A top secret map of D-Day, a souvenir from Hitler’s private yacht, a German toy dog, a piece of the first Luftwaffe plane shot down on British soil or a tie that belonged to Chiang Kai-Shek, anti-communist dictator of Taiwan since 1949 until his death in 1975.
These are a small sample of the more than 25,000 World War II souvenirs that the members of Their Finest Hour (His best moment), a project from the University of Oxford that aims to keep alive the history of the most devastating war conflict in recent centuries, in which it is estimated that around 55 million people died across the planet.
Strange and surprising artifacts
A German army t-shirt
Their Finest Hour Project
The strange and surprising artifacts that until now had remained hidden have been digitized and made available to everyone for viewing through the project website, coinciding with the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings.
“Very few families were safe from the war. We knew from previous projects that people have many wonderful objects, photographs and anecdotes that have been passed down from one generation to another and are at risk of being lost or forgotten. “We are delighted to have been able to preserve so many of these powerful stories and make them available to the public,” explains Dr. Stuart Lee, director of Their Finest Hour.
A German full dress bayonet, with the blade decorated
Their Finest Hour Project
The archives obtained contain a remarkable variety of objects that capture both the extraordinary and everyday lives of those who lived through the conflict: From letters from soldiers to their families to unique souvenirs such as calvados measuring jugs (a Normandy brandy made by distilling cider). gifted by a grateful farmer.
Other items of note include a photograph of Churchill visiting troops in the desert and another image of Field Marshal Rommel in Derna, off the North African coast.
A gas mask from World War II
Their Finest Hour Project
There are also fascinating details such as a handwritten note authorizing boarding at Dunkirk, a lighter made from a rifle cartridge, heartbreaking letters from Auschwitz, a football season ticket from a tournament in India, a French bayonet and shrapnel from a Coventry factory bombed during the Blitz (sustained attacks by German aviation on the United Kingdom).
An Austrian pipe
Their Finest Hour Project
Perhaps one of the most extraordinary stories in this collection is that of a British Navy officer who, after surviving the evacuation of France in 1940, ended up enlisting in secret operations for the American government. In May 1945 he was in Trondheim (Norway) because the Royal Navy had captured the German state yacht, the Aviso Grille.
The barograph of Adolf Hitler’s yacht
Their Finest Hour Project
This was the ship with which Hitler planned to sail down the Thames to Windsor, where he would establish his headquarters during what the Führer believed would be a successful invasion of Great Britain in 1940. The protagonist of this story, whose name is unknown , boarded the ‘Aviso Grille’.
The ‘Aviso Grille’, the yacht with which Hitler planned to sail the Thames
Wikipedia
There they invited him to take a souvenir for posterity. He chose the barograph (which measures variations in atmospheric pressure) that was on the bridge and began using it on his numerous subsequent trips around the world. When he died in 1984, the instrument ended up stored in a closet.
The toy dog Strubbi with which little Gisela escaped from Stettin
Their Finest Hour Project
Gisela was born in Stettin, a major port in East Germany that is now part of Poland. She had to flee with her mother, her brothers and the toy dog Strubbi towards the end of World War II, when the Russians invaded her city.
Major Stidwell participated in the North African and Italian campaigns. He fought in France, the Netherlands and Germany and was even declared missing in action during the Battle of Salerno in 1943. He was also selected to perform special duties for D-Day as a member of the Combined Operations group. His was the secret map of the Normandy landings.
Lighter made from a rifle cartridge
Their Finest Hour Project
Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Their Finest Hour worked with hundreds of volunteers to organize up to more than 70 free events in 2023 and early 2024 called ‘Digital Collection Days’ and attended by more than 2,000 people.
The success of the project would not have been possible without the efforts of thousands of dedicated volunteers and contributors. Thanks to his work, we have been able to create a ‘popular archive’ of the Second World War that shows both the extraordinary and everyday objects passed down by those who lived through the war,” adds Dr Matthew Kidd.
