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.