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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 29/07/2026

From the Executive Summary. Basically all the components they wanted to include are on Omaha, with Mulberry also on Gold. Juno and Sword have nothing. Utah deliberately includes the museum.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 28/07/2026

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

A plethora of heritage sites at Omaha Beach, including memorials, bunkers, the US cemetery and Pointe du Hoc.

The heritage sites at Sword Beach. Sand. Just sand.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 30/06/2026

My researcher is hard at work today.

Flynn, a Shetland sheepdog, reclines gracefully on a cushion while reviewing a number of publications (in various languages) on the subject of the Battle of Walcheren.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 25/06/2026

Regular viewers will be pleased to know I'm still ranting at duff history...

A screenshot of a Facebook post. It says that:
"The fighting on D-Day was so intense that up to 4% of the sand on Normandy beaches is now made up of shrapnel, broken down into sand-sized pieces over the decades."

My Farcebook post about the previous post. It says (abbreviated):
This troublesome example comes from an oft-repeated but rarely analysed 2011 paper, which documents the analysis of a tiny sample of sand collected from next to the Omaha beach memorial (presumably the Signal Monument) in 1988. It was found to contain 78% detrital quartz, 9% feldspar, 4% limestone clast and modern bioclast, 3% heavy minerals, and 2% chert, other rock fragments and beads of metal and glass. There was also 4% 'shrapnel'. The paper does not explain how this identification of microscopic metal grains was made, but the number of potential sources of metal traces on the beach is huge. Pre or post-war beach infrastructure will have corroded over time and left depositions all along the beaches of Normandy. Pollution and waste is another source. Given the sample was taken from next to a memorial (itself made of stone but with significant metal foundations all around it) this or other post-war memorials must also be considered. Of course it is also possibly the remains of wartime features – but the remains of German beach defences, Mulberry Harbour, shipwrecks or American vehicles is certainly more likely than ordnance.
Apparently a sample taken at Utah (exactly where isn't stated) yielded no shrapnel, and the paper puts this down to Utah being much less contested. Unsurprisingly no samples were taken from the British beaches. This is such a flawed sampling process it isn't even worthy of discussion, and it's noticeable in the paper that the history of Omaha wasn't seriously assessed to contextualise the metal traces. The narrative is 'Omaha was hell – this metal sample must be the result'.
So on the basis of questionable paper, a 4% sample of microscopic metal remains on Omaha Beach connects itself to D-Day, becomes part of the legend and evidence for its (exaggerated) ferocity, and is parroted all over social media as '4% of Omaha beach is shrapnel'.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 24/06/2026

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.

A group of German officers inspecting German anti-landing obstacles. Behind them is a tall windmill on top of a dyke

Commandos disembark from a landing craft. In the background the dyke has been breached by bombing and the windmill lies in a pile of rubble on the shore.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 18/06/2026

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!!

A statue of two WW2 era Royal Marines commandos outside the Royal Marine Commando Training Centre Learning Centre and Library.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 01/06/2026

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.

The map room in the Cabinet War Rooms during the war. A black and white photo of military men sat at a busy desk.

A colour photo of the same desk, taken by me, just now. The officers have been replaced by pretty dam good mannequins

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 30/05/2026

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.

A Brompton bicycle, the world’s only decent folding bicycle, seen here unfolded and in bike mode

And seen here in folded mode. It packs small enough that it is legally classed as luggage in the UK and cannot be refused on trains, and even counts as hand luggage with some airlines.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 29/05/2026

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 plinth of the memorial. The statue is gone.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 29/05/2026

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.

An arial view of the dyke at Westkapelle. It has been breached causing widespread flooding of the land behind it.

A table of bombing missions to attack the dyke. In total 250 bombers from 23 squadrons attacxked.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 28/05/2026

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.

H-Hour timings for D-Day as follows:
Sword and Gold: 0645
Juno West: 0655
Juno East: 0705
Omaha: 0610
Utah: 0600

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 24/05/2026

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 WW2 era amphibious vehicle is parked on a street in front of a tall concrete wall. A group of civilian spectators is gathered nearby. Behind the wall are traditional Dutch townhouses.

The modern view of the previous photo. The amphibious vehicle has gone, as has the concrete wall. Most of the background houses are the same, but two have been replaced with less attractive modern buildings.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 20/05/2026

That's all I can find right now I'm afraid. I'll keep an eye out, but right now I'm more engrossed with her role in Infatuate II.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 20/05/2026

After the landings, ML 146 was to escort Bluesky 24 (mainly the LCT she had escorted to Normandy) back to Portsmouth. I don't appear to have a report about this convoy, there might be one buried somewhere so I'll let you know if I find it.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 20/05/2026

31 FO makes sense because most of the flotilla were in 313. I can't immediately find the name of thie officer, but the 13 Regiment RCA war diary states that one Major J.D Baird was the fire control officer, so he was almost certainly on board 146. Worthy of note is one James Doohan on this page too.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 20/05/2026

Lt Cdr Hotham, Senior Officer of the Support Sqn left a report in which he states he handed over to 31st LCT Flotilla Officer who was embarked in 146 and the Deputy Senior Officer Group 313. These may in fact have been the same person.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 20/05/2026

She was one of the two MLs accompanying convoy 313 - the senior officer appears to have been in 151. The bulk of the convoy was the LCTs carrying the Priests of (I think) 12 and 13 Regiments RCA. I'm assuming 151 was controlling 12 and 146 controlled 13.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 20/05/2026

For D-Day she was assigned to sailing group 313 and assigned the Landing Table Index Number 1123. She embarked her party of Canadian artillery personnel from the south side of Royal Pier in Southampton at 23:00 on 3 June (bear in mind D-Day was delayed 24 hours, hence D-2 = 3 June).

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 20/05/2026

Quite active before D-Day, she escorted X-20 across the Channel towards Juno area. She returned after this last meeting with X-20.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 20/05/2026

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

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 18/05/2026

The excellent Airborne Museum in Sainte-Mère-Église, where you walk down the fuselage of a Dakota as it flies over Normandy

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 18/05/2026

That’s right, the only strongpoint leaving some concrete on Queen beach today.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 18/05/2026

It was actually an old French cannon repurposed as a 7.5cm FK 231(f). Thanks to the rest of Grant’s footage of the landing it’s possible to locate Allen’s tank precisely and the range was 200m. Today the Bill Millin statue is just to the left of the tank.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 17/05/2026

Allen’s tank was knocked out about 90 minutes earlier by the 75mm in the bunker some 200m away. Only one member of Allen's crew survived the hits from the A/T gun – when the remaining four men were recovered, it was impossible to bury them individually.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 17/05/2026

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

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 17/05/2026

It is. Same building in the background (old arsenal).

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 17/05/2026

And even little bit of footage!

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 16/05/2026

And on top of that, a motley crew formed of some LCOCU personnel, Forward observer radiomen and 4 Commando's intelligence squad manned the 75mm in this gun to fire on the Brighton strongpoint (where the De Ruyter statue is).

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 15/05/2026

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.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 15/05/2026

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.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 14/05/2026

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.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 13/05/2026

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

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 13/05/2026

Another AI Millin had landed on Farceook...

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 19/02/2026

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?...

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 14/02/2026

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?...

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 10/10/2025

And another looking south over Vlissingen. On the left is the Noorderbegraafplaats cemetery. The road heading away on the left is Van Dishoeckstraat and leads to the shipbuilding yard at the docks. 📷 IWM CL 1502 & Google Maps.

The same view as the previous photo from Google maps. The town is no longer flooded and has expanded considerably.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 10/10/2025

Sort of around now in 1944, and today. Vlissingen on Walcheren flooded by the RAF raids that breached the dykes around the island. In the middle foreground is Our Lady's Church on Brouwenaarstraat. 📷 IWM CL 1506 & Google Maps.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 18/09/2025

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!

Me standing on polar bear watch with a gun in a mountainous setting with a glacier behind me

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 09/09/2025

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!

A view off the Dutch island of Walcheren from the air

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 04/09/2025

Today on the @istoriatravel.bsky.social Gallipoli tour was all about terrain. Deep gulleys, imposing cliffs & plenty of inescapable high ground made moving across the peninsula punishing. It could never have been as easy as the plan demanded. With @alexchurchill.bsky.social & @peterhart.bsky.social

Gully Ravine behind X beach with steep cliffs on either side

Deep valleys crisscrossing the peninsular

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 31/08/2025

Here’s a better photo of my time in the Arctic. I’m afraid I’m still on the road and won’t be back home for another 3 weeks, but I can check my sources then. I’ll try and look through my digital files before then, but it might be tricky on an iPad!

Me surveying a glacier from a small hill. I’ve got a rifle slung on my back because I’m a historian.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 31/08/2025

Only yesterday I was out on trial in a Viking court for mispronouncing Newfoundland. My defence was that I speak the King’s English. It didn’t wash.

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Stephen Fisher @seaspitfires.com · 21/06/2025

Yes! Finally we can do away with the history we don't like and make up the stuff we don't know! Stonehenge, Lord Lucan, the Mary Celeste, MH370, Loch Ness, the Pyramids, the Bermuda Triangle, Trump's hair, all these mysteries will topple to AI! ALL HAIL GROK!

A tweet by Elon Musk. It says:

We will use Grok 3.5 (maybe we should call it 4), which has advanced reasoning, to rewrite the entire corpus of human knowledge, adding missing information and deleting errors.

Then retrain on that.

Far too much garbage in any foundation model trained on uncorrected data.

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