Midhurst WW2 Memoirs
Cód:
491_9780648171317
A region of picturesque and sylvan beauty that I have never seen equalled.’ - Benjamin Disraeli. 1870. By British standards, Midhurst in West Sussex, was always a sleepy town, becoming that way due to its enviable geographical position in the midst of the award winning rural countryside of the South Downs National Park.WW2 activity filled it to capacity with troops from Canada, USA and those European Countries over-run by Hitler. To make matters even more onerous for its sleepy residents, hundreds of child evacuees were sent there from London to be safe from the bombing blitz on London by mad-man Hitler’s Air Force. Every school and run-down living space was pressed beyond capacity.The Commando, led by Lord Lovat, had an HQ there to develop its raids into German held territories. The Royal Navy hid a small 'secret' airfield in the Cowdray Estate. Special Operations Executive agents were accommodated there before they were flown into and out of Europe.In the 30s, before the war began, the German Ambassador, Von Ribbentrop, often visited there once telling it around that he would soon be the King of Cornwall, and that Hitler already had his eye on a local Midhurst District estate to be his English home when they invaded. Such forgotten stories are many.This series of books uses the author's childhood formative experiences, there as an evacuee from London, as the story-line on which are stacked many back stories of the Midhurst District’s life and times.In readiness for appreciating the war time memoirs that follow, this first book delves into the Midhurst Rural District area’s 1000-year-old history.Having a colourful family history with bare fist pugilist boxers on one branch and landed West Country Gentry in the other it seemed to be of interest to overview that family history of the writer.Midhurst has been given many awards and gained numerous testimonials as to its welcoming aura as ’a place to be’. How it escap
Veja mais
