View allAll Photos Tagged VisualStoryteller
The CWGC headstone of David Samuel Anthony Lord V.C. D.F.C. in Arnhem Oosterbeek Military Cemetery, Netherlands.
This brave man was born in Cork, Ireland in to a family with strong military heritage. David Lord was already in the RAF before WW2 broke out. He became a very experienced transport pilot and was awarded the DFC in July 1943. During the ill fated Operation Market Garden, Flight Lieutenant Lord was involved in flying resupply missions to the troops on the ground. On Tuesday 19th September 1944 flying a resupply mission in Douglas Dakota III, KG 374, at low level his aircraft was hit by enemy flak setting one of the wings ablaze. Have already made a drop on one pass he continued with a second drop in the strickened aircraft and ordered his crew to bale out. But the plane crashed almost immediately. The actual story only became know in 1945 and the V.C. was awarded posthumously. He is buried alongside members of his crew.
GN04 UFX negotiating a major junction, amid a heavy downpour of rain, where the traffic lights have already failed.
Chichester Road, Southchurch Road junction in Southend-On-Sea, Essex.
YJ06 GNO day tripping to the Steam and Transport Festival 2019 held at the Historic Dockyard Chatham, Kent.
Cooks Coaches are based in Westcliff-On-Sea within the Borough of Southend-On-Sea, Essex.
Forerunner of the more plentyful K6 design from the mid 1930's. The Kiosk No2 ,K2, started to appear on the streets of London in 1926. Designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and made from cast iron. Other versions soon followed until the univerally accepted smaller K6 design became the standard public kiosk that we are more familiar with.
The rubbish on the pavement is very much twenty-first century though.
This is the statue within a monument dedicated to the "Soldier King" of Belgium. It is located at Nieuport, Belgium. H.R.H. King Albert I was King of the Belgiums from 1909 until his death in a mountaineering accident in 1934. A popular King who took charge of Belgium military forces during WW1. There was a small area of Belgium that was not occupied by the Germans and King Albert I was acclaimed for defending it whilst also trying to broker a peace deal with Germany. He was not particularly supportive of British or French ideas of how the war should be conducted.
LTZ 1168 working its way through Notting Hill Gate.
This is one of the 1,000 New Routemasters produced from 2012 until 2017.
RATP Group London United LT168 in an all over advertisment wrap.
The very impressive heritage restoration of the disused Folkestone Harbour Station along with the Folkestone Harbour Arm and old railway bridge across the harbour.
The station is largely from the 1890's (replacing an earlier station) and the signal box dates from 1915.
It has just been featured on Michaell Portillo's Great British Railways programme.
Money from the Regional Growth Fund has helped with this project.
The 15" British naval gun came in to service during 1915 as a major weapon mounted on major warships to fight against enemy warships. However as things turned out it was used more for bombarding land based targets than slugging it out battleship against battleship. The Battle of Jutland being the major exception.
The 15" naval gun on the left in this photograph was mounted on HMS Ramillies when commissoned in 1916 and removed in 1947 before the vessel was broken up. Only fired in action a couple of times.
On the right is the 15" naval gun mounted on HMS Resolution from 1915 to 1938, then put in to storage. This naval gun was remounted on the moniter HMS Roberts and did sterling work in a bombardment role during D-Day and throughout June 1944.
MX58 KYR of Redline Buses in "waterRIDER" livery. Redline has been around since the 1990's and has a fleet of over 30 vehicles based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.
The road bridge at Nijmegen along with the nearby rail bridge were important objectives for Operation Market Garden during September 1944. Unlike a lot of the famous bridges in this area that have been rebuilt, the central span here is original. It had been blown by the Dutch Army on 10th May 1940 with the central span falling in to the Waal River. Presumably largely in tack as the Germans were able to raise it and rebuild the bridge that had originally opened in 1936. Surpringly the German forces did not detonate the explosives on the bridge in September 1944. The rebuilt rail bridge does not look anything like the original, although some element of the old bridge remain.
Photo taken in 2019.
MJO 609 parked outside of Ely Cathedral waiting for the bride and groom to emerge.
The Bentley MkVI was produced from 1946 until 1952. It was based around a reduced length Rolls Royce Silver Wraith chassis. A Rolls Royce version of this Bentley model was introduced in 1949 and named Silver Dawn.
TSJ 447 displayed at a Southend and District Classic Car event along the City Beach section of Southend Seafront.
The information sheet attached to this car revealed that the vehicle is called Emily. It also pointed out that not many people would haved remembered that Ford had made a model called an Escort between 1956 and 1960.
Photograph taken in 2019.
Female of Siberian (Asian) Stonechat bird in a paddy field near Ludhiana, Punjab.
This bird's breeding distribution is all the way from Siberia to the Himalayas. It winters in tropical Asia and Africa. This bird was probably in transit towards it's wintering destination further southwards.
In the outside lane is a Johnston C201 Compact Road Sweeper.
Photograph is just within the area prematurely named City Beach when Southend-On-Sea was bidding for city status, and lost out to Chelmsford.
Code For America Summit 2018
May 31 + June 1
Oakland, CA
Drew Bird Photography
San Francisco Bay Area Photographer
Have Camera. Will Travel.
drew@drewbirdphoto.com
Still in a trail mode offering free transport over a set route within Luxembourg City. They can carry up to 15 passengers. They are rated to travel at up to 27 mph, but this one had been travelling at a very slow speed and causing a traffic jam.
Navya Autonom Shuttle battery-electric minibus.
A well established seafront pub that was originally built as a private house. When constructed sometime in the 1824-1844 period it was 4 Strutt's Cottages, Lower Southend.
Part of an extensive full size diarama scene depicting the Operation Market Garden failed military action in September 1944.
This display is at the Hartenstein Airborne Museum, Ooterbeek, Netherlands. The building itself played a central role in Operation Market Garden being a combined headquarters, casualty station and one of the last defensive positions before the Allied troops were evacuated.
I believe the car is a pre 1936 Opel model, probably a 1.3 litre.
Located inside a protective glass case behind Chelmsford Museum in Oaklands Park, City of Chelmsford, Essex.
This unit was a trailer carriage from the 1890's until 1949 on Southend Pier. It was then transferred to Volks Electric Railway in Brighton. Volks fitted it out with an electric motor from a milk float so the toastrack carriage became an independent unit under its own power.
I believe 3 of these 1890 ex Southend Pier rolling stock units are still around. One in the Southend Pier Museum, one being restored by Volks Electric Railway and the one photographed here at Chelmsford Museum.
Photograph taken on a gloriously sunny aftenoon.
The superb FMM 714J on display at the Steam and Transport Festival 2019. Historic Dockyard Chatham.
The 1296cc engine in the 13/60 models gave a much needed
boost in performance over the earlier 1147cc and 948cc power units. A long time since I drove any of the Herald models now.
Baya Weaver bird working its nest on a palm tree in a garden near Ludhiana, Punjab.
Once the nest is partially built, the male hangs from it and courts females by flapping its wings. The nest is completed after a female accepts courtship and joins the nest for breeding.
CSF 984L at the Festival of Steam and Transport 2019. Historic Dockyard, Chatham.
The paperwork on the windscreen tells the story of recovering the car from a farm barn, rebuilding it and then driving the Dyane to Kazakhstan rally style, raising money for charity by doing so. All done with a 602cc engine for power.
The area of the central theme of the film A Bridge Too Far, although a different bridge had been used in the film.
John Frost Bridge was opened in 1948, built in the same style as the famous bridge in Operation Market Garden. That had originally been built in the period 1932-35, so a relatively young bridge in 1940 when the Dutch destroyed it and the Germans rebuilt it.
Major-General John Dutton Frost was in command of the small Airborne force that actually made it to the bridge at Arnhem from the drop zones so far away from the town. The battle raged from 17th September until 26th September 1944. The Airborne forces were overwhelmed by the numerically superior and well equipped German Army units in the area.. Had the Allied ground forces working their way up from inside the Belgian border via the other famous bridge at Nijmegen been about 12 hours ahead in their push towards Arnhem the outcome would probably have been different. ¾ of the 1st Airborne Division was effectively wiped out in this one action. A force of over 10,000 men reduced to around 2,000 by deaths, capture or wounded. The bridge at Arnhem was about 60 miles inside the German lines. The Dutch had destroyed the bridge in 1940 and it took the German forces until August 1944 to rebuild it. A pontoon bridge had been used at this important crossing point of the lower Rhine for the intervening years.
The 1st Airborne Division had been formed in late 1941 and disbanded in November 1945.
Photo taken in 2019
Black-headed Jay perched on a tree stump near Kausani, Uttarakhand.
In recent times, this bird can be spotted foraging around wooded areas near human settlements where garbage is often dumped. Another indication of the interference of human activity with nature.
SN64 CNK on a diversionary route out of Southend-On-Sea due to an accident in Victoria Avenue.
Hadleigh based First Essex's 47530 in East Street Prittlewell, Essex.
GJN 421N at the Rochford Hundred Agricultural Society's Ploughing Match 2019. Held at Hall Farm, Little Stambridge Hall Road near Rochford, Essex.
The Ford 3000 tractor was produced over a 10 year period in the USA, Belgium and Basildon, England.
In September 1944 the German pontoon bridge was about in line with the building seen across the canal beyond the current bridge. The building was used to house a 88mm gun.
The starting point of the ground offensive element of Operation Market Garden in September 1944.
The bridge photographed here is a post war construction. When the Allied Forces took control of this area on 10th September 1944 a German built pontoon bridge was in place here replacing the original bridge destroyed in 1940 to slow down the German advance.
Crossing the Bocholt-Herentals Canal this is Bridge Number 9, taken and protected by the 615th Field Squadron, RE, known as Joe's Troops. Crossing the bridge the road leads to, Valkenswaard, Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem. If the ground troops taking this route had not been ordered to stop for overnight resting the result of Operation Market Garden may well have achieved its objectives. Being 12 hours late appears to have been the difference .
In the Protestant Church at Driel, Netherlands hangs this memorial to the 1st Airborne Division for their part in the September 1944 landings and bitter fighting at Arnhem (A Bridge Too Far).
Photo taken in 2019.
Chequered Keelback snake swimming in the lake at Harike Wildlife Sanctuary, Punjab.
The snake looked to be six feet long - which is an unlikely size for a keelback - and seemed to be going after an egret foraging on a hyacinth island. That made me think that it was a python. But back home, a closer look at the image presented a different story altogether.
Code For America Summit 2018
May 31 + June 1
Oakland, CA
Drew Bird Photography
San Francisco Bay Area Photographer
Have Camera. Will Travel.
drew@drewbirdphoto.com
This timber framed and weather boarded signal box appears to be from the 1890's. Taken out of service in 1994, and now in very poor condition. Chelmsford Station is in an elevated position above the rooftops of the nearby buildings. This signal box sits above platform 2 buildings, so that makes it around 5 storeys above street level.