ww2

profile of the two imperial war museum guns

The Imperial War Museum’s Big Guns

14/07/2026 donbrown 0

About the large guns that sit in front of the IWM in Lambeth. From the WW1 battleships HMS Ramillies and Resolution.

Wernher von Braun and the V2 missile

21/02/2026 donbrown 0

A couple of years ago I wrote a post about the V2 (Vergeltungswaffe, or ‘vengeance weapon’) that stands in the atrium of the Imperial War […]

clapham south deep level shelter

‘Hidden London’ beneath Clapham South

17/02/2026 donbrown 0

In the 30 years or so that I’ve been living in this part of Battersea I must have passed through Clapham south tube (my nearest […]

Exhibition: London in the Second World War

14/04/2025 donbrown 0

To The London Archives in Clerkenwell for the small but (genuinely) perfectly formed ‘London in the Second World War’ exhibition. It runs until the end […]

LCT7074 at d day museum southsea

Days Out: The D Day Story and the Overlord Embroidery

09/06/2024 donbrown 0

Portsmouth’s D Day Story is a small museum on the seafront a literal stone’s throw from the Tudor castle at Southsea (where Henry VIII watched […]

violet szabo bust london

“Carve their names with pride”: the SOE Memorial

29/02/2024 donbrown 0

Many of the stories of those who served in WW2 are capable of inducing in those of us who have never had to face such […]

hms belfast in the thames

The Last of the WW2 Big Ships – HMS Belfast

30/01/2024 donbrown 0

A visit to HMS Belfast on a chilly, late January Tuesday gave me the ship almost to myself, the first time I’d visited this floating […]

Days Out – Bletchley Park, Home of the WW2 Codebreakers

26/01/2024 donbrown 0

Less than 40 minutes on the fast service from Euston gets you to Bletchley (now part of Milton Keynes). It is a journey that would […]

a german enigma machine

Most secret: the story of the Bletchley Park codebreakers (video of online talk)

30/11/2023 donbrown 0

Discover the secrets of Bletchley Park’s codebreakers & the cracking of Enigma in this online talk. All ticket money goes to The Brain Tumour Charity […]

The Billy Fiske Memorial, St Paul’s Cathedral

31/12/2022 donbrown 0

Among the 28,000 names listed in the ‘Roll of Honor’ in the American Memorial Chapel in St Paul’s will be that of William Meade Lindsley […]