Remarkable photos of a speedway race held at the end of World War II involving British troops and German PoWs have recently come to light. The black and white images feature in an album compiled by the British army soldier and speedway rider Edward Walsh alongside previously unseen photos of Winston Churchill and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
Private Walsh photographed 'Monty' in front of a tank during his time with the Royal Engineers in North Africa in 1942. He also snapped Churchill arriving in Damascus, Syria, during the Levant Crisis, a skirmish between British and French forces in May 1945. But most of the images in the album relate to speedway races organised by the occupying British forces in Hannover, Germany, in October 1945.
The exciting events were organised to help boost the morale of both the local population and British soldiers. The images show the competitors racing around the oval in front of packed crowds made up of soldiers and German civilians. Pte Walsh, of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, served in the North African campaign and the invasions of Sicily and France.
