SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY
1944 ~ 1945
Anzio War Cemetery.
 1944 22nd January - Allied forces landed at Anzio, Italy.

4th February - 4384071 Cpl Joseph William Shobbrook of the 16 L. of C. Sigs. Royal Corps of Signals was killed in Italy.
He was aged 37 and the son of Alfred and Elizabeth Shobbrook, of Skelton, Saltburn, Yorkshire.
He is buried in Grave: IV, G, 5, Anzio War Cemetery. Click to see his memorial

29th May - W/147112 Pte Laura Holt who was attached to the 547 (M) H.A.A. Bty, Aux. Territorial Service, Royal Artillery was killed.
She was aged 23 and was the daughter of Thomas and Louisa Holt, of Skelton.
She is buried in Grave: Plot R. Row I. Grave 12, Skelton and Brotton Cemetery. Click to see her memorial

Gordon Ward.
Gordon Ward of High St, Skelton. Born in 1925, he must have enlisted at a young age in the Royal Navy.
He served in the Far East, the Middle East and the Mediterranean and was on convoys to Russia when the War ended.
He was returning on his last ship the HMS Bellona on the 4th May 1945 when the Germans finally surrendered.
5th June - Allied forces enter Rome.

6th June - D-Day: invasion of Europe. Allies landed in Normandy.

12th June - First flying bombs launched against Britain.

25th August - Paris was liberated.

HMS Bellona.
 8th September - First V2 rockets launched against Britain.

12th September - 4399588 Pte Walter Thomas Austin of the 2/4th Bn King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry was killed in Italy.
He was aged 23 and the son of Alfred Laurence and Myra Ann Austin, of Skelton, Saltburn, Yorkshire.
He is buried in Grave VI, E, 1, Coriano Ridge War Cemetery. Click to see his memorial

13th September - American troops reached the Siegfried Line in Germany.

14th October - British liberated Athens.

Men of Skelton who gave their lives in the Second World War.
"They died to save their country, and they only saved the World"
 16th December - German Army launched "Battle of the Bulge" offensive on the Western Front.

1945 17th January - Soviet Army took Warsaw.

19th January - German lines on Eastern Front collapsed.

4th February - Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met at Yalta Conference.

9th March - Tokyo firebombed.

10th March - T/1067337 Serjeant Frederick Olman Heseltine of the Royal Army Service Corps was killed.
He was the husband of Margaret Heseltine, of Skelton-in-Cleveland, Yorkshire.
He is buried in Grave: 2. A. 6, Krakow Rakowicki Cemetery, Poland.Click to see his memorial
Men buried at Krakow, Poland died while prisoners of war during the German occupation, most of the graves coming from the cemetery at the large camp at Lamsdorf,

8th May 1945 - Victory in Europe Day.
 Stalag VIIIB (after 1943 known as Stalag 344), where there was a hospital of 450 beds used only for Commonwealth prisoners.

Memorials for F Harrison, R Parker and C Preston not yet traced.

21st March - Allies took Mandalay, Burma.

16th April - Soviet Army launched Berlin offensive.

2nd May - All German forces in Italy surrendered.

7th May - Unconditional surrender of all German forces.

5th June - Allies divided Germany into occupation zones.

6th August - First atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

Aug. 9 : Second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

Aug. 14 : Unconditional surrender of Japanese forces.

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