Summer Interns Bringing Veterans Into Focus
- At July 26, 2018
- By Heather
- In Veterans
0
There is much work to be done in transcribing and translating the interviews we’ve accumulated, and we couldn’t do it without an battalion of volunteers and student interns which becomes a veritable army over the summer. First of all, I’d like to thank all our interns for their tremendous investments of time, energy, and love into helping us preserve these stories for all time.
Secondly, I’d like to acknowledge them for the outstanding work they’ve done behind the scenes and for your reading pleasure.
Please check out their work here:
Jeff Ballard filmed, transcribed, and summarized USN veteran Robert Nate’s story here: Torpedo Junction, New Georgia, Mindoro and Iwo Jima
Zoe Hume transcribed and profiled some of our most exciting veterans’ stories: Joe Glass – The Devil’s Brigade and Wing Commander Ken Wallis – Wellington Bomber Pilot and Autogyro Inventor
Mike Fink has taken an interest in our naval aviators, and brought George Naff’s story not only to our website, but to the volunteers at the USS Intrepid as well: George Naff – Hellcat Pilot VF-18 – USS Intrepid – Four Victories
We have many more volunteers who transcribe and translate behind the scenes on an ongoing basis, and as an all-volunteer organization, we rely tremendously upon them. If you’d like to be one of them, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info at ww2historyproject.org.
Graham and Charley Update – June 2018
- At June 19, 2018
- By Heather
- In Writing
- 0
Thanks to so many of our generous donors, we were able to bring C
harley and Graham back 
together in England at the end of May at both Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery and Armougeddon Tank Museum in Leicestershire, England. Although Graham did not feel well enough to accompany us on our further travels to Normandy, Charley and I were warmly welcomed attended the Sherwood Ranger’s Tank Regiment’s ceremonies at Gold Beach on June 6, and the Bayeux Museum de la Bataille de Normandie on June 7. Unfortunately, no other WWII veterans were in attendance.
Please stay tuned for the mini-documentary, which we’ll start putting together soon.
Update
- At May 01, 2018
- By Heather
- In Crowdfunding
- 0
Update
The details:
To 5/1/18: Our crowdfunding campaign has brought in $3,500 through our IndieGoGo site (now closed) and direct PayPal donations. A very warm thank you to all our donors, especially World of Tanks player Sofilein, who brought in $1,300!! And the Sherwood Rangers, who donated an additional $300. And although this is not enough to pay for a videographer to accompany us to England and France, it is enough to bring Charley and Graham together again in England, and with a LIBOR grant (1,450 pounds) from the British government, on to France. In total we have accumulated: $5,624.
We appreciate your support!
Live Tomorrow March 17, 2018
Our crowdfunding campaign for Graham and Charley goes live tomorrow, don’t miss getting the following perks:
- autographed photo postcards,
- tank books autographed by the authors,
- tank museum tours in the US and the UK,
- tank driving opportunities in the US and the UK,
- a chance at more personalized opportunities to meet the veterans, once you donate at the $50 level.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/former-enemies-best-friends-friendship-peace/coming_soon
The Last of the Desert Warriors
The Last of the Desert Warriors
75 years after fighting each other in Africa
Two former enemies from World War II share deep bonds of friendship
In late March 1943, Allied and Axis forced prepared for one of the fiercest battles of the World War II African campaign near Mareth, Tunisia. It was here, where after four months on the run, Rommel’s Africa Corps took one of its last stands. Enclosed on one side by rocky, hilly terrain and the Mediterranean on the other, capturing Mareth proved a difficult proposition for the British Eighth Army.
In order to outflank the Axis forces, the British 8th Armored Brigade, along with New Zealand infantry swung southwest and then north through an inland mountain pass to attack the Axis troops from behind.
They ran into the German 21st Panzer Division.  Karl Friedrich “Charley†Koenig, only newly arrived in Tunisia as a 19-year-old officer candidate, waited for his first combat as a loader in a Panzer IV long-barreled tank of the 5th Panzer Regiment.
Across the hardscrabble Matmata hills, Sherman tanks of the Sherwood Ranger Yeomanry Tank Regiment readied themselves for the attack. In one sat machine gunner and co-driver Graham Stevenson. Graham had fought at the battle at El Alamein and bailed out of a tank as a 17-year-old. Taking part in the hard fighting all along the way from Alamein through Tunisia, he had just barely reached the tender age of 18.
On March 23rd, 5th Panzer Regiment and the Sherwood Rangers tanks stalked one another and engaged in individual tank battles. Shells whistled loudly by Charley’s tank, his experienced commander advising calm. Their Panzer IV would not be knocked out on this day, but it would not be long.
The next day, a radio signal warned the Germans of an incoming RAF Hurricane IID tank buster attack. Scrambling out of their panzer, Charley’s crew moved side-to-side as Hurricanes swept in from all directions at nearly zero altitude firing their powerful 40-millimeter cannon.
An accurate Hurricane pilot hit the rear of the tank, shortly before a lone British artillery shell, fired out of the blue, made a direct hit on their rear deck. A half-track arrived in the night to tow them to the repair shop. Charley was now out of the way, while Graham and his crew took part in the Tebaga Gap battle on March 26th, the Shermans and the Maori infantry inflicting a severe mauling on the 21st Panzer.
General Freyberg, a New Zealander decorated with highest British medal for bravery for his exploits in World War I, and an experienced battle commander in World War II, watched the action from his front-line tank and declared the ensuing battle “a most awe inspiring spectacle of modem warfare”.
Graham survived, returned to England with the Sherwood Rangers to train in DD swimming tanks for the invasion of Normandy. Due to a slight disagreement with a commanding officer that landed him in the guardhouse, he came in on Gold Beach a bit later than his Sherwood Ranger comrades.
In his first day of hedgerow fighting, untested and frightened infantrymen escorting his tank fled under fire, leaving Graham and his tank commander to conduct their own reconnaissance. Just steps outside of his tank, Graham was hit and nearly killed by German machine gun fire. As an artery bled out, his life hung on a thread. Luckily, a nearby aid station saved his life. But his war ended there.
Charley’s had ended in May, 1943, when he was taken prisoner by the Americans and transported to camps in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Belgium, and England before returning home in 1947. Even decades later, he could never forget the war in Africa, and his honorable opponents.
In 1991, he sought out the Sherwood Rangers and found Ken Ewing, head of the southern branch of the Sherwood Rangers Old Comrades’ Association. It wasn’t long before they became like brothers. After Charley attended ceremonies for the regiment in Normandy and Holland, he was invited in as a member of the Association, where he was accepted wholeheartedly by the remaining British World War II veterans, including Graham, who was in the same tank crew with Ken.
Now Graham and Charley are the only members of Sherwood Rangers Old Comrades’ Association left alive who fought in Africa 75 years ago. Their friendship, which has transcended the brutality of war to reveal that mutual respect, healing, and reconciliation can exist between former enemies, sends a powerful message to future generations.
The World War II History Project is launching a crowdfunding campaign to bring Graham and Charley back together one more time this summer in England then in Normandy for the 75th anniversary of their fight in the desert. It can be found here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/former-enemies-best-friends-friendship-peace/coming_soon#/
