David Snape

David Snape is a proud Yorkshireman having been born in Sheffield just after the end of the Second World War. Two of his earliest childhood memories were receiving a set of Britain’s lead soldiers and talking to his father about his experiences in France in 1940.

David has always been interested in history and, in particular, in military history. Having started his working life as a baker, he qualified to teach and, inevitably, taught history in a number of secondary schools. He eventually became a Headteacher and took on a number of other positions in the field of Secondary Education.

When David finally retired, he decided to improve his academic knowledge by taking two Master of Arts Degrees in Military Studies, one of which was entitled ‘Britain in the Second War’ for which he was awarded the prize for the best post-graduate student in History, Politics and War Studies by the University of Wolverhampton.

David has published a number of articles in various military magazines and authored three books on 19th and early 20th Century Military History. He is a Trustee of the Victorian Military History Society and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

The Heroic Graduates of Milton Hall: The Jedburgh Teams in Western France, 1944:

Imagine jumping out of an aircraft flying at 300ft above the ground in the early hours of the morning, hoping that your parachute will have sufficient time to open before you hit the ground. Will you be greeted by friends or be met by enemy soldiers ready to kill you on sight? Will your colleagues land nearby or be carried in the darkness by the wind and land who knows where?

These were the real fears of the Jedburgh teams which were parachuted into France from June 1944 to support the Allied Invasion into Occupied France. These teams consisted of three men who had undertaken extensive training at Milton Hall, near Peterborough, in guerilla tactics which included sabotage and the use of various types of weapons. Their brief was to organise the local resistance, the Maquis, and arm and train them to fight the German forces either to slow down their retreat or prevent them from leaving France.

A Jedburgh team consisted of two officers and a radio operator and could be made up of British, American, or French personnel. They had to learn to work with groups of French fighters who were themselves divided by political ideas and which sometimes prevented them from cooperating with one another even when fighting the enemy.

This account describes the stories of 19 Jedburgh teams who landed in Western France to battle with the Germans, struggle to unite the various French Maquis, and suffered frustrations when trying to communicate with their own headquarters. It is a story of bravery, heroism and eventual success which began one dark night in June 1944.

Eyewitnesses to the Indian Rebellion: The Events in India in 1857-8, as described by those who were there.

The Indian Rebellion occurred almost 170 years ago and yet is still controversial today. Some call it ‘The Indian Mutiny’, which implies to some that the Army in India revolted against their British masters initially because of the introduction of a contaminated grease for new rifle bullets. Others describe it as a Rebellion and the possible beginnings of the struggle for Indian Independence.

This study uses a large number of contemporary accounts, as well as official documents and reports, to paint a picture of the events as seen by those who were there. It makes clear that the rebellion was geographically restricted to a small section of the subcontinent and did not involve all the Indian Regiments who served the East India Company.

It depicts courage, loyalty, and deception which cost many lives on both sides and ultimately caused India to become part of the British Empire. It contains many eyewitness accounts and which not only describe what happened but also the feelings of those who were involved, who had lucky escape and witnessed awful deaths.