Playing Soldiers - Fortress Wales 2016

Driving around, frantically trying to park. The deep thuds of heavy machine gun fire echoes through the woods. We leave the car in a nearby ASDA and rush towards the action with absolute dread.

Caldicot.

We were late. We thought we missed the World War Two reenactment. Luckily what we heard was the fall of Saigon -Vietnam.

Fortress Wales 2016.

Wiermacht soldiers with Cornish accents chatting away happily whilst in line to buy overpriced burgers and Vikings rearranging their horns in the reflection of their three door Volkswagen Polo are a common sight. I've been to a couple of reenactments before but this was the first one my Girlfriend had ever attended. She is slowly getting in to it all so she needs less persuading these days to come with me to things like this.

Troops capture a man from the future. 

Near the entrance I saw a swastika flag and I made that my first port of call. Enthusiastic volkssturm chewed my ear off for a good twenty minutes without letting me get a word in. All I wanted to do was hold his panzerfaust. (Volkssturm were basically conscripted males between the ages of 16-60 forced to fight as a last ditch attempt at the end of the war).

There were a few German set ups from different parts of the UK dotted around the grounds of Caldicot Castle, the venue of the reenactment. It reminds me a lot of going on a school trip and there are other schools there. You are all there for the same reason, wearing your uniform, but there's always that unspoken rivalry often resulting in aggressive tutting. 

I went there this time with the aim to hold a few of the weapons and have a closer look at them but the majority of the re-enactors weren't keen to let me. Maybe it was for the best. It would probably be like handing over my offspring when they asked for it back.

We made it to the WW2 battle and it was a lot better than expected. A Sherman tank made an appearance and I spotted my mate from the volkssturm, limping away holding his panzerfaust.

Ordering takeout with the lads is always a pain in the arse.

Our journey ended where it began, beneath the toxic green glow of the ASDA sign. My Girlfriend enjoyed her day and didn't need buttering up, so no overpriced burger for her. I dressed up the meal deal and told her it would be romantic if we ate it in the car. It worked. Auf wiedersehen Caldicot.

These guys are slightly more authentic in monochrome.

Just me and a US jeep. Nothing more to say about that.

The Search for Heinrich Himmler's Death Mask

London. A place I have visited countless times. Although I have a keen interest in History, I have successfully managed to evade visiting any of the museums there properly. Four of us decided to make a point out of visiting them over the period of a couple of months.

My Girlfriend was keen to visit the Science Museum first but the rest of us soon put an end to that silly idea as we had found out that the Imperial War Museum (IWM) had Heinrich Himler's  death mask on display. She eventually gave in and the words "Heinrich Himmler's death mask" were thrown around in conversation an awful lot in the weeks leading up to this trip.

We arrived and it was pissing down as always. We had our bags checked at the door for bombs, guns and sharp objects so we could safely enter the museum to see their collection of bombs, guns and sharp objects.

Tube selfie.

The atrium of the building is pretty impressive. The ceiling has airplanes hanging from it with wires. It's like some rich kid wasn't satisfied with Airfix models and wanted the real things instead. I don't think I have ever seen a Spitfire that close before.

Something else that I was keen to see is one of the two original Eagle's that sat atop the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. Taken by the Russians after the Battle of Berlin and ended up in the London museum. There are a couple of chunks missing out of it from when it got caught up in the battle also. Very impressive thing.

If I could have gotten this back on the MegaBus, I would have taken it. 

A used Zyclone B canister sat unassumingly in a display case, the contents of which was probably responsible for the death of a room full of people in Auschwitz's gas chambers.

Used Zyclone B canister.

After seeing all these things, with one eye on them and the other scanning the room for the death mask. Everywhere we thought it may be, we were wrong. I did something I hate doing in any situation. I asked for help.

The enthusiastic museum employee told me that the mask was removed some time ago and they hadn't updated the website yet.

Brilliant.

By no means a wasted trip. The museum is very impressive and always worth a visit.
We have since also been to the Science Museum. I know what you're thinking, we went all the way there and there was no 'Science' as advertised on the website. Well, you thought wrong. There was plenty.

Battle damaged Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero.

Welsh Blitz - Cardiff

Cardiff, UK.

The other day I overheard some old guys talking about upcoming Remembrance Sunday where they briefly mentioned how the city was bombed during the war. I always knew that this was a thing as the Germans bombed the port here which shipped out coal and whatever resources that fed the war.

A couple of stray bombs hit the suburbs surrounding the ports so I decided to look online to dig out some pictures of the aftermath and attempt to find the areas today.

Grangetown.

Every city has that one area which is filled with horror stories and bad people. Grangetown is Cardiff's answer to The Bronx, or so i'm told. Seeing that this area was the worst hit by these stray bombs, I decided to go against everyones advice and walk there to find these sites that were hit.

Believing everyone who said that I was going to be robbed, I didn't bother taking my posh camera but settled with just my posh phone instead. With a haircut that questions my sexuality as well as my nationality and my bright coloured coat, I was a bit nervous. I felt like that odd jigsaw piece that you always find in the 'Monopoly' box.

I knew the name of the two streets I was after and awkwardly went into corners to consult Google Maps.

January 2nd, 1941.

Hollymans Bakery, Stockland Street.

An affluent family run business with a cellar which was used as an air raid shelter which when the sirens used to sound to warn of enemy aircraft above, the family used to invite anyone in off the street who was looking for refuge.

Hollymans Bakery, now a hardware store.

The building took a direct hit and the bomb hit the cellar directly. 32 people were killed.

Memorial plaque on the building.

Not far from the bakery, at the corner of Ferry Road is a street that has hardly changed since 1941, apart from the obvious modernisation and repair to the bombed structure. I understand this to have been a residence at the time. Seven people were killed.

1941

2015

So I appear to be a survivor of the dreaded Grangetown. No bother from anyone but the cops who asked me what I was doing as I was awkwardly trying to take pictures with my phone whilst attempting to hide it at the same time.

Berchtesgaden

My Girlfriend really puts up with my crap.

This Summer, her and I travelled through a bit of mainland Europe. We were in romantic Salzburg for two days, one of which I wanted to drag her away for the day to a place she has never heard of to feed my interest.

Berchtesgaden.

We took an hours bus ride across the border to the Bavarian City. The first thing I recognised were the impressive Alps which I had seen in the background of home footage shot by Eva Braun, of Hitler & Co. at The Eagles Nest.

Initially, my only intention when visiting Berchetsgaden was to go to Eagles Nest. Travelling on a budget and the trip all the way up the top being significantly more expensive than anticipated I decided against it. As soon as we got there I was looking up to the hills for it. We were there a while before I saw it completely by chance. I was really impressed. It was something I had seen an awful lot of in pictures and newsreels, and there it was in font of me. It felt a lot like my experience at Nuremberg Rally Site. (Nuremberg Rally Site)

Eagles Nest 

Eagles Nest (Kehlsteinhaus) was Hitler's 50th Birthday present paid for by the Nazi Party. Here, Hitler planned his conquest of Europe and entertained heads of state in intimate gatherings. It was the second seat of government outside of Berlin. Eva Braun's sister held her wedding reception here.

I had a small mental list of the things in the town itself that I wanted to see and these took no effort to find at all. The first thing I noticed was the fountain in the main square where members of the SA
gathered for a picture in the 30's.

Fountain, 2015

In 1945 the town was alive with Allied soldiers after the town's surrender was received. There was a feared "National Redoubt" - a last stand of the Nazis where government and armed forces to retreat to the area which was never realised or even properly planned.

Wall painting in Palace Square part of a WW1 Memorial, 1945

Memorial in 2015. Some slight changes to the original, where the dates for WW2 were added. 

Allied soldiers negotiating the surrender of Berchtesgaden with city officials.

Memorial plaques for both World War's

Air raids failed to reach most of the city and only key Nazi buildings were targeted so the city itself is largely how it looked back then. I didn't get the chance to visit the Berghof or anything in Obersalzberg. I plan to do so when I return, along with the Eagles Nest.

My Girlfriend? Well she ended up loving the place. The beauty of it was enough to sway her over and we ended up having a lovely day there. Something that will work in my favour the next time I want her drag her somewhere for war stuff. Brilliant.

Swastika Flying High in Cardiff

Cardiff, UK.

I've never seen this picture before and came across it completely by accident after a documentary wrongly used it to portray occupied France. I immediately recognised it as the City Hall in Cardiff, the city where I live.

1938.

Sudetenland, the German speaking/populated portions of Czechoslovakia started to demand a union with Hitler's Germany. The Czech's refused due to the tactical importance of the land and Hitler threatened war. In 1938 and without consulting Czechoslovakia, Britain and France agreed to hand it over to Germany. This was looked at as an act of peace and Chamberlain (British Prime Minister) waved around a piece of paper which Hitler had written a promise not to go to war. This was the Munich Agreement. At that time, Britain was not ready for war or able to help out Czechoslovakia if Germany attacked, so giving in to Hitler seemed to be the most sensible option.

Sudetenland was handed over.

TIME Magazine declared Hitler as 'Man of the Year in 1938'. Many people admired him for turning around Germany in a time where the depression was still affecting the country. He was not seen as the evil guy that he is today.

To show his support of the agreement, Lord Mayor Purnell of Cardiff, erected the four flags of the nations involved in the agreement, over City's Hall. This included the Swastika. The flag wasn't largely associated with evil at the time.

Cardiff City Hall today.

Within 24 hours, two men from the labour party took it down but it was soon replaced.

Myself in front of City Hall a few years ago. The only picture I could find with it, which I lifted off  Instagram.

Six months later, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and the Munich Agreement was void. Britain said it would defend Poland if Hitler invaded. The war had begun. 

Munich - Imperial Lichtspiele Cinema - Look What I Bumped Into

Before I go away to mainland Europe and to places that are significant to World War Two, I do my homework. The results of this normally equates to a list of places and my phone, heavy with screenshots of them taken during the war. I show these screenshots to my travel companion (normally my Girlfriend) and tell her to look out for these things and alert me if she does so.

Travelling with me is a nuisance.

As long as I know the general direction and what i'm looking for, then I can't go wrong.

Sometimes when i'm in a city in relaxed mode, not wide eyed and interested like a cat at a fish market, I spot something completely accidentally that I had no intention of looking for at all. This was one of these occasions.

Munich. We arrive there hours before we could check in to the hotel, lugging our cases with us through the streets and over the cobbles which help us to sound like we are using an out of tune Xylophone to alert the Germans of our presence.

I recognised this building mostly because of it's odd shape. Somewhere i'd seen a picture of this with a knocked out Panther tank in front of it.

 When the Americans captured the city in 1945 they didn't encounter as much resistance as they expected. As well the dwindling numbers of German soldiers were the Volksstrum - the last line of defence, made up of young boys or old men. They put up a fight but many surrendered early on.  

The Americans also liberated nearby Dachau concentration camp.

The tank shown outside was sent to the United States for testing and after that lived its life in various museums around the country and is today at Fort Benning, Georgia. The building that used to be a cinema is now a hotel.

German Helmet in Amsterdam

Whilst walking outside of Amsterdam's city centre, I spotted this earth dug German helmet sitting in a shop window. It was part of a display in a hardware shop and not for sale. There were also a few spent rounds which look like they were dug up too.

I love spotting these unexpectedly when out and about. I remember when I was a child and going to jumble sales/markets and spotting numerous Swastika branded bits and pieces mixed in-between Star Wars figures and cup and saucer sets from the Seventies. I never see anything about anymore in places like that which is a massive shame really.

Nuremberg Rally Site - I Stole From the Third Reich

Nuremberg. 2014.

I must have seen this place a thousand times in books and documentaries. Every time Hitler's rise to power or his hold on the German people was mentioned anywhere, they showed him speaking to a sea of people here.

This felt like a million miles away from me. I could not imagine that many people in one place, even though I had seen the footage. The only thing I could compare it to was looking down from the cheap seats at a swaying sea of people, whilst watching the Red Hot Chilli Peppers at a stadium gig in Cardiff at the tender age of 15.

Nuremberg's rally site is always somewhere that I wanted to visit. I wanted to stand where people looked up at Hitler whilst he spoke. I wanted to stand on Hitlers podium and look out at the vastness. Perhaps get a whiff of what it was like to be a man of power for a moment. I wanted to catch a glimpse of how it was to get caught up in something like that.

 2014. I finally visited. This was easily at the top of my list of places to visit. The rally site featured heavily in the film 'Triumph of the Will', a propaganda film showing Hitler in some omnipotent light overlooking his faithful followers and powerful army.

In the Third Reich, things weren't done by half.

My brother and I walked from Nuremberg Old Town to the site which took us a couple of hours. Travelling on a budget doesn't permit for luxuries such as public transport. We passed the lake and looked up at the nearby Colosseum. As we walked around, we spotted it across the water. It was impressive to me because of how much I had seen it in pictures and the context of it. I felt a bit starstruck to be honest. That place I have seen so many times was right there in front of me. It felt like I was about to sit on the sofa in Central Perk, on the set of the sitcom 'FRIENDS'.

As we neared it, I blindly headed straight for the empty podium. It was quite a surreal experience to be stood right there. I just looked out for a bit and tried to imagine it how it used to be. I had a picture on my phone of Hitler in the exact spot. I compared the picture from then and now. I wasn't sure if what I was looking at was a reflection or through a window of some strange time where common sense was lost.

Instead of looking out to a mass of people, there was an empty athletics track behind a fence. I had a good look around. The place was crumbling and there were weeds poking out of the steps. Badly drawn graffiti lay sporadically across the cracked slabs.

Albert Speer was Hitler's chief architect. He drew this place up and it was partly built in 1937 where there lay a wooden Eagle atop the structure. By the time it was finished in 1938 there were grand pillars each side of the structure and a huge golden swastika looming over from the top. This thing was supposed to last a thousand years yet in under a hundred it was in ruins.

In the late Sixties and into the Seventies, the pillars were removed and various other parts of the main structure was also dismantled as it was a safety hazard. When the Americans arrived in Nuremberg in 1945, they blew up the huge Swastika. They held a huge celebration there to celebrate the capture of the city.

At the height of Nazi power I imagine it was an inconceivable notion to think that the devoted followers and military displays on the Zeplinfeld would be replaced by invading Allied Soldiers, and then even more so down the line, me.

The site had completely lost its grandeur physically although the scale of it all held some resonance.

There is talk of the site being removed completely and also talk of renovation, such is the conflict of the people of the surrounding areas. Preservation of history is important but where does one draw the line when its history that wants to be forgotten?

Locals use the place to walk their dogs. Couples romantically feed ice cream to each other on the steps and there was even an amateur photo shoot going on as we were there. The place has lost its significance. Now it's just somewhere that people go. A different generation of people not even considering the backwards ideals of such a regime.

There are 34 structures circling the Zeplinfeld which divided the stone seating, which is now covered in grass almost completely. These structures were used as toilets. Large flags brandishing the Swastika flew proudly from the top. Today, these are rented out to people for storage. As we walked by one of them there was a band practising.

Structures that circle the Zeplinfeld. Toilets no more.

The rally site remains my favourite place that I have visited with regards to sites of the Third Reich. I'm not sure I will ever top that.

Bits were falling off all over the place and I took a tiny piece that lay on the floor. I stole from the Third Reich.

 

 

The structure is in a state of disrepair. 

The site in all its glory. This particular set up was referred to as the 'Carnival of Lights'. This would have been a pretty impressive thing to see in person.

Looking to the left whilst on the podium. In the immediate points around the podium would have stood high ranking German officers and the steps would have been filled with soldiers.

World War TwoRism - Third Reich Walking Tour, Berlin

2013.  My trip to Berlin was the first time I specifically travelled somewhere for the sole purpose of seeking out key sites from World War 2. If there's not an official name for that kind of travelling, then there should be.

World War TwoRism.

Prior to going, I knew that there was a Third Reich Tour running from outside of Potsdamer Platz and I thought that it would be a great way to get shown around in a few hours and then return to the key sites in the days after properly and spend more time there looking around.

This tour was one of the best things I have ever done. Such an energetic and informative four hours and we covered a lot of ground. The tour guide was a New Zealander called Mike who had a degree in German history and had lived in Germany for over a decade. He really knew his stuff. It was only 12 Euro too.

I put together a bit of a video 'VLOG' of the tour and my return to one of the sites that evening. I tried the VLOG thing out for a few days just to get used to new editing software I was using. I kept this one on my YouTube channel as a bit of a reminder.

Click here for video on YouTube page

Cardiff's Nazi Link.

Early last year (2014), I caught the end of a story on a BBC Wales News segment. News I never watch with any interest as not a lot happens in Wales. It's either rugby related or one of the Royals has gone to another obscure and unpronounceable village to feign an interest in the worlds largest Welsh cake.

Out of nowhere, I heard the words Hermann Goering and Cardiff. In the same sentence.

Goering, Hitler's Deputy and head of the Luftwaffe. He liked art. He had an impressive private collection. He took interest in a 16th Century Welsh Noblewoman, Catrin of Berain. The portrait was hung for centuries in family homes in North Wales but made it's way to Berlin and Goering in 1940.

In 1938, the owners decided to sell the painting and contacted a dealer in London. Somewhere along the line, it was offered to the National Museum of Wales but that transaction failed to happen. The London dealer had connections with the art market in Amsterdam and the painting was eventually bought by Walter Andreas Hofer, the advisor on art to Hermann Goering.

The painting became part of Hermann Goering's private collection.

Eventually, the art was rescued by a team which protect cultural treasures from damage during the war. A film called 'Monuments Men' (2014) was based on these guys.

The painting eventually found it's way into the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. I went to visit it.

The painting is so unassuming and there was no indication to its link with Goering and the Nazi party which is not surprising.