Interviews - TracesOfWar.com

12Oct

DigitalBattlefieldTours unlocks military tactics to a wide audience

[TRANSLATED BY: Simon van der Meulen] Ivo van der Spoel is the creator of documentaries covering the military history of World War II. His YouTube channel is called DigitalBattlefieldTours. In his videos, viewers are taken to locations where actual battlefield events took place, such as Operation Market Garden. Having 65,000 subscribers and attracting up to a million viewers per video, he caters for a broad public. TracesofWar.com interviewed him through e-mail to find out more about his channel and what motivates him.

25Aug

Researching his father’s WWII history became a passion for Steve Snyder

On February 8,1944 a B-17 ‘Susan Ruth’ was knocked out of the sky by German fighters over the French/Belgian border. Some men died. Some were captured and became prisoners of war. Some men evaded capture and were missing in action for months before making it back to England. Pilot Howard Snyder survived and was hidden by Belgian citizens before joining the French resistance. His son, Steve, has written a book about his father and the other crew members, titled Shot Down. We asked him some questions by e-mail about his book and further activities in relation to the legacy of his father and his crew.

The crew of the 'Susan Ruth'. Source: Steve Snyder, Shot down

What kind of man was your father? In your youth, did he tell you about his war experiences?

My father was a big guy (for the time at 6' 2½) and a rugged, no-nonsense guy. He was a strong Christian with strict morals and viewed things as black and white. My sisters and I compared him to John Wayne. He was a loving husband and father, and we had a wonderful relationship and were very close.

Like most WWII veterans, he didn’t talk a lot about the war until 1989. The Belgian-American Foundation erected a memorial to my dad and his crew in Maquenoise, Belgium near the French border near where his B-17 came down. He and the other three members of his crew who were still alive and their wives attended the dedication ceremonies. There, he was reunited with Belgian people who hid him from the Germans and revisited places where he was hidden. The memories all came back, and he started talking about it. Five years later in 1994, I made my first trip to Belgium when my wife and I accompanied my parents to attend ceremonies for the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Belgium and my dad’s plane being shot down. That’s when it became personal for me.

Amazon Books (EN)

Help TracesOfWar.com by buying books via this link. It won't cost you anything extra.

Order now

11Aug

Who was the owner of the photo album from Dachau?

Bruce Sadler's father was a soldier in the US Army during World War II. He was active in the European Theatre of Operations and brought back from Germany a photo album that currently puzzles his son. Who was the original owner and how did it end up in the location where his father found it? The search caught our attention and we asked Bruce Sadler some questions about it via e-mail. The photos can be viewed on Flickr.

7Jul

The British people welcomed African American servicemen with open arms

‘Black Yanks’, written by Kate Werran, is the story of how Leroy Henry, an African American soldier from Missouri, ended up on death row in D-Day Britain – and the extraordinary campaign that set him free. It unravels one of the earliest successes of the British Civil Rights Movement and re-examines the UK and USA's 'special relationship' in the build up to D-Day, 6 June 1944. Kate Werran unearths archival material to reveal the story behind the first significant – if uncelebrated – win in the civil rights movement. We asked her some questions by e-mail about her book that was published April 2024.

2Jun

"There seems to never be an end to cool historic places to cover"

‘Walk with History’ is a popular YouTube channel run by married couple Jenn and Scott. Jenn is a historian and former Navy pilot with a Master’s Degree in American History and a certificate in Museum Studies, while Scott, a Navy officer, produces the videos and podcasts for ‘Walk with History’ and ‘Talk with History’. We’ve emailed them several questions about their social media activities and they were kind enough to answer them for us.

28Mar

Black pilots had to fight for every step forward

The Tuskegee Airmen were black American pilots who served in the Army Air Corps during the Second World War. However, before earning their wings, these men and women needed to prove themselves to their white countrymen. After all, the racism prevalent at the time meant that black Americans were deemed unsuitable for the demands of modern war. In Tuskegee Airmen: Dogfighting with the Luftwaffe and Jim Crow, the inspiring history of these men is recounted detailing the struggles the men faced at home and abroad. We asked the Dutch author Samuel de Korte some questions by e-mail about his book.

2Mar

4,500 crashes in Scotland on more than 700 pages

During the Second World War Scotland was a key location for many of the Allies’ defensive and offensive activities. It was also important for the training of aircrew and maintaining air and sea lines of communication with Allied nations. Scotland’s ports, factories and cities were important targets for the Luftwaffe, while adjacent seas had to be traversed by German capital ships and U-boats seeking to interdict Allied trade convoys and warships. These activities came at a heavy price by way of lives lost and aircraft destroyed in crashes not just on airfields but on low and high ground and in the seas around Scotland, the rest of the British Isles and further afield. Keith Bryers wrote a book about this subject, Scotland's Wartime Aircraft Crashes, that has now been published by Aviation Books Ltd[/url]. We asked the writer some questions about his book by e-mail.

25Feb

G.I. Stories 1941-1945 wants to bring the story of the American soldier to a larger audience

John J. Capasso runs the Instagram account @g.i.stories41_45, which is also the name of a series of booklets published between 1942 and 1945 by the US Army magazine Stars and Stripes about the Second World War. John also posts clips on YouTube and Facebook under the same name. G.I. Stories is one of the better history accounts and it frequently uploads high-quality content about American soldiers during the Second World War. He has more than 10,000 followers and posts content daily. We’ve emailed him some questions and he was kind enough to answer them.

Sep2023

The German Ostheer became bogged down in a war of attrition it could never win

Dr. Craig W.H. Luther is a retired U.S. Air Force historian (16 years at McClellan AFB, 11 years at Edwards AFB) and former Fullbrigh Scholar (Bonn, West Germany 1979-80). However, his primary passion has always been researching and writing about German military operations during WWII, and primarily on the eastern front. He has published seven books (and a half dozen articles) on this topic. We asked him some questions by e-mail about his research and his latest books.

Sep2023

The men who were written out of the story of D-Day

Forgotten is the story of an all-black battalion whose crucial contributions on D-Day have gone unrecognized to the present. In this blend of military and social history, Linda Hervieux brings to life the injustices of 1940s Jim Crow America and finally pays tribute to the valor of these brave young men. We asked her some questions by e-mail about her book.

Feb2023

‘The unending journey’ is part of a constant fight against the far-right in all its forms

Iris Mavraki (1954) is a singer and political artist from Greece living in England. Her Jewish mother Frida Wenig-Berliner fled in 1938 from Austria to Rhodes where she met her future husband and father of Iris. He was a Greek, involved in the resistance against the Italian Fascists. Together they fled to Africa where Iris was born after the war. In 2021 she published a book about her family history, titled ‘The Unending Journey’. We asked her by e-mail some questions about this publication and the story of her family.

Jan2023

Voices of veterans' stories must be passed on

TRANSLATED BY FERNANDO LYNCH – Frank van Lunteren has been working on the history of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division since 2001. This unit fought, among other things, during Operation Market Garden and the Ardennes Offensive. The historian born and raised in Arnhem has published five books on the regiment. May 1st, 2022, marked the 80th anniversary of the 504th PIR. Reasons enough to ask Frank van Lunteren a couple of questions about his research on this platoon unit.

Dec2022

"With trivializing remarks, we will not achieve a better understanding of the Dutch resistance"

TRANSLATED BY FERNANDO LYNCH – The British publisher Osprey Publishing published a book on resistance and collaboration in the Netherlands this spring. The authors are the Dutch friends Michel Wenting and Klaas Castelein. The title is The Dutch Resistance 1940-45, World War II Resistance and Collaboration in the Netherlands. The richly illustrated publication, with drawings by Mark Stacey, is the 245th volume in the publisher's Elite series. We asked the authors some questions about their book via e-mail.

Nov2021

Searching for Nazi escape routes by bike in an empty Berlin

Escaping Hitler's Bunker is the latest book by Sjoerd J. de Boer. It is an overview of the last ten days of Hitler's life. Subsequently it follows the escape of various groups and individuals from that last day when they were in Hitler's vicinity. It is the first time that all escape routes are mapped in a book. In word and images, author and WW 2 expert Sjoerd de Boer tells the stories of the best known occupants of the bunker and the Reichskanzlei. And he reports about various eye witnesses who told him after the war how they had attempted to escape. We asked him a few questions by e-mail about his book.

Oct2021

Illegal murders in Auschwitz

WWII specialist Kevin Prenger wrote: 'A Judge in Auschwitz' about SS judge Konrad Morgen. In 1943, this judge paid a visit to concentration camp Auschwitz in order to investigate malpractices in the camp – as strange as it may sound. The occasion was a parcel, sent from the camp and containing chunks of gold and which was intercepted by customs. In the camp, Morgen discovered this smuggling affair was the tip of an iceberg: camp guards in their masses were guilty of theft and corruption. Whereas in the gas chambers of Nazi-Germany millions of Jews are being killed, Morgen is engaged in gathering evidence of 'illegal' murders. The Dutch History website Historiek.net questioned author Kevin Prenger about his remarkable book.

Oct2021

WWII was above all won by the blood and sacrifice of the Soviet people

Russia’s losses during the Second World War were beyond imagination and touched the lives of an entire population caught between a brutal and murderous invader and a ruthless leadership at home. Soviet victory over the Nazis, which effectively won the war, according to the author, was the end result of effort and sacrifice by the ordinary millions who were totally committed to saving their motherland'. The humanity of the ordinary Soviet citizen in uniform is often forgotten because of later Cold War narratives propagated East and West for differing ideological reasons. With Red Star at War Colin Turbett seeks to redress these imbalances. We asked him some questions about his book by e-mail.

Apr2021

The Netherlands Carillon will finally sound harmoniously after May 5

In 1951, the Dutch government decided to donate a carillon to the United States as a gesture of gratitude for the liberation and the Marshall aid. The instrument initially consisted of 49 bells and ended up in a modernist bell tower right next to Arlington National Cemetery with a view on the American capital of Washington D.C. In Bells for America, Diederik Oostdijk describes the arduous history of the Netherlands Carillon. The author is professor of English and American literature at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. We asked him several questions by e-mail about his book and the restoration of the instrument. The text was translated by Arnold Palthe.

Sep2020

The strong faith of RAF veteran John Henry Meller

TracesOfWar employee Wijnand de Gelder recently reviewed the book The Boy With Only One Shoe by RAF veteran John Henry Meller (1924). In his early youth, at the age of three, the writer was severely burned with third-degree burns by boiling water. Here, according to his own words, he had a near-death experience: he saw a glowing light and a staircase far into the clouds. As he climbed and climbed he saw a kind of angel in a gate. He didn't want to let him enter heaven: You can't come in - because you only have one shoe!

Sep2020

How the story of Horsa 166 and the 13 Platoon travels through time

[TRANSLATED BY: FRANCOIS DUMAS] 'No Return Flight' tells about author Haks Walburgh Schmidt's search for the occupants of the Horsa glider 166 that landed near Arnhem on September 18, 1944. The men who set foot on Dutch soil belonged to the British 13 Platoon of the 1st Airborne Border Regiment. A quest that lasted almost 20 years, which eventually led to a poignant image of the Battle of Arnhem. In the fascinating stories from before, during, and after the battle, the human aspect and the personal experience of the soldiers are central. With the 76th anniversary of the Battle of Arnhem, we asked Haks Walburgh Schmidt some questions about his book via email.

Apr2020

"Deep in the core there is something not right in the way we commemorate"

[TRANSLATED BY: THIJS DE VEEN] During the Bachelor and Master American Studies at the University of Groningen, Sebastiaan Vonk specialized in how wars and other events are commemorated. That resulted in the (English) graduation thesis “War is Hell, but Damned Exciting”. Based on “battlefield tourism” the thesis asks whether the way history is dealt with can indeed prevent the repetition of history. The thesis was nominated for the Theodore Roosevelt American History Award and in the meantime has been published. We asked Sebastiaan a number of questions through e-mail about his thesis.

Apr2020

Roger Moorhouse wanted to bring Polish voices back into the narrative of the 1939 campaign

Roger Moorhouse is a historian and author specialising in modern German and Central European history, with particular interest in Nazi Germany, the Holocaust and World War Two in Europe. A visiting professor at the College of Europe in Warsaw, he is also the author of a number of books on modern German history, including Killing Hitler, Berlin at War, The Third Reich in 100 Objects and The Devils' Alliance. His latest book First to Fight: The Polish War 1939 - on the September Campaign that opened World War Two in Europe - was published in September 2019. We asked him some questions by e-mail about this book.

Apr2020

Crashed in the hostile nature of Netherlands New Guinea

[TRANSLATED BY: THIJS DE VEEN] In the summer of 1944 not only Normandy was the stage of war against a ruthless occupier. In the East too the allied forces were fighting a battle. In Netherlands New Guinea the Americans, Australians and Dutch fought side by side against the Japanese. In his new book KAIS Bas Kreuger tells the story of a lesser known, nonetheless very interesting history that took place at this war front.

Nov2019

War from the perspective of the man who did the actual fighting

Volker Griesser is the writer of The Lions of Carentan, a book about he Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 6 during the period 1943-1945. We asked the author some questions by e-mail.

Jun2019

Rough Guides follows in the footsteps of the liberators

On 1 July 2019 Liberation Route Europe Foundation and Rough Guides present a travel book about the liberation of Europe during World War II, titled Travel the Liberation Route Europe. The book covers hundreds of locations through regions in nine different countries, focusing on the liberation routes of the Allied advance. TracesOfWar.com asked the authors, Nick Inman and Joe Staines some questions by e-mail.

Polish airmen fought for the freedom of others

Mar2019

DigitalBattlefieldTours unlocks military tactics to a wide audience

Researching his father’s WWII history became a passion for Steve Snyder

Amazon Books (EN)

Who was the owner of the photo album from Dachau?

The British people welcomed African American servicemen with open arms

"There seems to never be an end to cool historic places to cover"

Black pilots had to fight for every step forward

4,500 crashes in Scotland on more than 700 pages

G.I. Stories 1941-1945 wants to bring the story of the American soldier to a larger audience

The German Ostheer became bogged down in a war of attrition it could never win

The men who were written out of the story of D-Day

‘The unending journey’ is part of a constant fight against the far-right in all its forms

Voices of veterans' stories must be passed on

"With trivializing remarks, we will not achieve a better understanding of the Dutch resistance"

Searching for Nazi escape routes by bike in an empty Berlin

Illegal murders in Auschwitz

WWII was above all won by the blood and sacrifice of the Soviet people

The Netherlands Carillon will finally sound harmoniously after May 5

The strong faith of RAF veteran John Henry Meller

How the story of Horsa 166 and the 13 Platoon travels through time

"Deep in the core there is something not right in the way we commemorate"

Roger Moorhouse wanted to bring Polish voices back into the narrative of the 1939 campaign

Crashed in the hostile nature of Netherlands New Guinea

War from the perspective of the man who did the actual fighting

Rough Guides follows in the footsteps of the liberators

Polish airmen fought for the freedom of others

"The role of the Dutch Resistance in the war is totally under-estimated"

The story of the 'Nazi Titanic' Robert P. Watson had to tell

Latest news

Domains

More information

Contact