Alan Chanter

ww2dbaseAlan Chanter was born in London in 1947. Enlisting in the British Army in 1967, Alan saw service in Germany and Northern Ireland and visited Berlin and Cyprus. Rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant, he was twice introduced to members of the Royal Family and awarded both the General Service Medal with clasp for Northern Ireland and the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. Retiring from the Army in 1989, Alan took employment in a factory manufacturing components for machine tools until his job became redundant in 2002.

ww2dbaseAlways interested in History (particularly that relating to the Military), in 2001 Alan began writing short items for a number of History-based Internet Newsgroups. Whilst unemployed this developed into some rather lengthier essays.

ww2dbaseA retired widower with three adult children, Alan's interests now include studying the equipment, weapons, aircraft etc. from the Second World war and compiling articles for this website.

Latest Contributions

Aircraft: DH.95 Flamingo23 Aug 2023 
Aircraft: Bre.521 Bizerte21 Jun 2023 
Vehicle: SdKfz 186 Jagdtiger7 Jun 2023 
Other: Special Operations Executive29 May 2023 
Aircraft: Latécoère 29822 May 2023 
Person: Fritz Kolbe17 Apr 2023 
Person: Josephine Baker15 Mar 2023 
Vehicle: Light Tank Mk VI22 Feb 2023 
Weapon: ZB-53 vz. 3715 Feb 2023 
Weapon: ZB-6015 Feb 2023 
Person: William Joyce8 Feb 2023 
Aircraft: N-3PB25 Jan 2023 
Vehicle: Guy Armored Car18 Jan 2023 
Vehicle: Infantry Mk I Matilda11 Jan 2023 
Aircraft: Harrow4 Jan 2023 
Aircraft: Vincent28 Dec 2022 
Vehicle: UE21 Dec 2022 
Other: Special Air Service14 Dec 2022 
Aircraft: Ar 962 Dec 2022 
Vehicle: SdKfz 161/3 Möbelwagen23 Nov 2022 
Display all contributions

Photographs/Maps Contributions

Panhard Type 178 armoured cars on parade, France, circa mid-1930sEleanor Roosevelt at the launching ceremony of carrier Yorktown, Newport News, Virginia, United States, 4 Apr 1936Luigi Torelli, 1940sPe-8 bombers in flight, date unknown
See all 17 photographs of Alan Chanter

Timeline Contributions

Alan Chanter has also contributed 3,231 entries in the WW2 Timeline. A small sample of his timeline contributions is shown below.

» 7 Apr 1930: The Prison and Concentration camp system in Russia was reformed under the "Law on the Corrective Labour Camps". The OGPU camps were now grouped under the Main Administration of Corrective Labour Camps and Labour Settlements (GUITLTP) headed by OGPU official, Lazar Kogan, which was informally shortened to Gulag or Main Administration Camps, by which it has been known ever since.

» 15 Sep 1931: The Invergordon Mutiny, a mutiny by men of the British Atlantic Fleet in protest against threatened pay cuts, began.

» 14 Jun 1943: The RAF's 2nd Tactical Air Force was formed to train close support aircraft squadrons for tactical operations during Operation Overlord.

» 20 Jan 1943: Chile broke off relationships with Germany, Italy and Japan.

» 12 Jun 1944: With his company under heavy machine gun and tank fire in Burma, Rifleman Ganjo Lama crawled forward alone with a PIAT and destroyed two tanks. Despite a broken wrist and serious wounds to both hands, he knocked out a third tank by eliminating the crew. His actions earned him the Victoria Cross.

» 16 Feb 1941: The first skirmish between British and German troops in North Africa took place near Sirte, Libya.





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Visitor Submitted Comments

1. Anonymous says:
9 Aug 2016 07:34:01 AM

Your article for 9 Aug 1924 says that this was the date the Shenandoah docked with the Patoka - and may, in the date-line boundary sense of the world, be correct. However, the US Naval History and Heritage Command web site, and others, show and 8 Aug date of that event. I think you are a day off. Check: https://www.history.navy.mil/today-in-history/august-8.html
2. Stella Thornton says:
1 Sep 2017 10:08:19 AM

Please could I ask you contact me as Sgt George Benton is my grandfather and you mentioned him in one of your threads ref Dunkirk - he used a stretcher to walk over on East mole to take casualties to a ship to be casivac -my email is stellarithornton@gmail.com
Thank you so much
Stella
3. Thomas Lee says:
17 Feb 2018 01:43:54 PM

For 23 Feb 1943, AC sites "seven tankers sunk by ACOUSTIC TORPEDOES."
The Germans did not deploy such devices until march of that year, per Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G7e_torpedo#G7e

Scroll down to the citation for the model G7e/T4 Falke

All the best, Tom Lee
4. Jacquelyn Frith-Crofts says:
7 Mar 2023 02:36:36 AM

I am a great Neice of Jack Frith, killed in the Suez Maru atrocity, and have written a book on the atrocity - and you have erroneously repeated the myth that there was a survivor. this myth is sometimes presented as an 'amusing anecdote' but we the families do not find it amusing, and I would like to request that you remove the sentence ' Of the 549 British and Dutch prisoners, there was only one survivor, Kenneth Thomas, who was picked up twenty-four hours later by an Australian ship. ww2dbase [AC] '

The myth was perpetuated by COFEPOW and they have removed the source, probably from D Courant. Please refer to the family group on facebook @suezmaru
I would be grateful for your understanding on this point.
JFC

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