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Remembering my Grandpa & the ‘fine fellows’ he lost along the way serving King & Country in the Far East. After 38 months in India & Burma his VJ Day passed with little fanfare as he helped dismantle camps & rebuild German infrastructure. Life went on for the living. #VJDay80

Thought I’d mark the occasion and let some of the collection see the light of day. Even dug the old desert goatskin out of the garage. 🐐 PS don’t tell anyone but the LRDP Sappers wore it better than those little-known SAS chaps! 😉😎

59 Infantry Division sappers. (#OTD in 1944. Class 9 folding boat bridge spanning the Orne at La Bagotière, France. #WW2 #HISTORY)

Final call to sign up to watch this tomorrow night. #RoyalEngineers supporting the armoured & infantry formations throughout the lesser known Operations in the Western Deserts, Syria, Burma & Assam during WWII. Maps, bridging, fieldworks and more. #REspect #VEDay80 www.instre.org/events/my-gr...

I'm a complete amateur, gave talks at work but hated it. Thankful that Woody gives viewers the chance to tell their stories and with much encouragement by the sidebar mates. www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3cv...

Honoured to shine a light on my Grandpa’s time in 12 Fld Coy RE during WWII. From Palestine, the Western Deserts, to the Arakan & beyond. Defence, logistics, desert patrols, Chindits & maps. @rehs-1716.bsky.social @crusaderproject.bsky.social @thinkdefence.bsky.social @merrynwalters.uk Link in ALT

A thoroughly enjoyable telling of the professional soldier Stanley Henshaw on @ww2tv.bsky.social. Honoured to get a name check from the great @philipwblood.bsky.social too. This video hints at the impossible jungle topography where Stan earned his MM on May 1 1944. youtu.be/PIMbYYslhho?...

Today thanks to Queen Mary and a band of hard working volunteers, you can learn all about the brave exploits of Indian soldiers in Africa at the beginning of #WW2 achurchill.substack.com/p/article-in...

Very much looking forward to this episode of @ww2tv.bsky.social. I was excited to share a handwritten note from 34 Coln commander to 23rd Inf Bde C/O Montague Stopford, detail the attack whilst my Grandpa was off recceing suitable grounds to build a jungle landing strip! @historybowsh.bsky.social

#OTD 80 years ago parachute training continued for 12th Fld Coy RE. They started their long war based in Palestine & ended it in Punjab. Both countries still blighted by war today. #VEDay80 marks a win against past aggressions, but will the world ever know peace? 📷 Rawalpindi

Both my Grandfathers felt ‘forgotten’ in the British forces. One, a Sapper of the Forgotten Army in Burma. Another patrolling the North Sea in RAF ASR. So many across the globe contributed to the war effort from Palestinian to Naga Pioneer Coys. To the forgotten on #VEDay80

The internet is not a total lost cause. Only today I met the Grandson of the Naga Chief who commanded the levy that helped my Grandpa’s Chindit Commando Platoon build the roads & airstrips deep in the Assam jungles in impossible conditions in 1944, #Burma. I can’t help but feel emotional. ALT ✏️

A warm welcome to Bluesky Edith. If you’re not following @edithmirante.bsky.social yet, then behold this epic thread bridging the history of Burmese bridges, to get a taste of what you’re missing out on.

What else to do on a rainy Good Friday, than finally document the small collection for map & Survey aficionado Col. M Nolan. Under Brig. Thomas, this 1942 reprint was collated during the 1912-15/16-18/23-26 seasons with fabulous detail of the Naga Hills tribal areas. @merrynwalters.uk

Returning once more to @ubiquevir.bsky.social’s 1935 copy of Eothen by A.W. Kinglake. Remarkable to see it filled with his scribbles & annotations for his exams at school, then only a few years later he’d be destined to retrace part of the route 100 after Kinglake with the Royal Engineers in 1940.

It was very kind of #NewtonAbbot #REA to allow me to talk today on the 12th Field Company #RoyalEngineers 1936 Palestine - 1945 Rawalpindi. Lots of nerves and lessons learnt from the preview showing so I can fine tune it for the #REHistSociety webinar in August.

My dear 90y/o neighbour is sadly moving & having a clear out. She was happy for me to share these pics of her father, a signalman in the Navy at 15, enlisting in RAF 103 Sqn at 18, crashing his DH9a E550 in Ronchin at 19 & injured in Coolavohig Ambush at 21! @trevcaviation.bsky.social

Admiring the skill & knowledge involved in planning offensives from besieged TOBFORT. O/C 12 Fld Coy RE built a model on 10/10/41 for a planned attack on Carmùsa, from the limited means of a constantly bombarded garrison. #TopographyTuesday @merrynwalters.uk @crusaderproject.bsky.social

Eighty years ago today, over 7,000 prisoners of the German Nazi camp #Auschwitz, including some 700 children, were liberated by the soldiers of the Soviet Army. 1,689 days of murder, pain, suffering, and humiliation were over. Today, we all remember. We must keep remembering.

It is with sadness I share that Lt-Col Allan Marles passed away last night. He celebrated his 100th Birthday only last year with close friends & loved ones. Allan was charm personified, friendly & modest of his remarkable life in the @Proud_Sappers. ubiquevir.wordpress.com/2024/10/16/s...

Getting nervous over ticket sales - so get your ticket today for this fabulous book launch conference from 18.30, 7 February at the Constitutional Club in East Finchley. Featues talks by me, Gary Bain, Alex Churchill & Taff Gillingham! [https://eventbrite.co.uk/e/1119751640299...]

#OTD in 1940, New York. Did not know mechanical Trench Diggers were used in #WW2. #HISTORY

The names Bond, Sapper Bond. Licence to…thrill you all with my amazing RC tank!

How am I supposed to get this project completed when they make the 7th Armd Div Administration Codes so intriguing in Operation Battleaxe war diaries? I.Tanks = Seagull A/T Mines = Canaries Molotove Cocktails = Pheasants Halfway House = Pub @crusaderproject.bsky.social @robertglennie.bsky.social

With AI Pandora’s box well and truly open, where do you draw the line in the sand? Sharing historical data online used to seem a sensible option for longevity. But to what end? I know I’ve shared enough with good intent but now doubt my decisions. I’m left unsure what to post where. Anyone else?

Lion of the Desert - 1981 Not so much research but a long overdue return to this depiction of Omar Muktar & the Libyan holocaust. A box-office flop bankrolled by Gaddafi whose Director intended to make Saladin about the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. We need more films on lesser known history.

Op Romulus and #MuleMonday cross over! Pack transport of the 25th Indian Division at Ru-Ywa. Mules carrying mountain guns moving up from the beachhead, Feb 1945. 📸 IWM IND 4371

I can’t wait to get my paws on this perr-fect addition to my book collection on Burmese hiss-tory. 🐈

In the build up to Operation Compass the R.E. Workshops managed to construct a remarkable 88 dummy tanks in 36 continuous hours. They were transported out on 8 30CWT lorries. @thinkdefence.bsky.social @robertglennie.bsky.social @uk-tank-markings.co.uk ubiquevir.wordpress.com/2021/11/30/1...

Great to see more talk on the Japanese War with Robert Lyman & @historybowsh.bsky.social on @ww2tv.bsky.social. Lots of content to discuss in 2025 leading up to #VJ80. I will be covering a Sappers path with his Chindit Commando Platoon from arriving in 42 to when they converted to a Para Sqn in 45.

British POW being interrogated, dated July/August 1942, North Africa. Anyone got views on the cap badge or lack thereof? #ww2 #militaryhistory #desertwar #afrikakorps ECPAD DAK64

For those interested, a short article linked below of when @ubiquevir.bsky.social and 12th Field Company R.E. joined 14th Infantry Brigade at the fall of #Damascus in 1941. Leaving the Western Deserts to mop up the battlefield and take over RAE works. ubiquevir.wordpress.com/2021/07/12/1...

For the retelling of WWII history, I still don’t feel much compares to ‘The World at War’. Not just Olivier’s captivating narration matched only by Keane for me. But as in ‘It’s a Lovely Day Tomorrow’ the first hand accounts from veterans like Calvert combined with stock footage/maps is remarkable.

Whilst working on the 2025 presentation, every step that @ubiquevir.bsky.social & the 12th Fld Coy RE took 82 years ago seems to feature in the daily news. In Feb 1942, heavy snow stopped all defence works in Djedeide, Syria. @thinkdefence.bsky.social 📷 @AWMemorial 021861 Image taken in Jan 1942

We still have a few original copies of the Tobruk Truth in the collection. A publication that covers breaking news of the shifting Empires in the furthest reaches of the globe. I hold the fragile papers, worn by time & war, envisaging my Grandpa reading them aged just 22 in the besieged Tobfort.

In a couple of weeks, I will be giving a talk for the @RE_Hist_Society . It's all about the remarkable stories of Spaniards #ContinuingtheFight during #WW2. I cover some from the book & other new stories. Do join me & register here👇🏽 members.instre.org/Events

Very proud to have contributed to this excellent volume ‘Special Operations: India, Burma, China and Malaya’ in Andrew Kilsby & Daryl Moran (eds), In the fight: Australians and the war in Burma, 1942–1945 academia.edu/125872084/_Spe…#WeHaveWaysy#HistBookChatat

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗟𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗗𝗚𝗘𝗦 Many people think the Bailey Bridge was the first transportable military bridge, but they would be wrong. Download your copy today and all updates are free ➡️

Good morning Bluesky (more like battleship grey sky here). Off to meet some Sappers to talk Sapper stuff. Marvellous.

A superb little substack from the musings of Rob Lyman’s latest travels, highlighting the importance of the coalition force that helped secure victory in Burma. open.substack.com/pub/robertly...

Same spot 80 years apart. 1942/43 photo is of my dad and his mates from 8th Army on R&R in Cairo. The second is from a friend taken this year.

There was a young man at brigade, Staff work was his primary trade, But in an off hour, He used his brain power, And soldierly smut he purveyed. It's amazing what can turn up in the #archives. This, from a #WW2 brigade war diary, is a reminder that people sat behind the words.

Just to reiterate what a joy it is to see @crusaderproject.bsky.social back on the socials. An inspiration and source of supreme knowledge on the desert war, especially when delivering the much needed counterpoint to the Allied rhetoric. Take the following articles on water supply for example… 1/4

A Matilda II tank for Monday. This photo is from January 1941, just after Operation Compass - the moment when the Matilda was dubbed "Queen of the Desert" for its near-invulnerability to Italian fire.

#DesertRats klaxon 📢 Burtons 1953 classic starting on Film4 right now!!! #OTD in 1941 @ubiquevir.bsky.social and his 12th Field Company RE were preparing for a diversionary breakout to the northern sector of the besieged Tobfort. @otdmilhistory.bsky.social

This is a copy of the earliest known printed map of Exeter, produced in 1587. Commissioned by John Hooker, Chamblerlain of Exeter, from the engraver Remigius Hogenberg, it formed the basis for all printed maps of Exeter for more than a century. 📷 Townsend Maps T12 #MapMonday #MappingOurExeter

At the TD Main Site, posts are grouped into categories, each containing a number of posts. #Logistics #CombatEngineering Explore the category ⬇️

I’ve been somewhat distracted as of late but had time to pull together a short article to celebrate the recent 100th Birthday of a dear family friend & proud Sapper. It has his time in the Royal Engineers building Mulberry B & bridging N Europe in 1944-45. ubiquevir.wordpress.com/2024/10/16/s...

I think it's time for a #DDayfromAbove thread. So here's the view of the easternmost end of Sword Queen Red Beach at approximately 10:20 on 6 June 1944. Let's see what we can identify in this photo and what it can tell us.