BLIGHTY THANK GOD
‘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 to the right. Click on any headline to read the full article, and thank you so much for your support.
This website is a hub for my father’s Diary and accompanying notes, the Blighty Thank God podcast and a small library of original photographs taken by my father during his time in the Middle East.
You can contact me here or check out our social media pages 
