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

221603

Trpr. James Alexander Russell

British Army 5th Inniskilling Dragoon Guards

from:Hackney Road, Bethnal Green, London

My dad, Jimmy" Russell joined the 'Skins ' in 1932 and was living in London at the time. He was posted to Colchester in 1939 as part of the 5th Inmiskilling Dragoon Guards. He was a part of the BEF to Dunkirk on the Florence ship and was one of the lucky ones evacuated back on the 3rd/4th of June. The regiment then spent time training and doing army things until he went to France just a few days after D Day. With his tank he covered ground up through France via Caen, Falaise Gap etc into Germany over the Rhine. Jimmy was demobbed 1945 and settled down in Colchester with his wife

This year 2014 I made a trip back to Normandy and followed his route through France. It was very humbling to have elderly Frenchmen shake my hand and thank me for my father coming through those villages in his tank. I felt that I was getting to know my father in a different way and found it hard to think of him in these circumstances.

I belong to the Regimental Association but would welcome any feed back from anyone who had a connection with the 5th Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. I appreciate that it is possible any of the 'Skins' are no longer with us but perhaps some of their families will see this and wish to contact me. Thank you.






Related Content:








Can you help us to add to our records?

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.




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.