Respective historical sites and memorials inscribed as parts of the new Normandy Beaches World Heritage Site at Omaha and Sword beaches.
Stephen Fisher
@seaspitfires.com
Author, historian & archaeologist, Lindblad Expeditions guide, National Geographic expert. Has a soft spot for WW2 Coastal Forces, landing craft, LCT 7074 & D-Day. Servant to Flynn. Writes books for Penguin. www.seaspitfires.com
Something I can easily relate to as I'm sure many of my followers are aware. The subject matter and people involved may be different, the situation is not.
Rachel Hope Cleves@rachelcleves.bsky.social · last mo.An open letter, to readers, about Charity and Sylvia. I am very pained to feel the need to write this. #queerhistory #pride
Every academic who writes in short snatches of time, in cafes, on trains, and at the breakfast table, imagines that every other academic retreats every evening to an elegant desk in a book-lined study and spends hours deep in concentration filling page after page with original scholarly reflection.
Regular viewers will be pleased to know I'm still ranting at duff history...
Rommel in Westkapelle on 4 January 1944. The mill behind him is the dijkmill or Prins Hendrik mill, a landmark that sat on top of the dyke overlooking Westkapelle. After the dyke was bombed by the British on 3 Oct, it looked very different to the commandos when they landed on 1 Nov.
An interesting day today. I was flattered to be invited to the Royal Marines Commando Training Centre at Lympstone Devon, to talk about the successes and lessons we can learn from Sword Beach. There are a lot! And I’m very jealous of their library!!
Then and now in the Churchill War Rooms with @natgeotraveluk.bsky.social expeditions, where we get to go behind the glass and into the rooms that have been left largely untouched since 1945.
In my defence I bought this on a whim so I can attend a social occasion next week, and it was a bargain being sold as spares/repair (but being an ex mechanic who sold these 25 years ago it took me less than 2 hours to make like new). But let’s face it, my journey into middle age is complete.
The Town Hall of Breville in Normandy are reporting that the 51st Highland Division memorial on Breville Ridge has been stolen. 📷 Mairie de Bréville-les-Monts
The bombing mission to breach the dyke at Westkapelle in the Netherlands on 3 October 1944 was huge. Nearly 250 bombers dropped a combined weight of more than 1,200 of bombs on the dyke, breaching it in just two hours.
What's the best way to make a fairly mundane video interesting? Royalty free rock music! An interesting demo of a potential future landing craft. It deals with a problem most people don't consider - getting the landing craft off the beach after the troops have disembarked. youtu.be/GRztGkPz-PU?...
SES landing craft demonstration, with Sea Puffin 1
YouTube video by ESNA
youtu.be
With D-Day set, a meeting at Southwick at 10am #OTD turned to that most British thing: weather. It was agreed that from D-3 (2 June) weather updates would be given to senior commanders' meetings twice daily. As senior meterologist, these updates would be given by Group Captain (sort of) James Stagg.
Stephen Fisher@seaspitfires.com · 2mo agoSort of about now on this day in 1944, Admiral Ramsey set the schedule for the Normandy landings. D-Day would be 5 June with a basic H-Hour at 0645 and specific H-Hours for each beach as attached. With a formalised date the schedule of embarkation was now set to begin on 31 May.
Sort of about now on this day in 1944, Admiral Ramsey set the schedule for the Normandy landings. D-Day would be 5 June with a basic H-Hour at 0645 and specific H-Hours for each beach as attached. With a formalised date the schedule of embarkation was now set to begin on 31 May.
Omaha Beach was "one of the most heavily defended beaches of the Second World War." Not exactly a new claim I guess, but I guess I should be glad the American who claimed it used the British English version of the name of the war. But oh lord it sooo boring to keep hearing this drivel.
Zeilmarkt street in Vlissingen (Flushing) in November 1944 and now. A Buffalo LVT (8.5 ft high) gives a sense of the scale of the anti tank wall built to cut off the eastern end of the city. On the right is the Arsenaal Theatre. 📷 ZeeuwsArchief 7413 & Google Maps
The Sherman Crab mine flail was so much more than a mine clearer. The spinning drum was equally at home wrecking barbed wire and, on Sword Beach on D-Day, Sgt Walter Smyth used it to destroy a German 75mm AT gun. 🎥 IWM A70 5-2, A70 85-3, A70 5-1 & A70 14-8
The excellent Airborne Museum in Sainte-Mère-Église, where you walk down the fuselage of a Dakota as it flies over Normandy
Men of 45 Commando come ashore on Sword Queen Red Beach at approx 09:10 on 6 June 1944. On the right is the burning Sherman Crab tank of Lieutenant John Allen, knocked out by the anti-tank gun in the bunker just visible in the very top left corner of the image. 📷 IWM A70 31-2
Artillery peeps, any idea what this piece is in a German bunker on Walcheren? Described as a 75mm in a report, it has some similarities to a Ehrhardt 7.5 cm Model 1901, but I can't find a definite match. The men are 2 Troop, 4 Commando who captured and used the gun during Operation Infatuate I.
I'm going with this – a name for the defenders of Uncle Beach in Flushing on 1 November. It's hard to see how there could be another army commander in the same sector and in the same circumstances.
Some workings out for the first phase of the 1944 Battle of Flushing – 4 Commando's landing and advance through the city. 1 Troop (assault troop) in red, 2 Troop in yellow, 3 Troop in blue, 4 (Support) Troop in purple, 5 (French) Troop in green and 6 (French) Troop in orange.
On 1 Nov '44 the Allies deployed the Land Mattress operationally for the first time, bombarding a German Flak battery at Zwanenburg during the assault on Flushing. German PoWs reported it "provoked an immediate tendency to assume the horizontal position". 🎥 IWM A70 237-2 & 3
I think the organisers may have got the names in the wrong order, but if you'd like to hear about the fate of the Kaiser's Navy after the First World War, come along! There's a late bar after all...
The Great War Group@thegreatwargroup.bsky.social · 5mo agoWe're thrilled to announce that our annual WW1 weekend will take place in Leeds at the Royal Armouries - Here is a taste of who to expect on the Friday. @seaspitfires.com @fxmc1957.bsky.social Stay tuned for the Saturday lineup! Sign up for further updates via the link: mailchi.mp/cf06a5e0b392...
What’s the nicest seal? Depends what you mean by nicest! In 1935 the British Graham Land Expedition decided to find out. See the whole story at youtu.be/zsTu1ARxGgI?...