Category Archives: Photo Stories

The stories behind photographs relating to Operation Ladbroke, the invasion of Sicily and gliders in WW2. Also previously unseen photographs, rare photographs, new identifications of well-known photographs and analysis of photographs.

Photo Story: SAS SRS & Airborne – Agony & Ecstasy in the Med

While men of the SAS SRS assaulted a deadly gun battery, glider troops drowned in Operation Ladbroke. Returning later, the SRS remembered both the excitement and the horror.  There is a well-known photograph of SAS troopers of Major Paddy Mayne’s … Continue reading

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South Staffords near Syracuse – rare photograph

South Staffords glider troops photographed near Syracuse on the day after the epic battle for the Ponte Grande bridge – a unique picture, a dramatic story. Photographs of airborne troops taken during Operation Ladbroke, the glider assault that began the Allied invasion … Continue reading

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Unpublished shot of a tank on the Ponte Grande

A previously unseen film shows what the heroic defence of the Ponte Grande bridge by British glider troops was all about – tanks and vehicles crossing, headed into Syracuse. This is the remarkable story of how that footage came to be taken. … Continue reading

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The Lost Photos of Operation Ladbroke

Somewhere somebody has an album with some unique, unpublished photographs of Operation Ladbroke in it. Historians have seen them, but nobody knows where they are now. A plea for bringing them to light. I’m hoping readers may be able to … Continue reading

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Galpin’s Glider – New photo of Operation Ladbroke’s star landing

Staff Sergeant Dennis Galpin’s glider landing during Operation Ladbroke was famously perfect. But where was it exactly? And is that his glider in the well-known photo? There is a well-known photograph of a Horsa glider taken in Sicily after Operation Ladbroke (see it … Continue reading

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