History From The Homefront

02/04/2026

Could people please, please make sure you have approval before booking a workshop. One school I waited 6 weeks for payment and now the schools are off till the 20th and now I will have to wait till they are back till i get paid.

30/03/2026

A great day at Dalbeattie with the winners Mincemeat with 33 points!

12/03/2026

What a great two days at Turriff Primary😎

12/03/2026

What's in a name?

Day two at Turriff Primary

During World War II, the Allies pulled off one of the most genius psychological warfare operations ever — Operation Cornflakes.They didn’t bomb cities… they ...

08/03/2026

Leith, where I sprang from!

Today (8 March) in 1859, Kenneth Grahame, author of "The Wind in the Willows", was born in Edinburgh. 🙂
And in 1940, an artillery shell was fired into Leith from Inchkeith Defensive Battery! Here's the report:
"Several people had remarkable escapes when a 100lb shell crashed through the walls of this house in Leith, Scotland. The shell which had been fired from a costal battery across the bows of a trawler, struck the water, ricocheted, skimmed the housetops, went through a factory roof and struck a house."
The picture shows the local police inspecting the damage; the story "allegedly" was that a young lieutenant arrived on Inchkeith with the Royal Artillery during these dark war years and the gun crew were ordered to fire a salvo across the bows of the trawler; despite the attempts of the gun crew who tried to tell this young officer that the shells were not blanks, the officer dismissed their protests and curtly ordered the crew to fire resulting in the shelling of Salamander Street; thankfully no one was injured; it was amusingly known in Leith as the "Battle of Salamander Street"
Thanks goes to "The Spirit of Leithers" page.

04/03/2026

Next stop Torbain Primary School, Kirkcaldy!

27/02/2026

Has it been two years?

24/02/2026

Good evening good people.

I've sent emails using [email protected]
and only some have been going through, the replies I have given to enquiries as to cost and availability may have not went through so if I have seemed to have "ignored" your enquiries I haven't so if you'd like please do text PM here or text:
07736994760 and I'll get back to you.

16/02/2026

05/02/2026

That's the first school of the year, back home after setting off at 6am.

A bit rusty, and but eventually got going...

Thank you Birkhill Primary for having me over .

01/02/2026

Corporal Rodley was born in Germany as Hans Rosenfeld to a Jewish family and spent his early life under the growing shadow of N*zism. The violence of Kristallnacht in November 1938 marked a turning point, convincing his family that there was no future for them in Germany. Hans managed to escape to Britain as a refugee, leaving behind his homeland, language and much of his former life. In Britain he rebuilt himself, anglicising his name to Rodley and embracing his adopted country with a fierce sense of loyalty and gratitude.
When war broke out, Rodley volunteered for the British Army, determined to fight the regime that had driven him into exile. He later joined the Parachute Regiment, one of the army’s most demanding and elite formations. Service as a paratrooper required exceptional physical endurance and mental resilience, qualities Rodley possessed in abundance. For him, the war was not abstract or distant, it was a deeply personal struggle against the ideology that had persecuted his family and destroyed his homeland.
In September 1944 he took part in Operation Market Garden, the ambitious Allied attempt to seize key bridges in the Netherlands and force a rapid advance into Germany. Dropped into fierce fighting around Arnhem, Rodley and his comrades faced overwhelming German resistance, shortages of ammunition and constant artillery and small arms fire. The irony was stark, a German born refugee now fighting in British uniform against soldiers of his former country.
Corporal Rodley was killed in action on 23 September 1944 during the brutal battle for Arnhem.

28/01/2026

An oldie and great wee story about the Home Guard with some well known British actors - can you spot an early - ohh I daren't mention his name!

💥 Light Up the Sky! (1960) is a charming British comedy-drama that blends wartime grit with heart and humour, following a ragged searchlight unit trying to ...