Free Republic

A wildfire that broke out at Britain’s North York Moors National Park has burned for weeks, reaching a ground layer containing unexploded ordnance from World War II. The Langdale Moor fire started on Aug. 11, the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said. Crews from the North Yorkshire service and other local firefighting departments were still fighting the blaze Thursday.The fire is affecting an area of almost 10 square miles according to the BBC, and is fueled by wind, vegetation and now peat. The peat layer also contains decades-old unexploded bombs and other ordnance from World War II.“As the peat...

It was the plane that pilots 'put on' rather than flew; the beautiful beast that left even the Germans waxing lyrical. If you ask people today what typified British defiance the most in the Second World War, many of them will tell you it was the Spitfire. So when I got the chance to take to the skies in one - and even briefly take control - on a sunny morning in March, I knew that this would be the experience of a lifetime. Today, as Britain marks the 80th anniversary of VE Day, we are rightly remembering the men...

As a small child Anthony Hendrie lived through the horrors of the Blitz in his home in Chatham, England He remembers cowering under a Morrison shelter when the family did not have time to get to the basement. As China rises and flexes its muscles, it is crucial that we remember the lessons of WW2.

He arguably did more than any other artist to raise morale during the dark days of the Second World War. But Noel Coward secretly longed for Nazi bombers to attack Hollywood because he was furious at the failure of fellow British stars in Los Angeles to rally to the country’s aid during the Blitz. In an angry letter to the novelist and dramatist Clemence Dane, which is among a cache of papers being sold at auction, the playwright and composer said longed for the ‘happy and beautiful’ bombing raid.