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.

Photographs/Maps Contributions

Timeline Contributions

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

» 27 Apr 1943: The 17,526-ton Japanese troop carrier Kamakura Maru departed Manila, Philippines with 2,500 oil production workers and army medical personnel, heavy vehicles, and ammunition on board, bound for Balikpapan, Borneo, Dutch East Indies.

» 13 Mar 1944: The 4,695-ton unescorted Greek steam merchant ship Peleus was hit by two torpedoes from German submarine U-852 (Kapitänleutnant Heinz-Wilhelm Eck) and sank rapidly about 500 miles north of Ascension Island. The submarine tried to destroy all evidences of the sinking by shooting at debris and rafts from the ship. During this action some survivors were killed and only four men were alive when the submarine left the area. One of them later died, but the three remaining would survive. On November 1945. Eck and two of his officers were later executed in Hamburg, Germany for their role in the killing of the Greek seamen.

» 1 Sep 1944: Several waves of V-1 flying bombs were launched across the English Channel toward Britain, most failed to make their targets being brought down by coastal gunners; Folkestone batteries brought down 19 and saw 3 more destroyed by fighters behind them. Of the 19 brought down by batteries, Hythe got 9, while Dover brought down 6. The credit for the third of the 3 brought down by fighters was given to Warrant Officer Tommy Hetherington of 129 Squadron, brought down in the afternoon; this was his unit's 66th bomb to be destroyed; Hetherington had very little ammunition left and although seeing strikes he ran out flying around the bomb he managed to upset the bombs gyros with his slipstream, the bomb fell into the sea 5 miles from Dover on the British coast. One bomb that succeeded in getting through exploded close to the battery at Lyddon Spout beach, Dover. It wounded 4 soldiers on guard. The battery had been upgraded to Mark XXIV six-inch guns.

» 30 Jul 1944: In southern England, United Kingdom, the North Kent village of Swanscombe had a V-1 flying bomb explode in Taunton Road. It killed 11 and badly wounded 22 and the blast resulted in the complete destruction of 60 cottages making 160 people homeless. Flight Sergeant Gedfrey Tate of 1 Squadron was lost when his Spitfire fighter LFIXh crashed into the sea after he went into a dive chasing a V-1 flying bomb.

» 26 Jun 1944: The first V-1 bomb to drop on London, England, United Kingdom on this day hit Elfin Road in Camberwell at 0130 hours, killing three and demolishing 18 houses. The US Naval Armed Guard Service vessel William A. Jones brought down a bomb whilst on patrol off the French Normandie coast. One US Naval Officer said "We never could get used to those buzz bomb attacks. Kinda like an artillery shell: as long as you can hear them you know that you are OK. When the noise of the buzz bomb stopped you had an instant cure for haemorrhoids." The Mosquito XIII night fighters of 96 Squadron from RAF Ford were getting used to the method of attacking the bombs and brought down six between 0030 and 0334 hours.

» 29 Sep 1939: The 1,819-ton neutral Norwegian merchant steamer Kvernaas was stopped and searched by the German destroyer Wilhelm Heidkamp. The ship was en route from Sundsvall, Sweden to Amsterdam, the Netherlands with a cargo of 2,585 tons of cellulose and was instructed to sail to Kiel, Germany.

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