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COMBINED OPERATIONS |
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The website is "not for profit" and has no connection with any military or government organisation. Any income from memberships pays the running costs of the website with surplus funds used in support of forces' charities and the Combined Operations Memorial Fund. For more information visit the website's accounts page. Donations specifically for the Combined Operations Memorial Fund go directly into the fund bank account which requires my signature and one other before the funds can be used.
Combined Operations is one of the best kept secrets of WW2. Considering the enormity of its contribution to the war effort there was, and still is, little public awareness of this amazing and ubiquitous organisation. My interest was captured when, in the mid 1990s, my late father-in-law opened a Pandora's box of amazing events he was involved in while working under the Combined Operations Command in WW2. He had been very secretive about his wartime service but, in 1991 a university student researching early land based radar visited the location of a WW2 radar station near Anstruther in Fife, Scotland. He chanced upon an elderly local man who knew little about the radar station but he knew someone who worked there in the early 40s. This was my father-in-law, John Glen. The student contacted John Glen for information and this was the start of a voyage to recall and record details of his war-time service. At this time there was virtually no information about Combined Operations on the Internet and I set about writing a few web pages. What I had not anticipated was the extent of the interest in the subject and the support from veterans, their families, students and researchers, literally from around the world. From these modest beginnings the website has grown, and the final chapters are as elusive as ever! Grateful thanks to the countless contributors to the website since 2001 without whom it would not exist.
The website aims to;
The success of the website is due, in no short measure, to the large number of contributions, advice and comment received from visitors. These have added greatly to the quality and diversity of the content (see List of Members for information on the major contributors). In 2011 the number of visits will be around 225,000.
My late father in law, John Glen, was a radar technician on board Fighter Direction Tender (FDT) 217 which, together with FDT 216 and FDT 13, provided radar cover for allied aircraft during the D-day landings of June 1944. Before his posting to Combined Ops he worked on top secret prototype and early operational radar stations around the coast of Scotland. On FDT 217 he was in charge of a small team of five or six Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) volunteer servicemen and one or two British servicemen employed on radar and communications maintenance. Radar played a small but important role within the Combined Operations Command off the Normandy beaches. There was no information about Combined Operations on the Internet when John Glen told me about his wartime service in the late 90s so I started work on the website in the late Autumn of 2000 and published the first pages in the Spring of 2001. Thanks to hundreds of contributions from veterans, their families and friends of Combined Operations, the website has grown into a significant record and educational resource for the benefit of future generations. So long as there is an interest in the website it will be available on line free of charge. Thank you for your interest and for visiting the website.
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Geoff
Slee, Edinburgh, Scotland.
