Western Front Association . . . was formed with the aim of furthering interest in the period 1914-1918, to perpetuate the memory, courage and comradeship of all those who served their countries in France and Flanders and their own countries during The Great War. It does not seek to justify or glorify war. It is not a re-enactment society, nor is it commercially motivated. It is entirely non-political. The object of The Association is to educate the public in the history of The Great War with particular reference to the Western Front. Applications for membership are welcomed from anyone with a like mind.
(this above was taken from their intro on their Home Page .. a most worthwhile site indeed).

World War I . . Trenches on the Web . . . a complete directory of maps of the main areas of operation in Europe, 1914-1918.

World War II . Maps on the Web . . more detailed maps, of World War II, many theatres of war, Europe, Far East, etc . . eg. Places in Britain within range of German fighters.

Army Roll of Honour at The National Archives .. can be used to find a war grave or burial site. Use in conjunction with the Commonwealth War Graves site below.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission . . the first place to look if you have name, service, which war, and knowing a rank will help enormously with the most common names. Includes the Merchant Navy.

The Royal British Legion . . the quintessential ex-serviceman's organisation, famous for organising the annual Festival of Remembrance in the Royal Albert Hall, as well as the annual Poppy Day collections nationwide.

MOD Records and Contacts . . . for all service records, an overall site linking to records offices for all three armed services, and also information on how to apply for copies of medals and decorations awarded, etc.

World War 1 Medal Rolls .... Over half of the army's records for men who served in WW1 were destroyed by enemy action when bombs fell on Whitehall in WW2. Years later, someone cleverly realised that if a man or woman served abroad in the First War, then they were almost certainly awarded a campaign medal. And those records survived the bombing. This is a database of those Medal Rolls, all 5.5 million men and women, including those who died, all on one site. It came on line in Jan 04, and should now be complete. To send for an image of one particular record, the cost is £3.50, payable by credit card online. A wonderful resource, found at the National Archives, ie, Kew Records Centre in London.

The Veterans' Agency . . an MOD site with lots more links and information.

The National Army Museum . . . in Royal Hospital Road, London.

RAF Museum, HENDON ... for more links to archives and RAF history.

RAF Records Office . . . for links for addresses for service records of all personnel.

WAAFS . . . to the Women's Auxilliary Air Force Association, the women's section of the Royal Air Force.

WRACS . . . to the Women's Royal Army Corps Association, includes and incorporates the ATS, or Auxilliary Transport Services, who were the women pilots that delivered warplanes direct from the factories to the squadrons.

National Maritime Museum . . . in Greenwich holds records for casualty lists of merchant shipping losses. This goes to the Collections page, because the Home Page didn't seem to be working when I tried it, showing an error (29/01/05).

WRNS . . . the the Women's Royal Naval Service Benevolent Trust ... the women's section of the Royal Navy.

NAVAL HISTORY NET .... NEW ... a truly incredible and valuable resource, and growing. Devised and provided by Gordon Smith as a tribute to his father, killed at sea in WW2, and also his grandfather, who served in both world wars. It lists EVERY naval casualty of the RN and Dominion Navies ... including Royal Marines ... who were killed or died, by enemy action or by accident, whilst in service at sea, or on a shore station, including between the wars. For instance, it is incredible how many men, and women, we lost just to road accidents in foreign ports. Also lists all our warships, where they served, what happened to them, in fact, just about all you want to know about our Royal Navy history. It's sobering to see lists of dead, day by day as we go through the months of war, and see listed the whole ship's company of sometimes hundreds of men, often designated as MPK .. missing presumed killed, but the exact fate of that ship is still unknown .. just that she was sunk or bombed and was lost without trace with all hands ..... very, very moving.

Royal Naval Museum . . . at HM Naval Base, Portsmouth, includes links to history and records for Royal Marines.

Royal Marines Museum . . at Eastney Barracks, Southsea. Includes links to RM Commandos., and how to train to be a Royal Marine Commando.

Royal Naval Patrol Service Association . . . shown here because so many men from Hull and the Humber ports volunteered, often as whole crews together in much the same fashion as the Pals Battalions of the Great War, that I thought it proper to have a direct link. There's a picture of the RNPS Memorial at Lowestoft, as well as their museum and HQ in what was HMS Europa in Sparrow's Nest Gardens in Lowestoft. The memorial overlooks both the gardens and the sea. This is for all those who served in "Harry Tate's Navy" ... brave men, and hitherto their contribution, no less vital than say the pilots of the Battle of Britain, has so often been unrecognised. Minesweeping, anti-submarine patrols, air-sea rescue, and a lot of 'dangerous and dirty' jobs no one else would willingly undertake, all fell to the men of this unique if unglamorous outfit. Taking on a submarine in only a fishing trawler armed with a 12-pdr gun, doing both Atlantic and Arctic Convoy escort duty, landing Special Forces and reconnaisance units on enemy shores, all no mean feats. And for those that survived, when the war was over, it was simply back to the fishing and earning a living in one of the most dangerous occupations on this earth ... or sea. We're proud to honour them here.

Fleet Air Arm Museum . . . at RNAS Yeovilton, Somerset, will change your perception of aircraft Museums. The Museum has the largest collection of Naval aircraft anywhere in Europe together with the first British built Concorde which you can go on-board and visit the cockpit. Find out more by exploring this Web Site and then see us for yourself.

Eden Camp . . . finally, if you didn't live through these wars, but want to know much more about them, the privations and hardships your family had to bear, experience a little of the atmosphere of the times, then you should visit this excellent museum. I use the word "experience" advisedly ... you will not feel the real fear and cold and pain, but you may come to understand a little, just a little.

Remember this if you go .. as you pay your money to go in, you know you will be coming out. Also, you have the benefit of 60 years of history that tells us that, not only did Britain and the free world win, but that we were right do do what we did. Your forebears neither knew for certain we were going to win, until roughly 1943-44, and for much of the war, most didn't really know what was going on elsewhere. To put it simply, folks in Coventry and London, suffering as they did, had no idea that Hull was having it just as bad .. because no-one told them, except by heresay, and that was just rumour when all said and done. Men falling on the field of battle at El Alamain were not to know that this was to be a turning point. Few held the full story. We know all this now. And when the full story came to be told, few realised how much of a close call we'd all had .. we very nearly didn't win.

For those of you that did experience all this, and served, and though frightened to death, still went back off leave for another dose of what you knew was coming, still went out at night firewatching, still went to work daily not knowing if your work was still there, still ushered your family and children down the shelters almost nightly, I salute you .. ! And so should everyone else. Most of us will never know, let alone repay, the debt that we owe you.

All these above sites will contain many, many links to lead you further on into your research. Also remember that there are hundreds if not thousands of websites posted by indiviudals, service veterans, their families, that document particular regiments, squadrons, or ships. Use Google and enter basic details : for instance, enter SQUADRON 160 RAF CEYLON ... and see what pops up. You'll find some instances of where ex-aircrew have posted up actual reports of Air Accident Investigations for losses of individual aircraft. There's information now on the web for all to see that was not given or available to the relatives of lost servicemen at the time of their deaths.

Similarly, search for ships by name, especially the more famous ones ... type "HMS HOOD" and use the inverted commas to force a search for the whole name. Many names are thoroughly ambigouos, such as the county class cruisers like the SUFFOLK and DORSETSHIRE ... you need to box a bit clever with these, and add the name of the theatre of war, or action, or enemy ship they were engaged with. Type SUFFOLK BISMARCK and see what pops up. There are 57,000 references, the vast majority pointing to the ships themselves, though some will coincidentally be referring to the county of Suffolk and some gentry that was related to Count von Bismarck himself. Also with ships, after loading the links, another worthwhile search is for an IMAGE SEARCH. I did it and the first four pictures are of the Royal Navy cruiser SUFFOLK herself, and the fifth was pic of her Swordfish aircraft taken from the film, SINK THE BISMARCK, starring Kenneth More. The ways of searching are endless.

Type 4TH BTN NORTHANTS ... and 42 links pop up that contain references to that particular unit in that county regiment, some of which will link to the regimental museum itself. If you have the name of a particular action or battle, type it in ... eg SOMME NORTHAMPTHONSHIRE, and also use NORTHANTS, as when a battalion is referred to, the colloquial terminology is often used to shortened county name ... for instance, a man would have said he was in .."the 4th Northants, the 1st Leicesters, or the 8th Warwicks."

The amount of information already out there is nothing short of incredible, and this is early days in the history of the web. It's only really been growing apace for this past 10 years. Don't be put off by quantity, you'll soon learn to fly through the flotsam and jetsom of the internet and spot the information you're looking for.