Occupied Gallery

Festival Stilt Dance and Dancers - Dalian, Manchukuo, China

Manchukuo - a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic, but in 1934 it became a constitutional monarchy. It had limited international recognition and was under the de facto control of Japan. A Festival Stilt Dance. The area, collectively known as Manchuria, was the homeland of the Manchus, including the emperors of the Qing dynasty. In 1931, the region was seized by Japan following the Mukden Incident and a pro-Japanese government was installed one year later with Puyi, the last Qing emperor, as the nominal regent and later emperor.[1] Manchukuo's government was dissolved in 1945 after the surrender of Imperial Japan at the end of World War II. Date: circa 1930s

Ypres Ramparts CWGC Cemetery seen across the moat

The earliest settlement in this area is thought to have been near Langemarck in about AD960 and gradually a cluster of villages grew up around the Yperlee. As Ypres increased in importance it was occupied or fought over by different nationalities - English, French, Dutch and the Austrians. In the late 1600s Vauban built a series of ramparts and fortifications and Ypres became a walled city surrounded by a moat, as it is today. The cemetery has 153 UK, 11 Australian, 10 Canadian, and 14 New Zealand burials. The approach path is named after Rose Coombs, the IWM author whose Before Endeavours Fade book was one of the first reference works for the area. Date: 2011

© Holts Battlefield Collection / Mary Evans

SNCAC NC.702 Martinet F-BAOO

SNCAC NC.702 Martinet F-BAOO (msn 121). During the second World War the ReichsLufttfahr Ministerium (RLM) dispersed manufacture of (usually) low importance aircraft to occupied territories which had retained some facilities. The Seibel Si 204 was out-sourced to both Aero in occupied Czecho-Slovakia and SNCAC in France. SNCAC developed their own version as the SNCAC NC.700 family. Date: circa 1950

© The Peter Butt Aviation Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library