I confess, I have a thing for endpaper maps. And as I’m re-reading Alan Moorehead’s White Nile for the umpteenth time - I’m minded, there’s still a book worth writing on John Hannington Speke.

Happy Jockmogging day to those that celebrate. #operationepsom

Just sayin’.

Waiting for the washing machine. Idling through the back bookcase. Picked out ‘The Blunted Sword’ - David Divine - 1964 - and never made it past the first page. 😞 “It is a tragedy of our time that it appears in the highest degree improbable that it can succeed in its intention”

🚨 NEW EPISODE 🚨 Our new episode of the Generalissimos series is out this Friday, and we turn our attentions east… not quite as far east as Tojo, but to Jason Isaacs himself….. ZHUKOV! Tune in this Friday linktr.ee/NewsOfTheWar @merrynwalters.uk @andyaitch.bsky.social

Sand waves. Beach. Sort of explains why Ralph Bagnold’s thinking on the movement of sand dunes dropped into invasion planning.

There are worse ways to start the day

🔥BRACE YOURSELVES🔥 Bit excited. #NewsoftheWar will be coming to you live at We Have Ways Fest: Sept 11 - 13, as the derring-duo dig into the headlines behind the frontlines. wehavewaysfest.co.uk @merrynwalters.uk @andyaitch.bsky.social

For our next instalment of the new Generalissimos season, we turn to the land of the rising sun… He’s, well, let’s just say: a bit of a character 😬 New episode out this Friday, find us wherever you get your podcasts linktr.ee/NewsOfTheWar @andyaitch.bsky.social @merrynwalters.uk

On @newsofthewar.bsky.social, we've revelled in stories that aren't well known, 1939-45. We were keen to do a VC-special. But when @andyaitch.bsky.social realised he'd got unseen film of Ian Liddell VC - that was something else.

Part 2 of our VC special is out this Friday….you’ve heard of the Arnhem VCs? Cain, Baskeyfield, Lord, Greyburn and Queripel. Well, in the words of Yoda “there is another” Tune in on Friday to News of the War linktr.ee/NewsOfTheWar @andyaitch.bsky.social @merrynwalters.uk

This week, It was the anniversary of T E Lawrence's untimely demise. Left a few desert blooms for him, not so long ago. The marker where he fell nearby was looking rough, but the cemetery is kept tidy.

What a day for the nation.

Unbelievable. @thetimes.com here, proving irony is dead.

pca.st/episode/5a9f... Pulled up short by the story of Padre Perry. My Uncle landed with 6th Airborne and was wounded on d-day. Aid station he was taken to came under attack. Survived, RTU only to die April 10 1945. @merrynwalters.uk @andyaitch.bsky.social @newsofthewar.bsky.social

This GC blew me away. I cannot fathom the selflessness of Rev Herbert Pugh, who went down with the ship HMT Anselm. An interesting aside, Anselm was sunk by U96, made famous by Lothar-Günther Buchheim, author of Das Boot. Buchheim joined the boat a few months after Anselm. linktr.ee/NewsOfTheWar

Hello. Some of you may have been on the WHW livestream last night and heard Al talking about our podcast @newsofthewar.bsky.social We try not to hang off others coattails but, well they brought it up! (we’re overwhelmed by the kindness) Interested? here’s the link linktr.ee/NewsOfTheWar

Apropos the recent @WeHaveWaysPod series, the film of Sink the Bismarck is a constant, smashing reminder of men and map rooms. Affinity with the situation at a distance, decision-making in context, correlation on a small scale and horrendous decisions. Maps, eh.

Who is this chap? Find out who he is and what he’s going on about, tomorrow on News Of The War with @andyaitch.bsky.social and @merrynwalters.uk linktr.ee/NewsOfTheWar

Held this map for real yesterday, and was totally thrown by it. Soviet gulag network, as experienced by two Polish officers: Sylvester Mora and Pierre Zwierniak. Included in a book of first-hand accounts ~ SprawiedliwośćSowiecka ~ published in 1945.

The proverbial lasagna of meanwhiles. A packed pod. @merrynwalters.uk looses it over a map. @andyaitch.bsky.social talks sense over the catastrophe of the Bengal Famine. And of course the closing headlines, bonkers of course. @newsofthewar.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/0psL...

If I won the lottery, there would be signs. One of those signs would be a Bellerby Globe, with WW2 campaigns. Just puttin' that out there. In the cosmos, as it were. [Note to self: also buy lottery ticket.]

Agreed - another belter-banger from @nmtdambusters.bsky.social, and more than deserving of a wee map.

Day of days. Below, part of the map approved by SS-Sturmbannführer Max Jesuiter, Chief of Staff, Warsaw SS - the basis on which boundaries for the ghetto were agreed.

Another jam packed pod from @merrynwalters.uk and @andyaitch.bsky.social. Monkeys and school shoes, or the lack thereof. Shoes that is, not monkeys. As an aside I recall @spitfirefilly.bsky.social and @danellin.bsky.social did a presentation on GOMORRAH at WHWFV or F. Grim stuff.

I am genuinely intrigued, and keen to monitor the way in which future historians handle this travesty of recollection and tragedy of public, cognitive decline. This chapter’s going to be called “When America Played Its Worst Trump Card.”

🚨 Latest instalment of MONKEY AIR RAID NEWS 🚨 Coming this Friday on @newsofthewar.bsky.social @merrynwalters.uk linktr.ee/NewsOfTheWar

Still fizzing. FIZZING. Been looking for this for years, let alone at an affordable price. My unsolicited advice to anyone, everyone really, is to never eschew the opportunity for getting down on your hands and knees in the far, back room of a rarely visited bookshop.

Got lost and was getting irritated in Essex, and then spotted a Merlin Way, a Lancaster Close, a Wellington Road, a Blenheim Way - and then I thought …. hmmm. 🤔 Turns out, it was North Weald airfield, once home to the Historic Flight, predecessors to @RAFBBMF - et al.

Stiffkey rush hour.

Hey bud, which way to the latest episode of @newsofthewar.bsky.social ? ….. È da quella parte! linktr.ee/NewsOfTheWar

It's still January! There's more #NewsoftheWar! We're in 1943. Acutally, it's July 20th - and guess what's happening in the headlines? Yep, that's right. Siiiiiicily. @andyaitch.bsky.social @merrynwalters.uk linktr.ee/NewsOfTheWar

Good morning from Glen Feshie, where the 52nd Lowland Division had their mountain training school from 1942 to 1944. True to form it’s pissing it doon.

#MappingHistory Fwiw, part of 2026 involves chipping in with a bit more context on epic maps. Such as a bit of background about the Gallery of Maps, in the Vatican. It’s stunning, and it’s based on work done by Egnatio (Ignazio) Danti: 🧵

It's fine. It's still 10 days until 21st Jan - the anniversary of 4 US nukes going down on Greenland in 1968 and only 3 getting fully recovered - so that's plenty of time for *everyone* at @foxnews-mun-1.bsky.social to get a pep-talk on pronouncing 'Narssarssuk'. AMS: Greenland 1:500,000, 1944.

Mapmakers will change the word ‘Iran’ for free, but should get triple time if updates need doing to ‘Greenland ’ or ‘Venezuela’.

One of the best little parking spots in London, that. £16, for eight hours. @RGS_IBG, 100m away. Always got two coppers on duty, and usually has 412 hard nuts on the balcony too.

Been waiting for this one to pop up. 😊 Greenland. Coloured in, as part of the ‘Technate of America map’. As shown in July 1940 issue of ‘official magazine of Technocracy Inc.’ And here’s the twist: Elon Musk’s maternal grandfather - Joshua Haldeman - was a prominent member of Technocracy Inc.

🫶

The ‘P.A.M’ map gets a lot of air time, but rarely with an explanation. So here goes. “Die Unionisierung Mitteleuropas!” was a 24-page German-language pamphlet, published a year after the Treaty of Versailles was agreed (1920). It included this infamous map. 🧵

🚨It's the #newsofthewar. Might be our best yet: it's 10th April 1943, and it's all happening this week! Check out the headlines behind the frontlines, and controversial hot takes on Slim, Monty, and more. Starting in North Africa... @andyaitch.bsky.social @merrynwalters.uk

A propaganda map showing the US as a colonial outpost of Germany and the Central Powers. The map appeared on the front cover of Life Magazine on February 10, 1916.

I stick to WW2 maps, mostly. This is an exception. Why? First, it has [WW2] written on it. Second, there are plats owned by William Walters. Third, it's just a great plat map. An awesome snapshot of 1880s socio-economics, and a reminder, land was carved into what seem like bizarre regular parcels.

You can see why he's getting uppity. This was made in 1945 by the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the USAAF. Mercator, bigging it up for Greenland and aerial routes here, and described as a map 'crucial for military planning and operations. Personally, I prefer details in ...

Bogus and BIGOT. Snappy work from @ww2headquarters.bsky.social youtu.be/FoYnGzKRH_w?...

A signature style in WW2 infographic propaganda mapping: originally an architect, Robert M Chapin Jr. was a pioneer, setting a standard for style that others envied - he led Time magazine’s map dept for 33 years.

Proper-map, this. Smashing bit of WW2 manga. Best aside is in the footnotes: “Japan has decided to resolve the China incident quickly without paying attention to the European war.” 👀

“Something like ‘Chastise’. Husky. Torch. Mincemeat, even. Dynamo. Overlord - ” “ - NOPE. ABSOLUTE RESOLVE.”

“A WW2 map? Of Venezuela? One moment please, caller.” Okay: Harrison’s 1940 ‘oil drop’ projection underpins the Standard Map (that’s Standard Oil, obvs) - a map of oil routes, showing the impact of WW2. See, in 1939, Venezuela was the world's top oil exporter…

An argument exists that an architectural folly cannot exist, as the act of its creation provides a purpose, thus nullifying its definition as a useless building. Forgotten battles. Idem. *peruses map of 12th African Div in Battle of Gondar* *peels seventh mince pie*