World War II Database

ww2dbaseEver since his school days in the United Kingdom, Hugh Martyr had been interested in history, particularly naval history. His interest in history later expanded to cover the American Civil War and the German V-weapons campaign against London. He is also an re-enactor and organizer of major re-enactment events, including the 200th anniversary of Waterloo event where over 8,000 were on the field. He joined the WW2DB team in 2018.

Timeline Contributions

Hugh Martyr has also contributed 881 entries in the WW2 Timeline. A small sample of his timeline contributions is shown below.

» 6 Feb 1943: The convoy KMF-8 (Gibraltar to Bône (now Annaba), Algeria) was attacked by two formations of German Ju 88 bombers of FK II and Heinkel 111 torpedo aircraft from 4th Staffel from II/KG.26 led by Hauptmann Rudolf Schmidt. The Flower-class corvette HMCS Louisburg was hit by bombs and torpedoes and sank. Less than half of the ship's crew were rescued. Two Heinkel aircraft were shot down with the crew being rescued by a Spanish trawler, the British freighter Fort Babine was torpedoed and damaged by the Heinkel IIIs of 4/KG.26. As the convoy sailed on to about 80 miles west of Algiers, German submarine U-77 (Oberleutnant zur See Otto Hartmann) attacked. The British merchant steamers Empire Banner and Empire Webster were torpedoed and sunk.

» 11 Nov 1939: Built by Newport Ship Building in the United States, the 4,576-ton Greek owned Elenor R. struck a mine off the Shambles, Portland on the British south coast. The ship was on her way to Antwerp, Belgium from Rosario, Argentina and sank immediately. The crew were rescued; there were no casualties.

» 24 Apr 1940: The 1,519-ton Estonian cargo ship Begonia was scuttled by Norwegian authorities, after having been bombed by the German Air Force. Captain Mihkel Kägi was killed during the air raid.

» 12 Mar 1943: The US submarine Plunger (SS-179) sank the 1,805-ton Japanese water carrier Taihosan Maru northeast of Ponape, Caroline Islands at about 0200 hours, hitting her with both of the two torpedoes fired.

» 7 Mar 1940: The 1,965-ton Dutch steam merchant Vecht was torpedoed in the Scheldt Estuary at 0430 hours by German submarine U-14. The submarine had spotted the steamer three hours earlier and reported that she carried no neutrality markings. The Vecht sank by the stern after twenty minutes. All 22 crewmen perished.

» 20 Jun 1944: The airfield at Biggin Hill, south-east London, England, United Kingdom had now become the centre for the defence of South London. 700 balloon personnel including 170 WAAFs were stationed there. Early in the morning one of the recently raised balloons brought down a V-1 flying bomb that exploded in an orchard. Tempest V aircraft pilots from 3 Squadron at RAF Newchurch in Kent brought down 9 bombs and the New Zealand pilots of 486 squadron who shared the airfield brought down a further 3. An American pilot 1st Lieutenant D. W. Johnston of 356th Fighter Squadron of 358th Fighter Group USSAF flying a P-47 aircraft brought down one over the British Channel; he was returning to his base at High Halden, Kent from a fighter/bomber raid against rail traffic in occupied France.

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