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For the duration of The Great War, the historic Belgium market town of Ypres was in a strategically critical position near to the British front lines and it is one of the most infamous parts of the Western Front from the awful fighting that happened here.

The city itself ended up being in the middle of the Ypres Salient, a piece of the front line protruding towards German lines. Historically, Ypres can certainly be traced back to the 12th century. In the face of decades of fighting and occupation, the town grew but with the outbreak of The First World War, it was under German occupation.

The 1st Battle of Ypres tin October and November 1914 saw Britain and her Allies capture the town from the German Army and irrespective of vicious fighting around Ypres until finally the war concluded in 1918, the Germans did not recapture Ypres.

However, during the four years of The First World War, Ypres suffered a fearful toll while four big battles took place about here. During the Second Battle of Ypres in April and May 1915, the Germans recaptured the high ground towards the east of Ypres. The area covered the village of Passchendaele.

In 1917, without doubt one of the most ferocious battles of the Great War happened. The Third Battle of Ypres or Passchendaele saw Britain and her Allies recapture the ridge though with a terrible cost. From July and November 1917, there was approximately half a million deaths and injuries on both sides and Ypres was nearly destroyed by German heavy guns.

The important Cloth Hall and most other buildings were destroyed and years of heritage were gone. In 1933, rebuilding began on the Cloth Hall and it was at long last completed in 1967 having been carefully reconstructed to bring back its heritage. Presently, the Cloth Hall in Ypres houses the In Flanders Fields Museum.

Throughout The First World War, the Menin Gate was simply an exit cut through the eastern ramparts of Ypres. A large number of soldiers would’ve marched via this exit along the way to the front lines. In 1927, the Menin Gate Memorial was unveiled. It commemorates the names of over 54,000 soldiers who sadly are still missing on the battlefields across the Ypres Salient and each night, the Last Post ceremony will take place here at 8pm by the grateful citizens of Ypres.

Throughout World War I, the Ypres Salient saw some of the worst action between 1914 and 1918.

Brandhoek Cemetery is the place Captain Noel Chavasse is buried. Captain Chavasse is one of merely 3 men to have been awarded Britain’s top award for valour, the Victoria Cross. In addition, he was also accorded the Military Cross. I’m currently reading through a book titled “In Foreign Fields” by Dan Collins and it is about troopers who have been accorded medals in Afghanistan and Iraq. When you understand what a soldier was required to achieve so as to be accorded an MC, it makes you understand what a brave man Capt Chavasse was particularly as he was a member of the Royal Medical Corps and never fired a shot throughout the conflict.

My next stop was close to the village of Passchendaele at the largest sized British Military Cemetery at Tynecot. Upwards of 12,000 troops are buried here. From Tynecot, you’ll be able to see for several miles everywhere over fields and it seems tough to think of the carnage that was there 90 years ago. The visitors centre provides a background of the area as the names of several of the dead and missing are put out calmly over speakers.

From Tynecot, I started to head back on the way to Ypres stopping at Hill 61 (Sanctuary Wood) on the way back. There’s a compact museum and a few conserved trenches . Throughout my trip, the climate wasn’t kind and while it had been nothing like as lousy as conditions would have been all through The Great War, the bottom of the trenches still looked quite awful. It cost a few Euros to get in and this was the first place I started to notice the effects of the notorious mud.

My next intended stop was the Hooge Crater. As previously in the day, I had a hard time trying to locate it although I did find a modest independent museum known as the Hooge Crater Museum which in fact had an intriguing assortment of artefacts such as a British Ambulance and a Victoria Cross. My sightseeing for the day was not complete as I still wanted to check out the popular Cloth Hall that was just about ruined (since totally reconstructed) and the Last Post ceremony which is carried out at 8pm every evening at the Menin Gate. I always find the Last Post extremely haunting and moving to hear. After it was finished, 2 wreaths were placed by young British soldiers and was followed by a recital from Laurence Binyon’s “For The Fallen”

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.

The key part of most visits to Ypres is the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate every evening at 8 o’clock.

Although it was officially established in July 1940, the SOE (Special Operations Executive) had been created in 1938 with the combination of 3 current, top secret sections just after Germany annexed Austria. Churchill’s Secret Army was directed to “Set Europe Ablaze”.

SOE operatives were directed to various Nazi occupied countries to simultaneously cause destruction behind German lines and in addition start to locate local resistance groups they would likely work with once the occasion for invasion came. Theatres of Operation involved France, Belgium, Poland, Germany, Yugoslavia, Greece, Hungary, Albania, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Denmark, Romania, Abyssinia and the Far East.

As operatives operated deep in Nazi held territory and they were recruited from an assortment of social class and background. The key criteria was that the probable agent had exhaustive understanding of the land they would operate in and in a position to pass as a local of that country. For that reason, those with dual nationality were highly desirable.

The renowned plane used by the SOE in France was the Westland Lysander. It was a small aircraft which caused it to be a whole lot more tricky to watch and was robust enough to land on makeshift landing strips. It was used to ferry operatives to and from the United Kingdom together with collecting those who needed to be interviewed in London. Pilots who had been shot down were also frequently brought back to the United Kingdom by Lysander.

Amid the SOE group were also female agents and around 30% of the female operatives delivered into France from Section F, did not survive. The types of operations in each region were wide ranging. For example, in Poland, there was limited need to stir up the local population as there was already common hatred of the Nazis. This was in comparison to areas such as Vichy France where some locals worked with with the Germans and the probability of SOE operatives being betrayed was considerably increased.

For the period of World War II, the SOE had utilised about 13,000 people who directly helped or provided somewhere in the region of 1 million operatives.

The Special Operations Executive played a significant role during World War II primarily in Europe but in other parts of the world too.

Much of what we know or have supposed about Barry and the Vale of Glamorgan, in which it is situated has been gleaned from the buildings found there, many of which have been badly neglected for too long. There are also legendary stories, such as that of Joseph of Arimathea, who traded tin in Glastonbury, just across the channel and who was one of the first missionaries to this part of the country.

Tradition maintains that the father of Caractacus took his son to Rome and was converted to Christianity. They returned to the Vale of Glamorgan with the missionary Bran the Blessed. We do know that Christianity had become fairly popular by the early 4th. Century and that south Wales sent some bishops to the Council of Rome.

One of the oldest shrines in the vicinity is St. Baruch’s Church on Barry Island, but it is also in very poor condition. Barry Island was one of the most important monastic retreats of the period in south Wales. Steep and Flat Holm islands in the Bristol Channel were also highly significant in this regard. Another very important part of the puzzle was St. Illtyd’s Seminary in Llantwit Major which had 2,200 students.

Porthkerry Point jutted out into the sea almost certainly further out than it is today and a castle was constructed there on the site of an ancient Roman fortress and naval dockyard. Many deer and wolf bones have been found between Barry and Sully, indicating the presence of these animals in great numbers. Arrowheads, flints, bone needles and coins have also been found.

Barry Island was first called ‘Baruch’s Island’, as far as we know, after Saint Baruch. St. Baruch had been found on one of the beeches, washed up dead in 700 AD. He is known to have drowned when returning from Flat Holm, which was commonly used as a retreat by religious people over Lent.

He and Gwelches were both students of St. Cadoc and when they had got back from Flat Holm, they realized that they had left their enchiridion (religious manual) behind. St. Cadoc made them go back for it. Neither monk returned from the trip alive.St. Illtyd, St. Baruch’s most famous disciple was educated there too.

Barry Island has had several names, including Island of the Saints and Insular of Peiros. St. Peiro was the leader of the seminary after St. Illtyd and the mentor of St. Samson. St. Doeninas was also a leader of another abbey near Friars Point on the island.

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Today, the Polish city of Gdansk is a fashionable tourist destination. Along with it is adjoining towns of Sopot and Gdynia, people travel here to take delight in the beaches, ambiance and way of life. It’s location on the Baltic has meant that Gdansk being among the most important ports in Northern Europe.

Formerly known as Danzig, the metropolis was the subject of dispute involving Germany and Poland and it had been right here where the opening shots of World War II were fired as Nazi Germany formally annexed the city and incorporated into Prussia.

Soon after World War II, Poland came under control of the Soviet Union and became a key place in the Soviet ship building programme. Gdansk was obviously a busy shipyard on the Baltic coast and it had been at the Lenin Shipyards where Lech Walesa’s Solidarity Union had been put together in 1980. It had become the 1st union in a Warsaw Pact nation that was not in the control of the Communist Party.

Under pressure from Moscow, the Polish government tried to eliminate Solidarity by arresting vital union people and imposing Martial Law. However, the Polish people were in no mood to be subdued and Solidarity became a nation wide movement, in due course forcing the government into talks in 1989. The union was critical in the beginning of the fall of Communism and the report of their activities can be found in the Solidarity Museum. Addititionally there is a memorial in Gdansk to the 45 shipyard workers who were killed in the protests in opposition to the Communist regime in 1970.

These days, Gdansk is a lovely city with an abundance of history with the lively buzz of a modern metropolis. Various of the old properties ruined in the war have been reconstructed and there are a good amount of night clubs, restaurants and night clubs to rest thought the night. It has been picked as a host city for the Euro 2012 Finals using the newly constructed PGE Arena planned to have three group matches and a quarterfinal match.

Gdansk is one of the most important ports on the Baltic and it was in the shipyards of the city where Communism began to crumble. It is also one of the host venues for the Euro 2012 Championships.

On the 9th May 1945, the guns fell quiet as the war in Europe came to a finish. The Western Allies and the Soviet army had smashed the German forces and on a yearly basis, Russia celebrates the day with a victory parade on the famous Red Square in Moscow.

2010 is the 65th anniversary and this year’s celebration in Moscow will be a bit extraordinary. Presentations launched a few days earlier when twenty-two British veterans from the Arctic convoys were given medals by the Russian envoy to the Britain, Yury Fedotov. The veterans had helped transport provisions to the northern Russian cities of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. In total, nearly 1,400 ships help keep the Soviet Union supplied. These supplies were vital to the Soviets.

As part of the Victory Parade, there will be a fly past of about 130 planes and helicopters from various periods of history. Over the years, Red Square has seen numerous parades created to show off the might of the Soviet forces but this year, the parade will have a more international feel about it.

Troops of the Welsh Regiment from the British Army, US 18th Infantry Regiment, pilots from the French Normandie-Nieman squadron and an honour guard from the Polish military will all march with army units from Russian Federation and other CIS nations.

As well as the Victory Parade in Moscow, there will also be events in other cities too. In Ukraine, 75 Russian paratroopers will march through Kiev as the country celebrates the conclusion of World War II which was also widely known as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union. The Russian unit was asked to participate by the Ukraine government, an offer their government were only to happy to accept.

Kiev is the capThe cKievyal cThe cKievyy of Ukraine and has a history reaching back to the 6th century. The cKievy will also host the Euro 2012 Championship Final.

Throughout the build up to the Allied invasion in Normandy in 1944, a terrific deal of preparation and organizing was required. Data was consistently being gained by a network of spies whilst materials and equipment were being brought to England. These would be vital all through and following what was and still is the largest invasion force ever assembled.

Organisation and exercises was a necessary aspect of the plans. Rangers who were to attack Point du Hoc became proficient by climbing cliffs and soldiers staged practice beach landings. A big component of the planning of secrecy and the locals of the UK were required to play their part. In Devon, an area called Slapton Sands was identified as a superb practice area due to the parallels with the Utah landing beach in Normandy.

Exercises for the landings started in late 1943 with the main invasion scheduled for June 1944. Over 3,000 residents were relocated from the local area around Slapton Sands. Many exercises were organised and one of the biggest was Operation Tiger involving roughly 30,000 men (approximately 33 % of the present strength of the British Army) were to be involved.

Exercise Tiger occurred in late April 1944. The first practice landings were made without any complications but in the course of the exercise scheduled for the early hours of 28th April 1944, disaster hit. German E-Boats on patrol from Cherbourg intercepted a convoy of 8 LST (Landing ships). They fired torpedoes at the LSTs and desperate men leaped into the icy waters to get away the sinking ships. Many hadn’t been instructed how to put on their life preservers and perished.

In addition to the E-Boat attacks, more men died on the beaches themselves. The use of live ammunition had been authorised and in addition to the fatalities in the sea, there were further casualties by friendly fire as they strayed into the wrong sections of the beaches.

Overall in excess of 900 men were killed during Exercise Tiger and it was nearly forty years before the facts were made public. Ironically, only nearly 200 men died on Utah Beach during the real landings in Normandy on 6th June 1944. Today, a Sherman Tank is on display at Slapton Sands as a memorial to the men who died throughout Exercise Tiger.

The landings on 6th June 1944 at Normandy were carried out by the greatest invasion fleet the world had seen. Exercise Tiger had been part of the preparations for the invasion.

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In the Twelfth Century, William de Barri owned Barry Castle, but it was attacked and destroyed by Llewellyn Bren in 1316. It is said that the Cavaliers rebuilt it, but that it was subsequently destroyed again by the Roundheads, never to be rebuilt.

The Norman invaders were thoroughly detested by the local people and they had to build large mansions to defend themselves from frequent assaults on them by the people of the valleys and the mountains. During the reign of Henry III, there were 12 castles within six miles of Barry. In Glamorgan, there were 30 castles and in South Wales as a whole there were 150 !

Porthkerry and its church which lies on the wooded hill to the west of it are said to have taken their name from Ceri, who, in turn, is said to have founded a port there, ie ‘Port Ceri’. People say that Ceri ap Caid, the King of Essyllwg, lived in Porthkerry before the Christian era and that his bard, Corvinor, was the first to build a ship with sails and a rudder for the ‘race of Cymru’. Some believe that Ceri was a nephew or grandson of Caractacus (Caradog) and that he took over the leadership of the government in South Wales when Caractacus had to journey to Rome.

John Wesley preached in the Porthkerry Church pulpit, and sometimes outside too, between 1741 and 1743. There are two very old churches still in use today in Barry, St. Cadocs Church in Cadoxton and Merthyr Dyfan Church in Merthyr Dyfan. One-hundred-and-fifty years ago, Cadoxton was the largest village in the Barry area: for example, in 1844 the Parliamentary register contained 25 names: 20 from Cadoxton and five from Barry. The one church was dedicated to St. Cadoc, who used to spend Lent on Flat Holm and Barry Island. The village took its name from the church, which was founded in 800 AD.

Merthyr Dyfan Church was founded in 600 AD and the name means Dyfan The Martyr. There were two saints of this name: one came to Barry to Christianize the inhabitants; the second lived in the 6th. Century and was the son of a Welsh chieftain. His sister was also martyred, giving her name to the town of Merthyr Tydfil.

The Christian faith grew exponentially in the Vale of Glamorgan and in the middle of the 2nd. Century, Llewrwg, Prince of Siluria, became the first king, anywhere in the world of all time, to be baptized into the Christian faith. He sent to Rome for more Chritian teachers and was sent Dyfan and Fagan. The former was martyred near the site of the church and the latter was canonized. St. Fagan’s just outside Cardiff was named after him.

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In the 18th. Century evidence of Neolithic man was discovered in the form of dishes, saws, knives, flints, a scraper, a prehistoric horn celt with obscure markings, a spokeshave and some arrowheads, amongst other things. Unfortunately, although these things reside safely in the Museum of Cardiff, no one thought it worth excavating at the time and now residences stand on the sites.

They also found an ancient Roman kitchen complete with utensils and food remains which appeared to have been abandoned in a hurry like the Marie Celeste. That wasn’t investigated either. In 1533, the King’s Antiquary, Leland, was told to tour all places where records were held. It took him nine years and his description of the island was as follows:

“It is about a mile in circumference and has good corn, grass and some wood, and there is no dwelling on the Island, but in the midst of it is a fair little Chapel of St. Baruch which is visited by many pilgrims. It took the name Barri from this holy man who was buried there and whose remains are yet on the Island”. (The Welsh name for Barry is Y Barri).

Vikings ravaged the coast of South Wales in the tenth century. They often took hostages from the monasteries, but they did not seem to want to live in the area. For a long tim, the island was known as the “Saints’ Retreat” or the “Island of Saints”. Afterwards, in the sixteenth century, it was inhabited by smugglers and pirates and was called the “Smugglers’ Fortress”. This became serious as it grew simultaneously with the rise of Bristol, Britain’s second largest port.

The island soon became the centre for smuggling and piracy in the Bristol Channel. In 1784, Barry Island became known as ‘The Fortress of Knight’. Kight was the most frequent and feared pirate in the channel but people were too afraid to speak out against him. He was also a local celebrity. His ship was armed and named ‘John O’ Combe’. The navy eventually routed him and he moved down to Lundy Island, which he also turned into a fortress. However, he and his successor, Arthur, went back to Barry so often that Customs requested the government to send a cutter to Penarth and 60 soldiers to Barry on permanent duty.

The small seaside village of Rhoose, five miles from Barry, was so well-known for its wreckers that George II sent troops to break up them up. They landed at Aberthaw, just up the coast a bit further, “the Rhoose men’s favourite landing zone, from where they could easily transport the contraband along Port Road to Cardiff, the main market for such things”. While digging out for the docks at Barry in the late nineteenth century, several large caves were filled in. They had probably been used by the pirates who were moved on in about 1850.

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Portuguese politics managed at several various levels. The particular constitution and the laws made the first level. This formal framework of government often seemed strict, legalistic, and impenetrable, especially to outsiders. Yet, these types of constitutional and legal structures had been more obvious and much more easily understood compared to other levels of the Portuguese system of government.

The next level contains political parties and interest groups. Because of its legalistic tradition, a stringent separation endured within Portugal between the formal governmental system and the sphere associated with political parties and awareness groups. Portuguese were known to adhere to the official system of government yet to denigrate interest groups and political parties. While Portuguese democracy prospered through the 1980s, nevertheless, political parties and interest groups gained higher popularity as an integral part of the program of government.

Not like these first couple of levels, the third level of Portuguese politics was largely invisible and was probably the toughest for outsiders to go into and comprehend. This particular level contains the informal connections, family associations, interpersonal ties, kinships, and patronage systems which were so much the heart of the Portuguese political system. Seldom been vocal of or described by the Portuguese, had these interactions enabled the Portuguese system to work and to cut with vast layers of red tape.

Most of the informal networks that had long steered Portuguese matters were severely interrupted through the Revolution of 1974 when many displaced their property as well as their positions. On the other hand, several systems had been regained in succeeding years, and others were formed through the making new of completely new political and financial affairs. Understanding of this particular third level of Portuguese politics was crucial for the complete understanding of the particular formal and also the informal dynamics within the Portuguese politics.

Since the formation of the democratic republic and its constitution in 1976, four main political parties emerged; the CDS (Centro Democratica Social), PPD/PSD (Partido Popular Democratico/Partido Social Democratica), PS (Partido Socialista) and PCP (Partida Comunista Portuges). The PS and the PSD dominate the regional and national governments and also have similar base politics, both with focus on market economic system and pro- Europe. The particular President is chosen for five years, is commander in chief of the armed forces, and can serve a couple of consecutive terms. Other main parts of the government would be the Council of Ministers (the government), the Assembly of the Republic (the parliament) and the judiciary. The parliament comprises 230 members whom serve terms of 4 years and are elected using a form of proportional manifestation. The two independent areas of the Azores and Madeira also have their own legislative power and governments ever since 1976, and distribute legislative proposals to the Portuguese Parliament (Assembleia da Republica).

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