For seven years, the Entertainment National Services Association (ENSA) became as much a staple of British military life as NAAFI tea and peeling spuds.  To coincide with the 80^th anniversary of ENSA’s final performance, I have co-written a new biography of Virginia Vernon….

In a previous post, I talked about how entertainment in the form of military “Stars In Battledress” units landed in Normandy on D+6.  Captain George Black Jnr led the five or six concert parties made up of men who, for the most part, had been professional entertainers before they were conscripted or volunteered. They did sterling work keeping the troops entertained through June and into July 1944, and were joined by mobile cinemas from the Army Kinema Service. Now it was the turn of the civilian ENSA performers, who landed 82 years ago today – 24 July 1944.