New website: Soldiers from the sky

A new website – https://www.soldiersfromthesky.co.uk/– documents the remarkable back-stories of how south Lincolnshire hosted Airborne Forces from three nations ahead of two major World War II operations.

It is part of Soldiers From The Sky, a project supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund gathering largely untold accounts of how Allied Airborne soldiers from Britain, America and Poland prepared for D-Day and Operation Market Garden (Arnhem) – two of the most audacious military actions of 1944.

The website has been created through the sheer hard work of our members Debbie Nicholls (whose Uncle was Major Robert ‘Loopy’ Levien, B Company, 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment) and Brian Riley.

Thanks to National Lottery players, South Kesteven District Council was awarded £147,500 to illustrate how the district absorbed thousands of troops, witnessed their training and saw paratroopers leave from local airfields aboard giant airborne armadas (members may recall that the Arnhem Fellowship supported South Kesteven in the production of a Feasibility Study for the project which provided the springboard for the funding).