1986: Video of Me Attending a Shukokai ‘Karate-Do’ Course! (7.9.2023)

Hereford is the place where the (professional) 22nd Special Air Service (SAS) has its military base and airfield. Many men in this area either have been in the British Army – or are members of the ‘V’ (‘Volunteer’) Squadron of the SAS. This is a ‘Territorial Army’ (TA) Unit in the 22nd SAS that allows local men to try ‘Selection’ and if successful – join this highly elite group of men. Believe or not – there are individuals out there who are not in the British Army (and have never been in the military) and yet are physically and psychologically tough enough to meet this challenge!

UK: Soviet War Grave – Private V. Duschin [Владимир Душин] (1916-1945) – Soviet Forces – Shaftsbury Borough Cemetery, Dorset (Visited 31.5.2022)

There is an added complication involving the fact that Guys Marsh Military Hospital also treated primarily British, American and Soviet POWs who had been held by the Imperial Japanese and who had suffered terrible psychological and physical abuse! It is believed that prior to the Soviet Union declaring war on Imperial Japan on August 9th, 1945 – the Nazi Germans would ship tens of thousands of Soviet POWs to Japanese-occupied Northeast China – where they were worked to death or used for military and medical experiments. As V. Duschin was ‘liberated’, rescued, brought to England and had died at least six-months prior to the Soviet ‘liberation’ of Northeast China (and the eventual surrender of Imperial Japan on September 3rd, 1945). However, V Duschin is recorded as being rescued by the British Army during its drive across Northwest Europe – which must have been around December 1944 – January 1945, but the question remains ‘where’? There were hundreds of sub-camps of various sizes that the Nazi Germans ‘liquidated’ (that is ‘massacred’) as the Allies approached and it could be that V Duschin had been originally moved into Western Europe to work before his health failed. More research is required.

Tank Museum (Dorset) – Soviet and Other Relevant Tanks (26.8.2017)

We teach our children that war is wrong – but that sometimes wars need to be thought in ‘self-defence’ – until humanity evolves beyond this stupid and disastrous manner of interacting. It is also important for the younger generation to realise the sacrifices and destruction endured by China, the USSR and Europe in the 20th century fight against the forces of International Fascism.