Watch Your Audience Grow

Here’s a video on BBC News with a fantastic first-hand account of day-to-day life serving on the Arctic Convoys. The scene where the veterans hug each other towards the end is so moving.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14725778

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-14214294

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A ceremony was held on Sat 20 August 2011 at the Wester Ross memorial, above Loch Ewe, north-west Scotland mainland to mark the 70th anniversary of the first Arctic convoys.  Operation Dervish, which ran from September 1941 to December 1944, saw ships gather in Loch Ewe before setting out to Murmansk and Archangel.
More than 3,000 [...]

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Babur was the re-fitted Diadem

copyright belongs to Flickr user Doc Kazi

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Story about David Billet, Dagenham, who served on HMS Diamond and HMS Diadem. Local serving and ex-service members of Britain’s naval forces have met, every week, since 1936.

On Saturday 19 February 2011, members of Dagenham’s Royal Naval Association (RNA) branch are set to enjoy to a night of festivities at their headquarters [...]

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If you’ve got a spare two and a half thousand pounds burning a hole in your pocket, you can buy a brass treadplate from here:

http://www.uniquebrass.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=12&zenid=mtip1fvmaub8q3g94u8ap768l7

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http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol04/nm_4_1_55-63.pdf&chrome=true
Extracts:
"On 11 March 1945 Convoy JW-65 sailed from the Clyde for Murmansk escorted by the cruiser H M S Diadem, escort carriers H M S Campania and Trumpeter, and a number of destroyers and other vessels."
"RA-65 sailed from Murmansk on 24 March. H M S Diadem, Campania, and Trumpeter departed in advance of the main [...]

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In memory of Edward Daltrey

found on Twitter.

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Here’s a photo on Flickr in /pimu’s collection:

In the comments, Raheel I. Khan says "That would be the first PNS Babur, the former HMS Diadem (84), a Dido-class cruiser of the Royal Navy. We have had two more PNS Babur’s since. The following two are HMS London and HMS Amazon. Amazon being the current PNS [...]

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JUNO BEACH - Assault Force "J"
Bombarding Force E:  Rear Admiral Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton (HMS Belfast)

http://www.americandday.org/D-Day/Force_J-Order_of_battle.html

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