‘Blighty Thank God’ is a podcast taking you back to 1943, a pivotal year during WWII.
It’s based on the diary my father – Flt. Sgt. Ron Chapman – kept when a young pilot with the RAF, serving in the Middle East and then Italy.
Researching the diary, found 30 years after he died, led me to other resources that helped explain what he was doing day to day, and what was happening around him.
The episodes tell the stories found within the diary or those it led me to research more deeply. This website contains the complete diary with context notes, photographs and background material I researched.
‘Blighty’ was the name British soldiers called home, often when they were overseas. My father shipped out for Africa in 1941, believing he probably wouldn’t make it home. He did, thank God.
The podcast and website are a tribute, not only to my father, but also the people he served with – Australians, Poles, Belgians, New Zealanders – some of whom never returned to their Blighty.
Neil Chapman
We have attracted some interest since the podcasts and diaries were first published here. See a selection of our latest updates below. Click on any headline to read the full article, and thank you so much for your support.
'Blighty Thank God' features two beautiful versions of The Last Post on different instruments than the bugle, on which it’s traditionally played. One is on violin, played by Rachel Bostock (@rachelbostockmusic ); the other on guitar by Mark Knopfler of...
The Blighty Thank God podcast was recently featured on the popular WW2TV channel on YouTube, where BTG creator Neil Chapman's interview with presenter Paul Woodage has had more than 2000 views so far. The one-hour show goes into more detail...
The Inverness-based Ross-Shire Journal became one of the first newspapers to cover the "Blighty Thank God" podcast when it ran a short feature on the project recently. Flight Sgt Ron Chapman's experiences of World War II in West Africa, the...
A visit to the National Archives at Kew, London is daunting. If you are trying to research the history of a loved one who was in the military or a particular subject, how do you navigate the thousands of documents? ...
The Blighty Thank God podcast has now been downloaded well over 900 times, helped by news feature stories in local news media in both the North and South of the UK. Patrick Gouldsbrough of the Northern Echo ran a story...
Two close pilot friends of my father, killed during WW2, are highlighted in Blighty Thank God. Other names are mentioned - but their stories are particularly poignant and highlight why Remembrance Day is so important. Both were just doing a...