David Lowther's Blog

Four months ago, politicians, families, veterans and many others assembled in Normandy to remember the Allied invasion of Northern France eighty years previously, codenamed Operation Overlord. Yet a little over two months later Allied forces were landing in Southern France … Continue reading →

Britain and France declare war on Germany. September 3rd 1939 There are a dwindling number of survivors of that terrible day in 1939 when Britain and France declared war on Germany. Legend has it that Hitler was expecting Britain and … Continue reading →

The Natzweiler-Struthof Concentration Camp was located in the Vosges Mountains of Eastern France. It was opened in May 1941 and was the only Nazi Concentration Camp on French soil. However, during the Second World War when it was operational as … Continue reading →

The London Auxiliary Ambulance Service (LAAS) played a crucial role in Civil Defence in the Second World War, not more than other sections nor less but absolutely vital. This post is focused on London but that’s not to say that … Continue reading →

Eighty years on from the launch of Operation Overlord, the cross-channel invasion of Normandy which hastened the end of the Second World War, it seems appropriate to take a brief look at the part played in this monumental event by … Continue reading →

’Set Europe Ablaze’ were Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s orders when the Special Operations Executive was established to begin work on June 13th 1940. The brief for these extraordinary brave men and women was to carry out very dangerous missions in … Continue reading →

My latest novel ORDINARY HEROES is the fourth novel I’ve written set before and during the Second World War. Each covered a different aspect of the conflict from pre-war appeasement (The Blue Pencil) to crime in the London blitz (Two … Continue reading →

The Invasion of Sicily. July 1943 – August 1944 A bit like General MacAthur who promised the Japanese that he would return when US forces were booted off the Philippines the year before, Allied troops made their return to European … Continue reading →

The London Blitz was not the first mass attack on civilians and other targets from the air nor was it the first such atrocity. The Japanese had bombed Manchuria in the early 1930s, the German Condor Legion had attached the … Continue reading →

The Phoney War had come to an end when the Germans invaded Norway and Denmark in April 1940. The chief characters of my novel ORDINARY HEROES, Esther and George and George’s friend Joe, were shaken by this as they began … Continue reading →