Stephen Fisher

Sword Beach, the first detailed study of the British landings at Ouistreham on D-Day, is now available in a range of formats. www.penguin.co.uk/books/453545...

Eagle’s Nest ablaze www.merkur.de/bayern/gross...

I confess I'm not a huge Pressure fan. Admittedly it's my area of expertise so anything not right will stand out more, but Pressure goes beyond condensing history into a film – instead it's complete fiction that damages real history. Here's my review.

WAR BORES! Want to watch the new Pressure film the traditional way? By boring your date with extra detail & muttering when it gets stuff wrong? Then watch @thehistoryguy.bsky.social & I discuss the actual events in this new History Hit episode & go to the cinema prepared! youtu.be/2tZUtNJBuZ0?...

Respective historical sites and memorials inscribed as parts of the new Normandy Beaches World Heritage Site at Omaha and Sword beaches.

He means me

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.

My researcher is hard at work today.

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!!

#OperationInfatuate – adding a family touch.

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.

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.

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

A tale in two photos

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

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.

Another AI Millin had landed on Farceook...

Lüneburg Heath, #Maythe4thBeWithYou

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...

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?...

Following the SAS deeper into Antarctica at Stonington Island. John Tonkin – no stranger to narrow escapes – faces another in the ice, while Mike Sadler receives another honour shortly before he passed away. See the full film at: youtu.be/-siOoUDzqGI?...

I did a thing! In my quest to become the next greatest influencer since whoever had the same ambition this morning, I have made a short video about the military history of Deception Island. You can find the 6 minute movie here: youtu.be/ZapHyrZY7bY

In my latest Legion Magazine article - the first of two parts - I interview British historian and author Stephen Fisher (@seaspitfires.com) about the forgotten Canadians who fought not at Juno, but Sword Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944. legionmagazine.com/the-canadian... 📸 Bantam Books.

Finally back home after a long summer season that has taken me to four new countries, from the cold Arctic ice of Greenland’s ice cap to the sun baked hills of Gallipoli. Time for some rest and writing before I go back to Antarctica!

Have just got back from Normandy and I was delighted to discover that History Hit have uploaded this documentary I did with @thehistoryguy.bsky.social to YouTube. You can learn all about D-Day remains on England’s south coast here:

Finally back in NW Europe after 11 weeks almost constantly on the road/seas. Just two more battlefield tours to do and then, in 12 days, I can have a lie-in. Except, a handy reminder from the plane that I have a book on #Walcheren44 to write!

After a well deserved rest, we spent the rest of the day exploring the French sector, where I got to bang on about France for a bit 🇫🇷 🇹🇷 @seaspitfires.com @istoriatravel.bsky.social @danielmcandrew.bsky.social @peterhart.bsky.social