War Research "Geoffrey Ward"

My next piece of research will be centred around the person that started off this whole project which is Geoffrey Ward, the Grandad I never met. I will yet again expand on my notes and facts through historic research to build up a story, which will then feed into my final piece.

The North African Campaign
www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-north-africa-campaign.htm

I know that my Grandad's story was centred in the North African campaign and was based in places such as Alexandria, Egypt, Palestine and Libya before moving on to Italy.

The North African campaign was all about the strategic British control over the Suez Canal which provided them with Britain's over seas allies and access to Middle Eastern oil which was essential to power a modern army of the time.

Britain's main base was located in Alexandria, Egypt where they divided the responsibility with the French to maintain the naval control of the Mediterranean, but there was a wild card amongst this predicament. Italy had remained neutral through out the invasion of Poland in 1939 where Britain had declared war on Germany in response, but when Germany invaded France, Benito Mussolini could not resist the spoils and sided with Germany by declaring war on Britain and France only six days after the British evacuation of Dunkirk, from there the control of the Suez Canal became vital in WW2.

As I read through this research, I notice that just after the threat of a German invasion eased after the battle of Britain, Egypt was reinforced with 126,000 commonwealth troops by October 1940, I would imagine this is when my Grandad joined the fight for North Africa.

As the control for the control hung in the balance between the Britain and Italy, it was these extra reinforcements that drove out the Italian forces out of Egypt although Germany wasn't going to let this go unnoticed. Two German divisions were sent across to reinforce the Italian troops which became known as the Afrika Korps led by a General Erwin Rommel who was also known as the Desert Fox.

From there on it was case of attacks and counter attacks across the North Africans baron environments for this strategic control over North Africa.

The fights consisted of large artillery baterons and tank divisions which would tie into my Grandad's role that he played during this time.

Montgomerys 8th Army & The Battle of El Alamein
www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/ff5_second_alamein.shtml

Although General Claude Auchinleck had stopped Rommel in his tracks in previous battles, Churchill was becoming increasingly impatient in the progress of the campaign, so in stepped a General Bernard Montgomery (who was famous for his berry) took command of the 8th Army where he restructured and unified the army and brought his bold fighting talk along with him to boost the allies moral.

The struggle continued as Rommel unleashed further attacks against the 8th Army which were fought off by the now unified 8th Army. Rommel knew a counter attack was imminent but Monty bided his time as he knew further reinforces were inbound.

The planning for the this famous battle was set in two stages. The first, was called Operation Lightfoot, which consisted of heavy artillery bombardments followed by attacks by the infantry to open up the Afrika Korps minefield, which were known as the Devils Garden. The Bombardments started on the night of the 23 of October.

The second phase started which was known as Operation Supercharge where allied forces cleared the way for the armoured divisions to break down Rommel's all ready depleted army.

Hitler ordered Rommel to stand and die but Rommel had already retreated. At midday on the 4th of November, Rommel's last defences caved in and was finally given the order to withdraw.

The Battle of El Alamein was a turning point in not only the North African Campaign but, the whole war which marked the end of this long desert war campaign. Churchill named it as "The End of the Beginning", which would be a nice quote to use in my journal.

Wow! That was a fascinating piece of research, I feel like I have made some connections to the campaign and my Grandad, especially with the battle of El Alamein. I have also got a few ideas for further visuals. I have managed to obtain a soldiers berry which would make a perfect visual to go along side a photo of Monty.

Italy Salerno to Naples "Operation Avalanche"
ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=307

After the defeat of the Germans and Italians in the North African Campaign, my Grandad moved with the war into Salerno, Italy which I can only presume was a part of Operation Avalanche which was a massive mainland invasion in Italy. My notes indicate that my Grandad was in Salerno, before moving up the coast to Naples.

Prior to this, there was two other operations that led up to the main invasion which were known as Operation Baytown and Operation Slapstick which were all apart of a yet another strategic plan to divert attention from the main landings in Salerno. I can only presume that my Grandad was still apart of Monty's division.

The whole operation was over within a month (3rd Sep - 17 Sep 1943) which lead to the whole southern portion of Italy being captured by the allies as the Germans and remaining pro Mussolini's forces retreated north. I say pro Mussolini's  because there had been a signing of armistice between Marshal Badoglio and General Eisenhower.

Monte Cassino
www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/battle_cassino_01.shtml

My Uncle mentioned that my Grandad may have been part of the battle of Monte Cassino but wasn't absolutely certain. I found a little research that indicate that he may well have been.

In the winter of 1943-44 the allies keep pushing up north into Italy, along that route was a small town of Monte Cassino which was crowned by an ancient Benedictine Monastery, which was occupied by German resistance. The first battle dragged on well into February before the second started on the 15th of February.  The allies levelled this ancient monastery which proved to be controversial. Although levelled, the ruins still was occupied by determined Germans who would stop at nothing to defend this mountainous point. It wasn't until May when the allies brought their full might by moving the 8th army to join the cause.

This last piece of information could well indicate that my Grandad witnessed the latter end of the infamous battle.

This is far as my Grandad's story can go. There's various other pieces of research that i will be using from my written journal to go in as well but, what a absolutely fascinating journey this has been and If only I had more time because I could have done much more research, but there's a deadline to meet and a project to finish. It's time to look at all this information on a whole (all of these stories) and condense them into one nice soldiers journal.

War Research "Trevor White"

During this project, I feel honoured that i was given the opportunity to interview a former Veteran known as a Mr Trevor White, we sat down for hours talking about his experiences of World War 2. Expanding on my journal notes, Trevor's first experience was during the D-Day landings in Normandy France, so it was only natural that I started this route of research with this massive operation which marked the beginning of the end of WW2.

The Royal Signals

Although I'm sure that Trevor said his role in the war was as a signals operator, he did mention how his story was unique because was dotted around through out the war. None the less, I thought it would still be important to see what the signals roles, actually were. 

www.forces-war-records.co.uk/units/488/royal-corps-of-signals/

The most important key word here is communication. The signals were responsible for communication in the battlefields which was very important. They were responsible for setting up as well as taking down communication infrastructure to provide the necessary support on the battle field.

D-Day Operation Overlord

www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zgvyyrd

The D-Day landings was a intricate invasion plan to break through the heavily fortified defences across the beaches of France which involved thousands upon thousands of men from across all of the allies, plus one massive Armada which consisted of every land, air and sea vehicle that you could imagine.

Here is a graphic representation of the amount of vehicles that where apart of this huge invasion force. I couldn't even imagine what It would have been like to seen this for real, never mind being part of it like Trevor would have been.

Among these vehicles was ingenious inventions that aided the assault such as mine sweeping tanks and boats, amphibious tanks and even a man made harbour which would enable the allies to continually flood supplies into France. 

Even though the amphibious tanks were tested, a lot of them sunk into the sea because of the rough seas and the fact they were easy targets for the German Defences. 

Many tanks were adapted in many different ways to do a certain job such as bridge building, to mine sweeping which were all part on the meticulous planning of the D-Day landings.

One of the most famous inventions from the D-Day landings was the man made harbours which were known as the Mulberry Harbours. The allies knew that the Germans would destroy all the harbours to prevent further reinforcements, so the to resolve this, two pre fabricated harbours were brought over and assembled on Omaha and gold beaches. This was considered one of the most amazing engineering triumphs in history!

Planning

Everything was planned, right down to every last detail. A meteorological team where tasked to monitor the weather and predict the best possible opportunity for the invasion. Dress rehearsals took place using live ammunition and to confuse the Germans more, they used diversional tactics to make out the invasion was going to be in a different place, They did this by setting up an artificial army which consisted of inflatable tanks, dummy paratroopers and other means. 

Among all these stories, opens up many more but I have to stay focused on one particular one which is Trevor's.

The D-day Landings

www.dday-overlord.com/eng/sword_beach.htm

It was on June the 6th 1944 when the invasion begun. The allies where tasked to capture 4 beaches along the Normandy coast which were named as Utah and Omaha (American troops) Juno (Canadians) Gold and Sword (British) as well as other countries being part of the invasion such as French and Polish forces.  Trevor was among these forces 12 days in to the invasion and was apart of the signals whose roles were centred around communications which was very important.

Although the D-day landings marked the beginning of the end of the war which were also a triumph of engineering and achieved the objectives, the price came at the cost of many lives which amounted to over 425,000 Allied and German troops that were either killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy.

Figures sourced from: www.ddaymuseum.co.uk

Other Places

Trevor also talked about the various other areas of his WW2 history in places such as Oldenburg, Aurich, Belsen and even went on to places such as Egypt, Yemen which were stops along the way to Burma. I though it would also be a good idea to find out a little more about these places to build up a better picture of Trevor's Story. 

The Battle of the Bulge

www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_the_bulge.htm

Trevor vaguely mentioned about his experience of being surrounded and cut off by the enemy in the Battle of the Bulge, so with this small piece of information I thought it would be a good idea to look in to this further to gain a better understanding.

The Battle of the Bulge took place over the winter months of 1944-1945 which was the last major Nazi offensive against the allies. Hitler's objective was to create a huge bulge in the allies lines and cut them off. 

The Nazi's attack started came as a great surprise to the allies because they had received little intelligence that the attack was coming. English speaking German soldiers went undercover to cause havoc and the weather was in Hitlers favour.

Although the Nazis managed to puncture and cut off a huge amount of allies from the main task force, they couldn't capitalise because of the lack of resources such as food and fuel to keep the army going. In the end, the battle ended in another retreat because of the might of the allies overwhelmed them but as with any battle, a too higher price of casualties was paid for this last desperate attempt from the German war machine.

This ties in to Trevors story when he was explaining to me about being surrounded. I can't imagine the feelings that must have been going through his mind. Even more so because of his role in communications, I would imagine that people turned to him to communicate for help. 

From Aurich to Belsen

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3038505/Burning-huts-Hitler-flags-concentration-camp-victims-starved-death-Harrowing-pictures-Belsen-released-70-years-liberation.html

I'm struggling to find information on certain palaces but I knew he was based in Aurich which is were he was based were he went from to a place which he experienced first hand, the true horrors of what WW2 brought upon the Jewish. 

Belsen was the first concentration camp which was liberated by the British and Canadian on the 15th of April 1945. The camp acted as a means to hold and murder thousands upon thousands of innocent Jewish people. 

Around 50,000 innocent victims fell to this atrocity, which also included the tragic story of Anne Frank. After burying the dead and helping the remaining victims, the allies burn the camp to the ground to mark the end of the suffering that went on inside this terrible camp. 

It's a horrible to think that men, women and even children weren't spared. Ann Frank was one of thousands of innocent children who lost their lives!

It's quite emotional to think that Trevor experienced this first hand and how he must have felt during this dark time in history.

Fond Memories

Trevor spoke to me of some of his fond memories of his weekends off at the Beaver club and a Mardi Gras in Holland. Believe me when I say, I have tried to find these places but I just can't pin point the real place.

As a visual for this, I feel I will have to use both my journal notes and my imagination to visualise these places. 

War Research "The Shipton Brothers"

The starting point of this new route of research came from one of my work colleagues know as Mike Bray. I'd previously worked with him on various work related projects within Autoworld. It was one particular day when I was working on this project were Mike asked what I was up to, after a long discussion, I asked if he had any stories that he wanted to share from within his family. Mike agreed to be involved and eventually came back with this poignant story about two distant relations who were brothers that both lost their lives in the First World War.

I was handed a variety of different materials (that I don't want to publish online because they are sensitive) that have given me a new route of research. You can view this information in my sketch book.

The Shipstone Brothers were born in Eastwood and both joined the great war. Percy Shipstone joined the 10th Battalion Cheshire Regiment (see cap badge below) but sadly died of his wounds in June 1917 aged 28. There is a piece of information stating hat he was shot in the back on the 7th June at Messiness Ridge before he died back at the field hospital on June the 23rd.

The Battle of Messiness Ridge
www.firstworldwar.com/battles/messines.htm

According to this piece of research, on June the 7th ( the day Percy was injured) the allies detonated explosives in 22 mine shafts that laid beneath the German lines before a major infantry assault was launched, I can only presume that Percy was among those troops where he sadly fell to those injuries.

Leonard Shipstone served in the 402nd Battery Royal Field Artillery (see cap badge below), he was injured in France on 26th April but, later died from his injuries in May 1917 aged just 21. The piece of writing doesn't go into much detail of which battles Leonard fought in except one, which was most likely (but uncertain) that he fought in the battle for Vimy Ridge as his unit was attached to the Canadian Army.

The Battle of Vimy Ridge took place on Easter Monday (9th of April) and was part of a offensive to draw the Germans attention from another offensive from the French.  The assault was classed as a success but came at a heavy cost of thousands of lives. These dates fit but I still can't be 100% sure.

Image from library & Archives Canada

The two Brothers are both buried near one and other at the Etaples Military Cemetery in Northern France. Gosh! what sight, you cannot comprehend the vast scale of these war graves, they look immaculate.

Staples Military Cemetery
www.cwgc.org

After further research, I discovered that during the First World War, this area around Etaples was full of camps and field hospitals. The cemetery contains 10,771 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and over 100 burials from the Second World War. The graves look as if they are lined up like Soldiers in lined formation. These stories and images have confirmed a possible idea that I'd previously sketched out in my sketchbook earlier today. I had this idea which was inspired by Stephan Sagmeister to see type as something different. I'm imagining my logo type placed in rows, just like these memorials,  to spell out the underlining message I'm trying to communicate.

Although this was a brief piece of research, it's been one that has generated a powerful piece of content. I will have to include the Shipstone Brothers and pay tribute to their lives with the families permission.

War Research "William Taylor"

Expanding on my notes from my journal which were gathered from discussions with my uncle, I have decided to look further into the history of what my Great Grandad was part of. The facts that I have are sparse but I feel I just have enough to flesh his story out using research and archive imagery as well as my own which is important.

I do know that my Great Grand dad joined up for to support the war effort at the age of just 14. After carrying out research I found out that as many as 250.000 boys were under the age of 18 during WW1. As it stood, boys under the age of 19 weren't allowed to fight but were able to join the cause to carry out other roles. For  William, he started out looking after the war horses before being posted to the RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps) where he acted as a stretcher bearer. Although they law forbid them to fight, some under age soldiers fought because of the desperate situation the British army faced. I wonder if William was one of those boys? 

I found some interesting facts as to why some of these underage soldiers made it onto the battlefield.

• Recruitment officers were paid two shillings and sixpence for each new army recruit, and would often ignore any concerns they had about age.

• Many people at the start of the 20th Century didn't have birth certificates, so it was easy to lie about how old you were.

• The minimum height requirement was 5ft 3in (1.60m), with a minimum chest size of 34in (0.86m). If you met these criteria you were likely to be recruited.

• Some young boys were scared of being called a coward and could not resist the pressure from society.

Information and images taken from:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29934965

The image below is the cap badge of the Royal Army Medical Corps which I have managed to obtain a more than likely replacer.

The Battle of the Somme: 1 July - 13 November 1916
www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/battle_somme.shtml

One fact that I do know is that William (My Great Grand dad) carried out his stretcher bearing duties during the Battle of the Somme and Ypres.

The Battle of the Somme was a planned attack on a 23 mile front shared between the British and the French. The first stage was to bombard the German strongholds which ended up being a massive 1.6 million shells! After the reign of fire, British commanders were so confident, that they ordered a slow march to the German front. What followed, can only be described as slaughter, the germans were that well dug in that the shelling didn't have a real impact. They cut down the British a armies which ended in a loss of 20.000 lives ad 40.000 casualties on the very first day!

Over the months, the battle became stale mate as neither side gained any significant ground.

The Somme was also the first time where tanks were used but they proved ineffective because of the torrential rains that turned the churned up fields into swamps and due to mechanical failure

The Somme was also the first time where the Many Pals Battalions were introduced which was a when a group of friends who were local to one another joined up together. This was a tragedy because small communities lost a whole generation of friends.

When the battle came to an end, the British had only gained a mere five miles of ground which came at a cost of around 420,000 casualties. The battle which was intended to be a decisive break through turned into one of Britain's darkest battles of all time.

What saddens me, is that young William was amongst this terrible tragedy, I can't imagine what he was feeling on that very first day of battle where he would have had to carry the injured and dead back and forth, It's sad to think of the horrors he must have saw.

I stumbled across a famous poem by Pte Tommy Crawford which is called "The Stretcher Bearer" I thought it was a fitting piece of writing which expresses his feelings and experience of being a Stretcher Bearer on the front.

The Stretcher Bearer

My stretcher is one scarlet stain,
And as I tries to scrape it clean,
I tell you what – I’m sick of pain,
For all I’ve heard, for all I’ve seen;
Around me is the hellish night,
And as the war’s red rim I trace,
I wonder if in Heaven’s height
Our God don’t turn away his face.

I don’t care whose the crime may be,
I hold no brief for kin or clan;
I feel no hate, I only see
As man destroys his brother man;
I wave no flag, I only know
As here beside the dead I wait,
A million hearts are weighed with woe,
A million homes are desolate.

In dripping darkness far and near,
All night I’ve sought those woeful ones.
Dawn suddens up and still I hear
The crimson chorus of the guns.
Look, like a ball of blood the sun
Hangs o’er the scene of wrath and wrong,
“Quick! Stretcher-bearers on the run!”,
Oh Prince of Peace! How long, how long?”

Tommy Crawford, Somme, 1916
www.firstworldwarcentenary.co.uk/pte-tommy-crawford-stretcher-bearer/

Just like Tommy, William was one of the very few to survive the Somme even though the odds were against both of them because the life expectancy for their role was just a day and a half!

The Third Battle of Ypres

As well as The Somme, to my uncles understanding my Great Grand Dad was involved in the Battle of Ypres which was infamous for both it's large scale casualties and it's mud.

This image pretty much sums up what the conditions soldiers and William faced. The churned up mud's were a result of the millions of shells that were used, combined with the heavy rains that fell upon them. 

I have an actual quote from my uncle that was told to him by William himself. He said that he was "Knee Deep In Mud" William Taylor  This quote is poignant and fits in from what you can see in this image below. 

This has been both an emotional and interesting piece of research. I feel I have enough information here to flesh out Williams story. I can see a journal building in my minds eye which will hold all this content and inform my planned video. I can see that poem finding place within this project (As long as I reference it), but most of all, I can see that quote "Knee Deep In Mud" playing an important role sum how.

Stephan Sagmeister

What a find, I'm so happy that some one pointed me to this amazing graphics designer because Stephan's approach feels both fresh and exciting, which has managed to spark my imagination as I write.

www.sagmeisterwalsh.com/work/

Let me start with his website home page, Stephan seems too have a tendency to create his typography for real and in this case, he has used a birds eye view of this studio shows them was being transparent about who they are and what they do as design team, as well as bringing that quirky factor. They do say first impressions count and this is proof. 

Advert for Standard Charted Bank By Stephan Sagmeister

When I said that Stephan and his design company make their graphics for real, I meant that they actually set up type and photograph it in places that tie in with the message, instead of your typical photoshop techniques that are favoured by many designers these days because of time and costs. 

Although there were many still imagery that interested me, the thing that caught my attention was this advert which was created for Standard Charted. 

It's full of moving graphic messages that have been created for real which highlight important key words that are being said in the voice over. Below are some examples of this graphic process to film advertisement.

I like how he uses people to spell this word out. It looks quite a simple process to imitate but when you think about it there has been a lot of thought in to this. The lighting would have to have been just right so that the actors become silhouettes, there the perfectly timed positioning of the actors so they spell out the word a t the right time. There is clearly more than meets the eye with this part of the advert

This image is a perfect example of how far you could take graphics design with film, The thought of making kites in to type seems crazy, but it works. I'm really liking the scope of this process

This part of the advert stood out to me the most for two reasons. The first reason was because of the timing of the narration with each finger revealing the key phrase "Depends on each person", however   the main thing that interested me was how it was visualised. When I look at the phrase, I think of diversity in people, meaning everyone is different. It's clever how they have used someones hand which is diverse in culture. To put it simply, this tells me that this bank is for everyone no matter what culture, religion etc you come from, which intern connects with a much wider audience

I don't really get this last image but, what I do get from it is a warming feeling which leaves me feeling positive about the company.

Wow Stephan's work is a real inspiration of what graphics can be and how film can take type up onto another level. Time may be a issue but I have to use this idea and process of creating type to sit in the real world. It may be time-consuming but I'm sure it will be worth it but the question now is how could this tie into "Write Down Their Stories" , may be a look back in my journal will help?