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.

ww2dbaseA retired widower with three adult children, Alan's interests now include studying the equipment, weapons, aircraft etc. from the Second World war and compiling articles for this website.

Photographs/Maps Contributions

See all 17 photographs of Alan Chanter

Timeline Contributions

Alan Chanter has also contributed 3,231 entries in the WW2 Timeline. A small sample of his timeline contributions is shown below.

» 27 Jun 1942: Two Australian Catalina flying-boats, on a night mission over the Lae-Salamaua area of Australian New Guinea lasting four hours, dropped eight 500-pound bombs, twenty 20-pound fragmentation bombs and four dozen empty beer bottles. The beer bottles falling through the air made a screeching sound which helped to terrorise the enemy and spoil his sleep.

» 5 Mar 1948: The Curtiss Model 29A (or XF-87 Blackhawk) two-seat all-weather interceptor powered by four Westinghouse XJ34 turbojets took the first flight.

» 7 Feb 1942: A little known British brigadier, Orde Charles Wingate, was summoned to India at General Archibald Wavell's behest. Although initially he did little more than reconnoitre northern Burma, his ideas for a long range penetration force would ultimately lead to the establishment of the Chindit Brigade who, supplied by air, would later do so much damage in the Japanese rear areas.

» 7 Oct 1943: The Fletcher-class destroyer USS Chevalier was sunk by a torpedo fired from the USS La Vallette following severe damage inflicted during an engagement with Japanese destroyers fought on the previous day off Vella Lavella, Solomon Islands.

» 17 Nov 1942: British Admiral Max Horton was appointed Commander-in-Chief Western Approaches Command with his Headquarters at Northways, North London, England, United Kingdom.

» 4 Sep 1945: RAF aircraft dropped fresh uniforms and 88,000 Red Cross parcels on prisoners of war camps throughout the South East Asia region.

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