News from Bill Forster | Holywell House Publishing

I am sad to have to tell you that I have no more copies left of the book I published about HMS VENOMOUS, the V & W Class destroyer on which my father served. It received wonderful reviews in the naval and maritime press and was bought by naval enthusiasts as well as the families of the men who served on her.

But my greatest pleasure was receiving an order from the son or daughter of one of those who served HMS VENOMOUS.

Miraslov Stanley Lansky and his wartime service on HMS HMS Cassandra and HMS Venomous

Miraslov Stanley Lansky and his wartime service on HMS HMS Cassandra and HMS Venomous

Il est question dans cette histoire du destroyer "Venomous" qui fit des allers retours rapides Douvres-Folkestone  et Calais-Boulogne en mai 1940. Une histoire racontée par Bill Forster avec les témoignages des officiers dont Miraslov Stanley Lansky qui vit en France.

The evacuation of British citizens from Calais in May 1940 by HMS VENOMOUS and its sister V&W Class destroyers

As German forces swept eastwards and then north to Abbeville encircling the channel ports British citizens living in Belgium and northern France desperately sought ways of escaping before it was too late. There were several British firms in Calais employing British citizens. Courtaulds viscose rayon factory extruded molten rayon through spinnerettes to produce multi filament fibres and Brampton Brothers made drive chains for bicycles and chain driven machinery. Their senior managers were often British and some employees were former "tommies" who had married French girls and stayed in France after the Great War. There were 1,648 British subjects living in the Pas de Calais and 210 of these were in Calais itself....

Alors que les forces allemandes avancent vers l'est puis vers le nord de la France à Abbeville, encerclant les ports de la Manche, les citoyens britanniques vivant en Belgique et dans le nord de la France ont désespérément cherché des moyens d'échapper avant qu'il ne soit trop tard. Il y avait plusieurs entreprises britanniques à Calais employant des citoyens britanniques: Courtaulds fabricant de la rayonne viscose fondu et extrudé à travers des filières pour produire des fibres multi-filaments et Brampton Brothers fabricant de chaînes d'entraînement pour les vélos et les machines entraînées par chaînes. Leurs dirigeants étaient souvent britanniques et certains employés étaient d'anciens "Tommies" qui avait épousé des filles françaises et sont restés en France après la Grande Guerre. Il y avait 1.648 sujets britanniques résidant dans le Pas-de-Calais et 210 d'entre eux étaient à Calais même....
Read on...

More on HMS Venomous
Hollywell House publishing & a Hard Fought ship the story of HMS Venoumous

British internees at Tost - World War 2 Talk

The story of British internees at Tost is covered at length in a book by Frederic Turner "les oubliés de 39-45 la rafle des Britanniques" (the forgotten of 39-45 the internment of the British).
Link here to an account of his book.
Frederic Turner is the son of the many tommies that fought in WWI, stayed in France after the war and married French girls. In July 1940, after the German invasion of France that led to Dunkirk and the armistice of 22 June, all British subjects that hadn't escaped to Britain were arrested and interned in Tost, upper Silesia (now in southern Poland).

I curate a web site on the long history of anglo-french friendship to keep the memory of these dramatic events of WW2. Link to it here.

My parents were fortunate to escape to England thanks to HMS Venomous on 20 May 1940. But my uncle and many other British subjects of the Calais region did not; they were arrested on 17 July 1940 and interned at Tost.

Also, among the British internees was PG Wodehouse. The BBC broadcasted on 25 March 2013 a fiction film on PG Wodehouse at Tost. Link here

With Frederic Turner, after viewing the trailer of this film, we consider it a romance that aims to rehabilitate PG Wodehouse whose conduct during his internment was not correct, as testified by several co-internees and recorded in Frederic Turner's book.

More on this story.