Time to relax and sunbathe on the beach at Bournemouth, Dorset, UK, on Bank Holiday Monday, 28 August 1944.

As part of the British anti-invasion preparations in 1940, beaches were blocked with entanglements of barbed wire, usually in the form of three coils of concertina wire fixed by metal posts, or a simple fence of straight wires supported on waist-high posts.

(In the United Kingdom and Ireland a bank holiday is a public holiday, when banks and many other businesses are closed for the day. The Late Summer Bank Holiday falls on the last Monday in August

Colour by RJM /taken from fb /WW2 colorised

Takin' in vit D

A London bus sinking into a bomb crater left after a Luftwaffe raid on the city; 1940.

London bombed

Civil War veterans had the chance to inspect modern weaponry at a Grand Army of the Republic encampment in Pittsburgh in August 1939.

"No such artillery pieces as this new anti-tank gun were included in the military equipment of these ex-soldiers when they fought in the Civil War.

That's why it proves of such interest to Lewis H. Easterly, 87, left, and J.W. Petro, 88, both of Colorado, at the G.A.R. encampment in Pittsburgh."

This photograph appeared in American newspapers on September 1, 1939 - the same day that German forces invaded Poland and sparked the Second World War.

(Photograph: The Plain Speaker, Hazleton, PA, September 1, 1939) //taken from fb