WW2 Archives - Mechtraveller

Le Château de Pignerolle U-Boat HQ

Alastair — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 15:51:03 +0000

It’s hard to imagine the U-boat war being conducted from a group of bunkers in the wooded grounds of a château just outside Angers, miles from the coast and the U-boat bases. But that’s exactly the point. The British raid on Saint-Nazaire in March 1942 (Operation Chariot) really un-nerved both Kriegsmarine commander Grand Admiral Raider, […]

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Free French Monument to the Liberation of Larchamp & Ernée

Alastair — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 18:24:16 +0000

(And the rescue of a wounded American soldier) This roadside monument on a long straight stretch of the D31 road between the villages of Larchamp and Ernée in the Mayenne department of France, marks the point of first contact on 4th August 1944 between US troops advancing south from Normandy, German forces holding Ernée, and […]

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Bomb ship’s dangerous masts are finally to be removed

Alastair — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 07:46:33 +0000

The government says that work to remove the three masts from the wreck of the SS Richard Montgomery in the Thames estuary will begin in early September. SS Richard Montgomery was a WW2 American Liberty ship that dragged her anchor while waiting to unload her cargo of munitions on 20 Aug 1944. She ended up […]

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Review: Imperial War Museum, London

Alastair — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 13:11:33 +0000

The Imperial War Museum (IWM) in Lambeth, South London is one of the world’s best known military museums, and the parent to four branches of Imperial War Museums: IWM North in Manchester, IWM Duxford near Cambridge, The Churchill War Rooms in Westminster, and HMS Belfast on the Thames. It was originally formed in 1917, a […]

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Will USS Kidd be playing Greyhound again?

Alastair — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 14:54:01 +0000

Tom Hanks’ successful war movie Greyhound (2020), shot principally on the WW2 Fletcher-class destroyer USS Kidd, now a museum ship in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is to have a sequel. The movie industry news media are talking about ‘Greyhound 2’ although very little has been confirmed. We know that Hanks will once again play Commander Ernst […]

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Dynamo Museum Dunkirk, revisited

Alastair — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 16:11:57 +0000

Operation Dynamo was the name given to the hurried extraction of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), plus allies (mostly French), from the beach at Dunkirk (Dunkerque) in May/June 1940. The Musée Dunkerque 1940 is located in Bastion 32, the headquarters for the French and Allied forces during the Battle of Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo. This […]

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CNN Films to broadcast “Why We Dream” documentary about veterans returning to Normandy

Alastair — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 18:21:03 +0000

CNN Films has acquired the documentary feature Why We Dream, which follows a group of centenarian WWII veterans as they make a pilgrimage to Normandy, France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Directed by Meredith Danluck and produced by Delta Air Lines’ Window Seat Studios, in partnership with Pulse Films, the film will premiere in […]

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The Rotabuggy

Alastair — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 15:53:40 +0000

Designed in 1943 by Austrian aeronautical engineer, Raoul Hafner, for the British Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment (AFEE), the Hafner Rotabuggy was a standard Willey’s Jeep converted into an autogyro*. What is an autogyro? Well, like a helicopter it has rotor blades, but unlike a helicopter they are not powered. The blades autorotate with forward motion, […]

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The Airborne Museum, Sainte-Mère-Église – Updated

Alastair — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 14:46:59 +0000

The Airborne Museum at Sainte-Mère-Église is considered a ‘must see’ for those touring Normandy, and it’s usually one of the first or last stops on a tour of the Normandy beaches because it’s out there on the western flank, which is exactly why the US airborne forces set out to capture it on the night […]

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The Dives River Bridge Memorials, Normandy

Alastair — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 15:28:40 +0000

The five bridges over the river Dives marked for destruction by Allied airborne forces on the night of 6 June 1944 are rarely visited these days, but they were crucial to securing the eastern flank of the D-Day landings. So it’s definitely worth exploring the area to get an understanding of the dangers faced in […]

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