Category Archives: Vintage

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On this day: a Veteran Sergeant at Home

A veteran sergeant in the Dorking Home Guard cleans his Tommy gun at the dining room table, before going on parade, 1 December 1940. Second World War Two

1st December 1940: The Blitz, the German air raid campaign against the United Kingdom, was in full force in December of 1940.

Britain’s Home Guard, made up of 1.5 million volunteers ineligible for regular military service (due to circumstances such as age), operated from 1940 to 1944, guarding their homeland during the Second World War.

The caption of this photograph reads:

A veteran sergeant in the Dorking Home Guard cleans his Tommy gun at the dining room table, before going on parade, 1 December 1940.

From the collection of the Imperial War Museum.

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On this day: Coventry in Ruins

The English city of Coventry suffered numerous Nazi bombing attacks in the blitz of 1940, but the worst came in November.

The city was bombarded from the 14th to the 15th, killing hundreds of people and injuring many hundreds more.

Coventry_devastation_H_5601A street in Coventry, England, after the Coventry Blitz of 14–15 November 1940. In the background are the tower and spire of Holy Trinity parish church. 16th

Coventry_bomb_damage_H5600Broadgate in Coventry city centre following the Coventry Blitz of 14-15 November 1940. The burnt out shell of the Owen Owen department store (opened in 1937) 16

These photographs were taken on the 16th, showing many buildings ruined, and the recently built Owen Owen department store – the exterior still stands, but the inside was destroyed.

Coventry_Cathedral_after_the_air_raid_in_1940The ruined nave and chancel of Coventry Cathedral, England, seen from the west tower. It is in ruins after the German air raid of November 19

Coventry Cathedral was largely ruined, and still stands as a shell today. The new cathedral was built next door, and opened in 1962.

Hundreds more people were killed in German bombings the following year.

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On this day: the Coventry Blitz

A wrecked bus is photographed amongst the destruction in Coventry, England after a German Luftwaffe air raid on the night of 14-15 November, 1940.

Coventry suffered heavy damage in the Second World War. The city’s famous cathedral was one of the casualties of the “Coventry Blitz”, which killed many hundreds and left thousands without homes.

From the collection of the Imperial War Museum.

A wrecked bus stands among a scene of devastation in the centre of Coventry after the major Luftwaffe air raid on the night of 14-15 November 1940. Second World War Two England United Ki

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Eighty Years Ago

Soviet cavalry on parade in Lviv, after the city's surrender to the Red Army during 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland The city, then known as Lwów, was annexed by the Soviet Union and toda

Source

This image is taken from Soviet footage in the city of Lviv, made on the 28th of September, 1939. The communists parade through the streets following a successful invasion. Lviv, in Ukraine, changed from Polish to Russian governance at this time.

Control of western Ukraine changed hands a number of times during the Second World War. It was the site of the beginning of the Nazi Germany’s Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.

1940 Soviet stamps celebrating the 1939 “liberation” of Ukrainian and Belarusian people from the Polish regime.

At the end of the war, world leaders including British Prime Minister Winston Churchill were responsible for the region falling behind the so-called Iron Curtain, trapping ethnic Ukrainians in the USSR.

Today, Lviv is one of Ukraine’s most patriotic cities.

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Sixty Years Ago: a Ballet Rehearsal in Amsterdam

Het_pas_opgerichte_Nieuwe_Amsterdams_Ballet_oefent_onde_leiding_van_Mascha_ter_W,_Bestanddeelnr_910-6980The newly established New Amsterdam Ballet in rehearsal under the direction of Mas

The newly established New Amsterdam Ballet in rehearsal under the direction of Mascha ter Weeme. 24th September 1959.

Two years later the company would merge with Nederlands Ballet to form today’s Dutch National Ballet, directed by Sonia Gaskell until 1969.

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On this day…

This is the 21st September edition of New York’s Sunday News from 1958, announcing that US civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been stabbed in the chest the day before, at Blumstein’s Department Store in Harlem.

The attacker was a woman named Izola Curry, and the crime surprised many as she was African American.

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Izola Curry http___a_amz_mshcdn_com_wp-content_uploads_2016_01_mlkstabbing-3On Sept. 20, 1958, 29-year-old Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was in Blumstein_s Department Store in Harlem SUn

Surgery was required to removed the knife, and King stayed in hospital for almost two weeks.

http___a_amz_mshcdn_com_wp-content_uploads_2016_01_mlkstabbing-1The attacker was a woman named Izola Curry, and crime surprised many as she was African American.