It has been a while since the last update, as have been away in Tbilisi, Georgia, which is the other place I keep going back to and this update I thought I'd share a few of the WW2 sites from over there.
Kukia Cemetery and the German Graves of Tbilisi
Kukia Cemetery in Tbilisi holds mass graves and memorial plots from the Great Patriotic War, dedicated to the Red Army soldiers and officers who died in the city's hospitals. Tbilisi took in a great many wounded men from the front during the war, and this is where a lot of them ended up.
Having shown valor on the battlefield,
sons of all peoples
have found their rest here
in glory and peace;
the soil of Georgia
preserves their names
and their brotherhood-in-arms.
There is also a tank at the entrance to the cemetery. (I believe it is a Soviet SU-100 self-propelled gun)
Dotted across Tbilisi there are also graves of German prisoners of war who were brought to the city and put to work on construction and infrastructure projects.. I visited one of these sites in the Saburtalo district.
Meliton Kantaria and the Victory Banner
I also visited the memorial to Meliton Kantaria, a Georgian sergeant in the Soviet army and one of the men credited with hoisting the Victory Banner over the Reichstag on 1 May 1945, together with Mikhail Yegorov and Alexei Berest.
While I Was Away
I did keep things moving on the site while I was out there, so there is a batch of new material to catch up on.
Maps
Three more 1:50,000 sheets from the GSGS 4250 series, which also carries the American AMS M672 designation, are now in the archive. These are the ones I mentioned last time as georeferenced, they continue to push the coverage south and eastwards.
7G/3 Ambrières War Office, printed December 1943. Ambrières-le-Grand, Lassay, Couterne, Couptrain
7G/4 Alençon War Office, printed April 1944. Alençon, Pré-en-Pail, Carrouges
8G/3 Mortagne War Office, printed December 1943. Mortagne-au-Perche, La Mêle-sur-Sarthe
The GSGS 4250 series article has also been brought up to date with everything recently added, so the index there now lists over sixty digitised sheets in one place.
War Diaries
Four war diary months went up too. The 4th County of London Yeomanry (WO 171/856) pair covers the training and waterproofing in Norfolk and Suffolk before the invasion, and the 8th Infantry Brigade HQ diary (WO 171/611), starts with Overlord preparations at Emsworth and then the landing itself.
A Stop at the Archives
My flight out of Heathrow was in the evening so with the National Archives being only about ten miles from the airport, I decided to make the most of the journey and fitted in a quick stop at the archive. I came away with copies of the 28th Field Park Company war diary, the No. 8 Beach Group diary, and a few pages I had missed from the 1st King's Own Scottish Borderers, which means I can finally finish their 1944 year. All three should start appearing on the site soon.
Thank you, as always, for supporting the site. It is what keeps the work going and keeps all of it free for anyone who needs it.
Phil