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 3,230 entries in the WW2 Timeline. A small sample of his timeline contributions is shown below.

» 26 May 1940: Benito Mussolini informed the Chief of Supreme Staff, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, and Governor of Libya, Marshal Italo Balbo, that he had told Adolf Hitler of his intentions to declare war on England and France after 5 June. Badoglio was horrified and protested vehemently that crippling shortages of equipment in the Italian Army made a such a military adventure a very risky business.

» 11 Apr 1941: Italy and Hungary joined the German invasion of Yugoslavia.

» 17 Oct 1939: In Britain, the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps (AMPC) was created to provide manpower to act as labourers on the BEF supply lines in France. Built around a nucleus of reservists considered too old or unfit for front-line service the Corps soon became filled with a mix of volunteers of German, Austrian or Italian descent (barred from other forms of service), newly called up conscripts and men recruited from similar civilian jobs. Given little or no military training and issued with just one uniform for both work and parade, they quickly gained a reputation for scruffiness and poor discipline. Morale further declined when three quarters of the rifles issued to the AMPC were withdrawn to provide weapons for newly formed infantry units. By the end of 1939 more than 18,000 AMPC men were working in France, mostly far behind the lines to unload ships, move supplies and build railways and camps for the "real" soldiers.

» 20 Jan 1943: German fighter-bombers made a surprise daylight attack on London, England, United Kingdom during which bombs were dropped on a school in Lewisham killing 39 children and five teachers.

» 17 Feb 1945: HMS Bluebell (Lieutenant G. H. Walker) was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-711 in the Kola Inlet off Murmansk, Russia.

» 28 Aug 1945: The minesweeper USS Magnet was transferred to the Republic of China (renamed Yung Ning) under the Lend-Lease programme.

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