World War II Database

ww2dbaseAlan Chanter was born in London in 1947. Enlisting in the British Army in 1967, Alan saw service in Germany and Northern Ireland and visited Berlin and Cyprus. Rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant, he was twice introduced to members of the Royal Family and awarded both the General Service Medal with clasp for Northern Ireland and the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. Retiring from the Army in 1989, Alan took employment in a factory manufacturing components for machine tools until his job became redundant in 2002.

ww2dbaseAlways interested in History (particularly that relating to the Military), in 2001 Alan began writing short items for a number of History-based Internet Newsgroups. Whilst unemployed this developed into some rather lengthier essays.

ww2dbaseAlan now resides in Lincoln (founded by the Romans) and is married with three adult children. He is currrently employed, part-time, as a driver for a local Taxi company.

Last Major Revision: Jan 2007

Photographs/Maps Contributions

See all 8 photographs of Alan Chanter

Timeline Contributions

Alan Chanter has also contributed 3,135 entries in the WW2 Timeline. A small sample of his timeline contributions is shown below.

» 10 Mar 1940: Noted Russian writer and playwright, Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940), whose work Joseph Stalin liked but would not allow to be staged or read, passed away. When Bulgakov's play about Stalin's early life was turned down in 1939, he became ill and depressed, and died less than a year later. His crowning achievement, the novel The Master and Margarita, was not published until 1968.
» 23 Nov 1942: The vital French West African port of Dakar came under Allied control when the Vichy governor changed sides.
» 6 May 1945: USS South Dakota was damaged by a magazine explosion off Okinawa, Japan. Nearby, the British Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier HMS Formidable was hit by Kamikaze planes but her steel decking (most US Aircraft Carriers had wooden decking) saved her. Further south, the British Pacific Fleer shelled Japanese positions on the Sakishima Islands of the Ryukyu Islands, 550 miles south of Japan.
» 19 Dec 1941: Italian frogmen on human torpedoes slipped into Alexandria harbour in Egypt and sank British WW1-era battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant with limpet mines; 6 Italians were captured in this mission. Although both were later refloated and repaired, their loss coupled with the sinking in the previous month of the Barham left the Royal Navy without a single capital ship in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, giving the Italian Navy superiority in the region.
» 9 Jul 1940: King George VI made a royal visit to RAF Digby during which he presented a Distinguished Flying Cross to Flying Officer Guy Gibson, the future leader of the Dambusters Squadron. Read More

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