The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies. If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.     Site Home     WW2 Home     Add Stories     WW2 Search     Library     Help & FAQs  WW2 Features     Airfields     Allied Army     Allied Air Forces     Allied Navy     Axis Forces     Home Front     Battles     Prisoners of War     Allied Ships     Women at War     Those Who Served     Day-by-Day     Library     The Great War  Submissions     Add Stories     Time Capsule     TWMP on Facebook     Childrens Bookshop  FAQ's     Help & FAQs     Glossary     Volunteering     Contact us     News     Bookshop     About Advertisements World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

206806 Leading Fireman Dennis Herbert Poole National Fire Service from:Malmesbury My father, Dennis Poole served in our local fire service at Malmesbury, Wiltshire. He served right through the WW2 and up until 1961. I know one particular story he used to tell us and that was about an aircraft that crashed on the outskirts of Malmesbury. When Malmesbury Fire Service got to the site there was very little left of the plane and the bodies of the fliers had been buried in the earth with the plane. So the family of these airman could have coffins my father said they put stones into the coffins to weight as if they had bodies inside. I have recently learnt that this plane was an experimental plane and my father and his colleagues were told to keep quiet as to the sort of plane involved. I am trying to get some information about another incident involving my father during WW2. It was during the blitz on Bristol and because of the scale of this blitz the fire service called in all the engines from as far afield as Malmesbury. When they got to Bristol they were told where to go and the raid was still going on. My father was up the top of one of the longest ladders and while he was up there fighting the fire there was a blast at the bottom of the ladder and when he descended the ladder he found a lot of his colleagues had been killed by the blast. I have been told he was awarded a commendation for helping his colleagues in the face of continuing during a raid. I am quite confident the story is true but would love to find some more information as to the award given to my father. My father was also involved in saving a young boy's life from drowning after he fell into a river at the bottom of his house. For this he was awarded a resuscitation certificate from The Royal Humane Society in September 1943. Delia Bailey Add to this record.  Related Content: The Blitz Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.