Evans Battlefield Tours

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Evans Battlefield Tours My Battlefield tour has a personal touch with both the wide picture but the on the ground soldiers view
The tours visit key sites and museums

British soldier Sergeant William Knapp, photographed with his uniform and equipment during the Crimean War, 🇬🇧🇬🇧1855.
03/07/2025

British soldier Sergeant William Knapp, photographed with his uniform and equipment during the Crimean War, 🇬🇧🇬🇧1855.

A little known story of Operation Harpoon between the 11th and 14th May 1940.How Dutch Queen and her entire cabinet were...
02/07/2025

A little known story of Operation Harpoon between the 11th and 14th May 1940.
How Dutch Queen and her entire cabinet were rescued.
When Hi**er invaded France and the Low Countries in May 1940, Holland thought as it did in WW1 remain neutral.
But the Germans bombed the Dutch capital and began dropping paratroopers.
On May 11th 1940’a plan and a force were hurriedly put together.
Lt Colonel Hayden of an under strength battalion of Irish guards plus a company from the Welsh Guards were sent to Dover a total of 651 men all lightly armed . They left on 2 cross channel ferries with an es**rt of Royal Navy destroyers to sail overnight to The Hague in Holland and rescue Queen
Wiilamena and the entire Dutch cabinet/government and a whole group of British diplomats . All desperate to escape the advancing Germans.
The force of guardsmen had formed a perimeter around the port and suffered numerous air attacks and latterly direct fire from advancing German troops.
On the 13th the Queen arrived and was safely evacuated but the guardsmen had to hold on and await the arrival of the diplomats. Finally that evening they all escaped onto awaiting British destroyers getting back to Dover on the 14th May at 10pm just before the evacuation began from Dunkirk.
The cost was 7 dead Irish and Welsh guards and 23 wounded.
The Dutch royal family became a rallying point for all free Dutch to go onto re invade their homeland in 1944.

The World’s Largest Floating Dry Dock Was Towed Across the Atlantic to Bermuda in 1869🇬🇧When Britain needed a solution f...
02/07/2025

The World’s Largest Floating Dry Dock Was Towed Across the Atlantic to Bermuda in 1869🇬🇧

When Britain needed a solution for ship repairs in the Atlantic, engineers in the 1860s built the largest floating dry dock ever attempted, a 380-foot iron structure weighing over 8,000 tons.

Constructed near Woolwich on the Thames, the dock was designed to lift 10,000-ton ironclads like HMS Warrior and withstand the fouling threats of Bermuda’s warm waters.

Unable to build a conventional dry dock due to porous sandstone, the British opted for mobility and scale, creating a self-contained U-shaped platform that could sink and raise vessels from the sea with ballast compartments and powerful pumps.

In June 1869, this massive dock embarked on a nearly 4,000-nautical-mile journey to Bermuda, towed in stages by Britain’s heaviest ironclads—Agincourt, Northumberland, Warrior, and Black Prince—assisted by HMS Terrible.

With closed ends to reduce drag and a sail rigged inside to capture tailwinds, the voyage reached speeds of over 6 knots.

Once in service, it supported Royal Navy operations for over thirty years before being replaced in 1906.🇬🇧

Those of you who have seen the iconic movie the Piano.Wilhelm Hosenfeld was a German officer whose actions during World ...
29/06/2025

Those of you who have seen the iconic movie the Piano.
Wilhelm Hosenfeld was a German officer whose actions during World War II were in strong contrast to the regime he served. He was born in 1895 into a patriotic and pious Catholic German family. After participating in World War I, he became a teacher. At the age of 43, Hosenfeld, now married and father of five, was drafted to the Wehrmacht in late August 1939. He was stationed in Poland, from July 1940 in Warsaw, where he spent most of the war as a sports and cultural officer and attained the rank of captain.
Although Hosenfeld joined the N**i party in 1935, he was quickly disillusioned by the regime and the crimes against Poles and Jews he witnessed. He kept diaries, which he regularly sent home, expressing his growing disgust for the regime's repression, the persecution of the Polish priesthood and "The Final Solution". After seeing the fight down of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943, he wrote: "... these animals. With horrific mass slaughtering of the Jews we have lost this war. We have brought an eternal curse upon ourselves and will forever be covered in shame.. we all have our share of guilt".
Hosenfeld's disgust was not only expressed in words; he actively helped the victims. He provided a false identity and work for Leon Warm, who had fled a train transport to Treblinka. His most famous rescue was immortalized in the movie "The Piano Man". In November 1944, he found Wladyslaw Szpilman, hiding alone in the ruins of destroyed Warsaw after the Polish uprising. Hosenfeld helped Szpilman survive the last critical weeks before liberation.
Hosenfeld's life after the war took a tragic turn. He was taken prisoner by Soviet forces in January 1945. Five years later, the 7th. May 1950, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a military court in Minsk. According to the one-sided dismissal, the trial was conducted without the presence of a defense. The indictment stated that Hosenfeld had personally interrogated prisoners during the Warsaw uprising and sent them into custody, thereby strengthening fascism in the fight against the Soviet Union. The news of his fate reached the survivors after a Polish priest in the prison camp found Leon Warm. Warm then wrote a letter to Wladyslaw Szpilman. Wilhelm Hosenfeld died in a Soviet prison in 1952.
The recognition of his deeds only came decades later. In 1998, Wladyslaw Szpilman applied for Yad Vashem to have his rescuer recognized. Before Yad Vashem's commission could award the title, it had to be confirmed that Hosenfeld had not been involved in war crimes. Yad Vashem received confirmation from the Polish Commission for Investigation of N**i Crimes that his behaviour was impeccable. Day 25. November 2008, Yad Vashem finally recognized Wilhelm Hosenfeld as Righteous among the Nations.

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Corporal Sidney Bates was born on the 14th of June 1921 in Camberwell, London, to a rag and bone man, Fredrick and his w...
29/06/2025

Corporal Sidney Bates was born on the 14th of June 1921 in Camberwell, London, to a rag and bone man, Fredrick and his wife Gladys May Bates. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for extraordinary bravery during World War II. Known as “Basher,” he served in the 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment, having joined the British Army in 1940.

Bates’s battalion landed in Normandy on D-Day, the 6th of June 1944, and participated in the battles for Caen, the subsequent Operation Goodwood, and Operation Bluecoat. On the 6th of August 1944, near Viessoix in German-occupied France, Bates’s section came under heavy attack from the 10th SS Panzer Division. Amid artillery and mortar fire, enemy infantry advanced behind Tiger tanks, forcing many British troops into cover.

With the enemy pushing forward and his section taking casualties, Bates grabbed a Bren gun and charged alone through a enemy fire. Despite being hit multiple times, he pressed on, firing and advancing, mortally wounded, he continued firing until his strength gave out. He was found only yards from a dead German soldier and died in hospital two days later, aged just 23.

His fearless counterattack inspired his company to fight back, helping to repel the German advance and stabilise the position. Bates’s actions earned him the Victoria Cross, awarded posthumously and announced in the London Gazette in November 1945.

He is buried in Bayeux War Cemetery, France. A memorial stands near the site of his final stand at Pavée Ridge, and a street in Norwich, Bates Green, bears his name. His Victoria Cross is held by the Royal Norfolk Regiment Museum, which acquired it in the 1980s. Bates’s courage remains a lasting symbol of self-sacrifice and heroism under fire. An incredible man who died to young.
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January 22nd, 1879 — Rorke’s Drift.A garrison of 150 stood against 4,000.When the sun rose, they were just men.By nightf...
23/06/2025

January 22nd, 1879 — Rorke’s Drift.
A garrison of 150 stood against 4,000.

When the sun rose, they were just men.
By nightfall, they were legends.

Wave after wave, the Zulu came—fierce, fearless, unrelenting.
The British held the line with rifles, bayonets, and sheer defiance.

They fought in the wards.
They fought in the courtyard.
They fought with their backs to the wall—and never gave in.

11 Victoria Crosses were awarded.
But none of them needed medals to prove their courage.

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One of “The Few”Pilot John Hugh Mortimer Ellis of No. 85 Squadron RAF - June 1940Born on 2 April 1919 he joined the RAF ...
21/06/2025

One of “The Few”
Pilot John Hugh Mortimer Ellis of No. 85 Squadron RAF - June 1940

Born on 2 April 1919 he joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve in September 1938 and had only just completed his elementary flying training before he was called to full-time service at the outbreak of WW2

On completion of further instruction he joined No. 85 Squadron in May 1940. Hugh always wore a little boomerang lucky mascot around his neck sent from Australia by his Aunt Stella to keep him safe. On 6 August 1940 he shared in the destruction of a Do17 and then on the 18th damaged a Me110 and also destroyed a Me109. His last credited success came during the mid-afternoon of the 26th, when he destroyed a Do17 over the Thames Estuary.

But on 29th August Hugh’s luck began to run out, while in combat over the Channel, his Hurricane caught fire; though he managed to glide back in order to bail out over land, his Hurricane Mk1 L1915 VY-B crashed at Ashburnham in East Sussex, and his lucky boomerang mascot was lost during the bail out.

Three days later, he was back in the air in Hurricane Mk1 P2673 VY-E, what exactly happened next to this brave man with the enormous smile remained a mystery for five decades. Hugh’s parents were told that their only son was missing in action, it was not until 1993 that the story was at last pieced together by historian Andy Saunders, Hugh’s cousin Peter Mortimer and Metropolitan Police coroner’s Officer Martin Gibbs

The confusion began on 1 September 1940 as enemy and RAF aircraft swarmed the skies SouthEast of London. A Hurricane was seen to peel off from the melee and begin a terrifying descent; as it approached the ground, one witness saw the pilot slumped over his controls, just before the plane drilled into the Kent soil of a farmer’s field at Chelsfield to the south of Orpington. Afterwards two separate body parts were recovered days apart and buried in two Unknown Airman’s' graves

It was 1992 before Mark Kirby found the remains of Hugh’s Hurricane and a subsequent archaeological dig at the site uncovered the cowling of a crashed Hurricane, and the exact identity of the pilot’s remains could be confirmed.

In 1993 the remains were formally identified, and Sgt. John Hugh Mortimer Ellis was buried at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey with full military honors
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In the aftermath of World War II, there was a severe housing shortage. Families coped by repurposing surplus assault gli...
21/06/2025

In the aftermath of World War II, there was a severe housing shortage. Families coped by repurposing surplus assault gliders as a temporary solution.

''The glider-home will feature three rooms: a 10 ft by 7 ft bedroom, a 15 ft by 7 ft living room, and an 8 ft by 7 ft kitchenette. If successful, more gliders may be converted by the builder. This innovative approach aims to provide affordable housing solutions amid shortages, allowing such homes to be constructed inexpensively on private land''.🇬🇧

Victoria Cross Recipient Squadron Leader Leonard Trent of the Royal New Zealand Air Force: Survivor of The Great EscapeL...
21/06/2025

Victoria Cross Recipient Squadron Leader Leonard Trent of the Royal New Zealand Air Force: Survivor of The Great Escape

Leonard Henry Trent was born on 14 April 1915 in Nelson, New Zealand. As a student at Nelson College, Leonard was destined to become a pilot. An avid golfer, Trent left his studies and pursued service with the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Leonard received his RNZAF flight training in Christchurch, gaining his wings on 12 May 1938. A month later he sailed for Britain to join the RAF.

According to the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography Database: "When war was declared in September 1939 Trent was in France as part of No 15 Squadron, and he flew high-level photo-reconnaissance missions over enemy territory. The squadron returned to England in December to begin flight training in heavier bombers. Six months of intensive training readied Trent for combat missions after Germany invaded the Low Countries and France in May and June 1940. In July Leonard Trent received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his outstanding contribution to the Battle of Flanders."

Promoted to Squadron Leader in June of 1942, Trent spent six months in Headquarters No 2 Group before assuming command of B Flight in No 487 (NZ) Squadron, equipped with Ventura bombers flown primarily by New Zealanders. He conducted many difficult raids on German targets in Holland during the last months of 1942 and the beginning of 1943."

"On the morning of 3 May 1943, 12 Lockheed Ventura crews of the 487 (New Zealand) Squadron were briefed for the raid - codenamed Ramrod 16 on the Papawerweg Power Station on the northern outskirts of Amsterdam. Squadron Leader Trent would later be honoured with the Victoria Cross for his actions that day."

During the operation Trent's aircraft suffered heavy damage. Trent successfully parachuted from danger only to be captured by the Germans and incarcerated in Stalag Luft III.

"Trent was one of 240 men initially selected to make the escape. He was the 79th to pass through the narrow, hand-dug tunnel, following fellow New Zealander Flight Lieutenant Michael Shand. Shand managed to escape into the nearby forest, before being captured a few days later and brought back to camp. Trent was captured immediately and taken back inside the camp gates, where he was sentenced to three weeks’ solitary confinement living on starvation rations. Leonard's capture most probably saved his life. All in 5 Kiwis went through the tunnel that night - only Leonard Trent and Michael Shand survived.

"After two years of captivity Leonard returned to service with the RAF and on 12 April 1946 Squadron Leader Trent was presented the Victoria Cross in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Trent held several command positions in the RAF’s training programme and saw combat during the Suez Crisis of 1956. In 1962, three years after his promotion to Group Captain, he became bomber command representative in the British Embassy in Washington DC and also aide-de-camp to Queen Elizabeth II, posts he held for three years before retiring from the RAF." - Dictionary of New Zealand Biography Database

Upon retirement Group Captain Trent resided at Mathesons Bay near Auckland with his wife Ursula and their son and daughter. Leonard passed away on 19 May 1986 at the age of 71 years old. He lies in rest at Fremantle Cemetery in Western Australia. Lest We Forget.
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William Speakman-Pitt, VC (21 September 1927 – 20 June 2018), known as Bill Speakman, was a British Army soldier and a r...
19/06/2025

William Speakman-Pitt, VC (21 September 1927 – 20 June 2018), known as Bill Speakman, was a British Army soldier and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was the first person to receive an honour from Queen Elizabeth II.

He was born and brought up in Altrincham, Cheshire, and educated at Wellington Road School, Timperley. He was 24 years old and a private in the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment), British Army, attached to the 1st Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers during the Korean War when the following deed took place at United Hill, for which he was awarded the VC.

On 4 November 1951 in Korea, when the section holding the left shoulder of the company's position had been seriously depleted by casualties and was being overrun by the enemy, Speakman, on his own initiative, filled his pockets with grenades going forward and pelting the Chinese with the grenades. Having thrown all of the grenades he had taken, he returned for more. Inspired by his actions six men joined him in collecting a pile of grenades and followed him in a series of charges. He broke up several enemy attacks, causing heavy casualties and in spite of being wounded in the leg and the shoulder continued to lead charge after charge. Such was the ferocity of the fighting that they ran low on ammunition, resorting to throwing stones and ration tins. The enemy was kept at bay long enough to enable his company to withdraw safely. The Press of the time nicknamed him the 'beerbottle' VC, something he disliked for fear that it suggested he and his colleagues drank beer while on duty; the beer was in fact used to cool gun barrels.

Although his award was made by King George VI, Speakman was the first VC invested by Queen Elizabeth II.

He later achieved the rank of sergeant and served in Malaya (with the Special Air Service), Borneo and Radfan.
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Captain Lionel Ernest Queripel VC of the Royal Sussex Regiment, attached to The Parachute Regiment (1st Airborne Divisio...
16/06/2025

Captain Lionel Ernest Queripel VC of the Royal Sussex Regiment, attached to The Parachute Regiment (1st Airborne Division). He is buried in the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery.

His courage and devotion to his men is best told from an extract from his Victoria Cross citation.

“In Holland on the 19th September, 1944, Captain Queripel was acting as Company Commander of a composite Company composed of three Parachute Battalions.

At 14.00 hours on that day, his Company was advancing along a main road which ran on an embankment towards Arnhem. The advance was conducted under continuous medium machine-gun fire which, at one period, became so heavy that the Company became split up on either side of the road and suffered considerable losses. Captain Queripel at once proceeded to reorganize his force, crossing and recrossing the road whilst doing so, under extremely heavy and accurate fire. During this period he carried a wounded Sergeant to the Regimental Aid Post under fire and was himself wounded in the face.

Once reorganized, Captain Queripel personally led a party of men against the strong point holding up the advance. This strong point consisted of a captured British anti-tank gun and two machine-guns. Despite the extremely heavy fire directed at him, Captain Queripel succeeded in killing the crews of the machine-guns and recapturing the anti-tank gun. As a result of this, the advance was able to continue.

Later in the same day, Captain Queripel found himself cut off with a small party of men and took up a position in a ditch. By this time he had received further wounds in both arms. Regardless of his wounds and of the very heavy mortar and spandau fire, he continued to inspire his men to resist with hand grenades, pistols and the few remaining rifles.

As, however, the enemy pressure increased, Captain Queripel decided that it was impossible to hold the position any longer and ordered his men to withdraw. Despite their protests, he insisted on remaining behind to cover their withdrawal with his automatic pistol and a few remaining hand grenades. This is the last occasion on which he was seen.”
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WW1 in France.🇬🇧13-pounder in action under the 19th Brigade in the Armentieres Sector, 1914.The man 3rd from left is tim...
11/06/2025

WW1 in France.🇬🇧
13-pounder in action under the 19th Brigade in the Armentieres Sector, 1914.
The man 3rd from left is timing the fuze (the time of flight before the shell explodes - dependant on the distance of the enemy trenches) it’s called a time mechanical fuze or sometimes called a fuze VT (variable time) !
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