BMMHS

The British Modern Military History Society, www.bmmhs.org was founded in early 2019 by two brothers, Andy and Jerry Cockeram, together with Dr Linda Parker and Nigel Parker. All four have a passion for military history with both Linda and Nigel having already published books on airborne army chaplains, the German air assault on Great Britain during the Great War and the Luftwaffe losses over the UK during the Second World War.

 

The BMMHS came into being when BMMHS began organising monthly talks for anyone interested in military history over the last 200 years. Their high-quality speakers included writers, academics, former military personnel, and experts in their field, and their meetings in South Oxfordshire, UK regularly attracted up to 100 participants – until the coronavirus pandemic and the first national lockdown intervened and meetings had to cease in March 2020. Their determination to overcome this challenge led them to initiate instead a very popular series of twice- monthly Zoom talks (which continue to raise donations for military charities). 

 

The idea for ‘Glimpses of War’ was born during the first COVID lockdown: BMMHS members and associates were asked to search their family archives for personal or family accounts of wartime experiences, military or civilian, any war, in any role, to raise funds for Blind Veterans UK (formerly St Dunstans). This touched a chord in a pent-up population under attack from an invisible COVID enemy, and the floodgates were opened. The immediate result is ‘Glimpses of War – Volume 1’, with its striking front cover painting, ‘No Moon Tonight’ by Simon Atack, of a newly formed bomber aircrew’s first operational flight over Occupied Europe.

 

Every one of the 74 separate accounts contained in Volume One delivers its own emotional impact. These accounts are broadly divided into three sections: The Great War and Conflicts pre 1939; the Second World War (covering maritime, land and air operations, with further vignettes from the war against Japan, the Home Front, Occupation and Resistance, and POWs, Escape and Evasion); and Post 1945 Conflicts. The latter includes a particularly moving Falklands War excerpt from ‘White Ship – Red Crosses’ by Senior Nursing Officer Nicci Pugh QARANNS (on HMHS Uganda) and Chief Petty Officer (and BVUK member) Terry Bullingham RN (blinded during the attack on HMS Antrim on 21 May 1982, and subsequently treated on board HMHS Uganda).

 

So many other contributions have been received that Volumes Two and Three are already in preparation, all for the same excellent cause. 

Do buy Glimpses of War – Volume 1 now. We encourage you also to send in your own vignette or family record for publication, from your own personal or family military and wartime experiences from recent and not-so-recent conflicts. Further details can be found on bmmhs.org