to you all!

S.Sgt Denzil Cooper and S.Sgt Les Cole GPR

This photo was recently posted on Facebook. It shows Staff Sgt's Denzil Cooper and Les Cole. 

Of interest here are their cap badges; Denzil is clearly wearing the plastic 'economy' badge whereas Les is wearing what looks like an embroidered badge with a cloth backing of some sort, but could this be a regular metal AAC badge with a cloth backing?

If anyone has any further thoughts please get in touch.

12th Battalion (Airlanding) Devonshire Regiment - 12th Devons!

Up until just recently, its always proved difficult to find any decent reference photos of 12th Devons circa Operation Varsity. Mainly due to the fact that there just aren't that many books out there dedicated to the Operation or this particular regiment, but now thanks to members of WW2Talk.com there I've been able to see more in the past few weeks than I have in the past few years!

Below are some of the photos which have recently been added to the WW2Talk forum, some by enthusiasts and some by family members, some of them are screen grabs from the British Pathe website, some from the IWM website and some are from private collections. Either way there are some very interesting kit and uniform details on display here. Its great to see this usually under represented airlanding unit given some screen time at last.

Follow the original thread here: Link: 12th Devons

 

 

Papier Maché Hat Displays

Not so long ago, in an antique shop in Bath I found a millinery head block. It was superb, a head shaped wooden block covered in cloth, it was old and would've been just the thing to display my beret and helmet collection (if I could find enough of them of course).... but the price!!!? How much?!!

I quickly scrapped the idea of using these original head blocks and sat down to think of a more affordable alternative, then I thought; 'papier maché'! So, a few days later and armed with balloons, wallpaper paste, sheets of newspaper and a bucket I set to making my first papier maché for many years... and I quite enjoyed it. I made two 'heads' as I soon realised that the structures wouldn't be strong enough for helmets but would work well for berets. I finished off each one with photocopied wartime newspapers and gave them a quick wash with a yellow/brown oil paint and varnish.

Now I just need to come up with something to display the helmets.... hmmm....

GPRA AGM and Reunion - Bournemouth 2014

On Friday 10th of October I made the journey down to Bournemouth once more to represent Chalk at the GPRA AGM and Reunion.

The journey was uneventful but the weekend was not, Chalk received a special mention at the AGM with a round of applause from the members which, I can report, brought a tear to my eye! Everybody is so friendly and approachable that its really more like a family reunion and even the thunder storm on Saturday morning did little to dampen anyone's spirit.

Saturday evening's meal was superb as always and the speeches very entertaining as was the conversation on our table, new friends were made and more information added to the reference book.After breakfast on the Sunday I drove back up to Leeds but the journey seemed shorter as my mind was full of the weekends activities! 

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who attended and for being so pleasant, helpful and for acknowledging Chalks efforts throughout the year. Until next time all.

The Cumberland Hotel, Bournemouth. Always comfortable and accommodating to the GPRA
(if a little too warm at times). © Matt Yates 2014.

Interesting Horsa Cargo Photo

This was originally posted on the GPR Facebook page but I wanted to share the information here too.

The first photo is taking looking forward towards the cockpit and shows a motorcycle combination loaded into the cargo hold with two airlanding troops looking on, a Royal Engineers unit indicated by the '49' on the sidecar. The photo also shows the cockpit doors in closed position.

The second photo shows a load diagram for the Horsa showing a Jeep, trailer and motorcycle combination. Thanks to Luuk Buist for this image.

Operation Varsity Photographs

These photos were passed on to me by a collector friend of mine, Alistair Taylor. They show British infantry dug in on the site of one of the glider landing zones clearly sometime after the airborne assault itself judging by the condition of the Waco/Hadrian gliders!

A British Bren team takes up position by the nose of a wrecked Waco/Hadrian glider. March 1945.

British infantry dig in with the wreckage of a Waco/Hadrian glider visible in the distance. March 1945.

Double Hills 2014, Duxford IWM and AAC Arnhem Dinner 2014

This year may have been relatively quiet for Chalk but the month of September certainly made up for that! 

We represented the Glider Pilot Regiment at the Double Hills Arnhem memorial in Paulton, Somerset on Sunday 7th September. On Wednesday 10th September we again represented the Regiments involvement at Arnhem by attending a private screening of the film 'Theirs is the Glory' held in the museums original WW2 cinema and finally on Thursday 11th September we attended the commemorative Arnhem Dinner at the Sergeants Mess at Middle Wallop AAC where we set up a GPR themed display and sat down with serving AAC members and veteran Glider Pilots alike. I'd like to take this opportunity to mention that I was treated extremely well by all concerned and made to feel like one of the family, a great honour indeed.

A commemorative copy of the 'Theirs is the Glory' program and a limited edition engraved beer glass, 
souvenirs of the night at Duxford IWM's cinema.

The Chalk GPR Arnhem display set up in the Sgts Mess Bar, Middle Wallop AAC. September 2014.

The evenings menu, commemorative medal and my place name card. All going in the GPR 'box'.

Reverse of the 70th Anniversary commemorative medal presented to the dinner's attendees by the AAC Sgts Mess.

Front of the 70th Anniversary commemorative medal presented to the dinner's attendees by the AAC Sgts Mess.

Gliders on Landing Zone 'Z' - 17 September 1944 - Educational Diorama

A couple of weeks ago, during one of my usual trips around the internet, I came across this superb diorama by modeller Stefan Landman. The scale of the Diorama is 1/72 (that's approximately model railway scale i.e. small!). The standard of this model is extremely high and Stefan built and modified almost all the gliders, vehicles and figures so that they were accurate representations of the actual personnel and equipment used on Operation Market Garden.

In his words:

"For more than three years now, I have been busy with a diorama showing gliders of the British 1st Airborne Division on LZ 'Z' near Arnhem during operation Market Garden. When finished, the diorama will be displayed at the Glider Collection museum in Wolfheze. 

The diorama includes two Horsa gliders and one Hamilcar glider. It portrays part of LZ 'Z' that was designated for the gliders from RAF Keevil, and where two Hamilcar gliders also touched down. Troops and cargo belong to 1st Parachute Brigade, 1st Airlanding Light Regiment Royal Artillery and 9th Field Company Royal Engineers. 

Last Saturday I delivered the finished diorama to the Glider Collection museum in Wolfheze. Literally glueing on the last figures just hours before taking it to the museum, I managed to finish the diorama in time to be on display for the Market Garden commemorations."

If we could display more photo's here then we would! But why not make the trip over to Holland and see the diorama at the Wolfheze museum for yourself? It'd definitely be worth the trip. In my opinion this is by far the best glider diorama I've ever seen, and I've seen plenty in my time, as a modeller myself I find Stefan's work massively inspiring and might, finally, get off my backside and try my hand at something too!

If any of you have models or have seen models of gliders that you would like to share then please do get in touch with me at: mattjyates@yahoo.co.uk

Also, for those of you who are interested, here are links to the Wolfheze Museum website and Facebook page.

Link: Wolfheze Museum
Link: Wolfheze Museum Facebook Page