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 815 entries in the WW2 Timeline. A small sample of his timeline contributions is shown below.

» 3 Sep 1944: Heinkel aircraft of III/KG3 of the German Air Force made 23 sorties with V-1 flying bombs being launched against London, Portsmouth, Southampton, and Gloucester of England, United Kingdom. 3 of these bombs came down in East Anglia, at Hill Farm in Felixstowe on the Suffolk coast, Langham in the east midlands and Dedham, near Colchester in Essex, other bombs fell in various areas of the home counties but caused very little damage. A veteran Luftwaffe pilot, Horst Juventus, who had been posted to III/KG3 recalled that the pilots all felt that the Luftwaffe were finished and hated to fly the Heinkel aircraft with the flying bomb attached. "Some crews", he said, "just dumped the bombs as soon as possible in order to get home safely." Also on this date, in the early morning, the 4 remaining Mistel aircraft with II/KG101 again headed out to launch against London, the attack was to be co-ordinated with that of bomb carrying Fw 190 aircraft from 2/KG200, but it failed. 2 of the Ju 88 Mistel aircraft crossed the English coast, one of which crashed at Warsop in Nottinghamshire and the other only just made it over the coast to crash at Hothfield, Kent. Following this II/KG101 was disbanded and a new Mistel unit, III/KG66 came into being commanded by Hauptmann Kurt Cepesius at Burg airfield near Magdeburg, Germany. Read More
» 24 Oct 1944: Two new Stafflen (squadrons) were now introduced into operations with German Air Force III/KG3, with the group having bourne the brunt of the past weeks' action. Two of the new Heinkel bombers were shot down on their first night. Flight Lieutenant Desmond Tull DFC, flying a Beaufighter aircraft of the Fighter Interception Unit (FIU) shot down the first 60 miles east of Great Yarmouth, England, United Kingdom; this was Tull's 9th victory. The other was attacked by Flight Officer Bill Beadle (HK310/VA-J) of 125 Squadron; the German pilot nursed his badly damaged aircraft back with a dead crewman; the aircraft was a total loss after catching fire on the runway.
» 14 Aug 1944: The US 127th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment became operational; at the end of the V-1 attacks the regiment had accounted for 56 of the flying bombs. A V-1 flying bomb brought down by British guns tragically fell on Twiss Road, Hythe in Kent in southern Britain. It destroyed houses and killed a family of 5 also injuring a further 17 some seriously. Flight Officer Peter Graham almost lost his life when diving down from 12,000 feet he levelled up too close to his target; the slip stream threw his Spitfire fighter over, but he managed to recover, only to see his target, a V-1 flying bomb, fly between the wires of the balloon defence. Read More
» 23 May 1944: The 6,586-ton American submarine USS Lapon (SS-260) sank the Japanese merchant cargo ship Wales Maru in the South China Sea, hitting her with all four torpedoes fired. At the time the ship was carrying Unit 234 of the Independent Flight Corps of 1,000 men; the unit lost 50 men as the Wales Maru went down with 13 members of her crew. Read More
» 30 Jul 1941: British submarine HMS Cachalot was scuttled during an engagement with Italian torped boat Generale Achille Papa in the Mediterranean Sea north of Benghazi, Libya. Read More

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