Fighting With The French Resistance

WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk

Goalhanger Podcasts

Society & Culture, History, Education

4.8 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As a part of our ongoing effort to commemorate the incredible global story of WW2, we present our ongoing ‘Family Stories’ series. This series tells YOUR relatives’ stories of derring do - both on the front line and home front. In this episode we hear your tales of narrowly avoiding death, convoy duty, and a pilot on the run in Nazi-occupied France. With thanks to Stevan Bennett, John Wiltshire, Alan King, Ryan Alder, Daniel Kofler, Ian Davis, and Rory Stark for sharing. EPISODES ARE AVAILABLE FOR MEMBERS AD FREE - SIGN UP AT patreon.com/wehaveways A Goalhanger Production Produced by James Regan Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Social: @WeHaveWaysPod Email: [email protected] Join our ‘Independent Company’ to watch exclusive livestreams, get presale events, and our weekly newsletter book and model discounts. Membership Club: patreon.com/wehaveways Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for listening to We Have Ways of Making You Talk.
0:05.0	Sign up to our Patreon to receive bonus content, live streams and our weekly newsletter with money off books and museum visits as well.
0:13.0	Plus early access to all live show tickets.
0:16.0	That's patreon.com slash we have ways. Hello and welcome to a new series of Family Stories, the podcast written by you, our listeners.
0:52.6	This week's Family Stories takes us on a wild ride,
0:56.0	beginning with an unexpected discovery in a pair of old flying boots, an ending with a surprise
1:01.4	We Have Way's reconnection. This week, we're starting with a story from Stephen Bennett.
1:07.8	Stephen writes, here is a family story with a difference, as it's about someone else's
1:12.4	family. The subject is Flight Sergeant, W-O-P-A-G, Thomas Henry Shirt, known as Harry. It all started
1:21.4	years ago when I bought a pair of flying boots for my collection on a well-known auction site.
1:26.8	The boots had belonged to Captain Johnny Ashford, RAF, and in one of the boots for my collection on a well-known auction site. The boots had belonged to Captain
1:28.2	Johnny Ashford, RAF, and in one of the boots was a poignant letter from a Mrs. Hilda shirt,
1:34.4	thanking Johnny and the crew for looking after her son Harry after he'd been mortally wounded on their
1:39.0	mission. This started a 20-year quest to find out what had happened to Harry on that last fateful mission.
1:46.5	I wrote to the REF, but as I was not a family member, they wouldn't help. And having no experience
1:50.8	of these searches, I got nowhere. Until it was 100th anniversary of the First World War and my
1:55.2	wife, Sally and I were at a First World War battlefield visitor centre in Belgium. There were
1:59.9	terminals allowing visitors to look up military records. I put in Belgium. There were terminals allowing visitors
2:01.4	to look up military records. I put in Harry's name, and there it was. The record on the screen
2:06.8	showed everything I'd been looking for, including his place of birth. We tried to track down
2:11.2	family members, but the trestle went cold once again. It remained that way until COVID hit.
2:19.9	Lockdown and bored, I decided to have a look at Dove Holes in Derbyshire, Harry's hometown. I went on Google Maps Street View and went for a walk
	...

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