Wot No Rain! A good dry day spent at Bisley Camp thanks to the local WFA branch shooting some wartime classics

I grew up watching Secret Army on TV when I was a younger lad, the inspiration for the latter ‘Allo ‘Allo! comedy series. Looking forward to reading this 600 page book about this classic series.

Looking forward to this as I battlefield guided one of the families being featured, an amazing story that tracks a soldiers story from the Christmas Truce to the 1st July 1916. @Sophie_1WWTours bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2026/w…

The idea was brilliant. The execution was catastrophic. Allied planners knew that the men hitting the beaches of Normandy would be cut apart without armor support in those first critical minutes. The solution was the DD tank. The Duplex Drive Sherman. A standard 33-ton Sherman tank fitted with a collapsible canvas flotation screen and two small propellers bolted to the rear. Raise the screen, drop into the water, swim to shore, lower the screen, start shooting. Tanks arriving with the first wave, ahead of the infantry, suppressing German positions before the ramps even dropped. The concept worked perfectly in testing. The designers had one requirement: waves no higher than one foot. On the morning of June 6th, 1944, the waves off Omaha Beach were six feet high. Nobody stopped the launch. At 5:40 AM, the 741st Tank Battalion began dropping their DD tanks into the English Channel, six thousand yards from shore. More than three miles of open water, in seas that were six times rougher than the tanks were designed to handle. The first tank hit the water. The canvas screen, designed to hold the weight of a Sherman afloat, was immediately overwhelmed. Waves crashed over the top. Water flooded in. The tank went down. Then another. Then another. The canvas screens collapsed like paper bags in the swell. Tanks that had been designed to float became 33-ton anchors the moment they hit the water. Crews inside had seconds. Some got out through the hatches. Many did not. The tanks took them straight to the bottom of the English Channel. Some crews managed to get a radio signal out as their tank went under, warning the following units not to launch. The warnings either did not get through or came too late. 29 DD tanks were launched by the 741st Tank Battalion that morning. 27 sank before reaching the beach. The entire left flank of Omaha Beach, where the 1st Infantry Division was assaulting, had five tanks to support it. Five. Against fortified German positions housing hundreds of machine guns, 88mm guns, and mortars zeroed on every inch of that sand. The infantry arrived first. Alone. What happened next at Omaha Beach, the 2,400 casualties, the slaughter in the first ten minutes, the near-total destruction of Company A, is inseparable from the loss of those tanks. They were supposed to be there. They were supposed to be firing at German positions while the ramps were still closed. Instead they were on the bottom of the Channel with their crews. The story of the 743rd Tank Battalion makes it worse. The 743rd was assigned to the western sector of Omaha Beach. Their LCT flotilla commander looked at the sea conditions that morning, looked at the waves, and made a different decision. He refused to launch his tanks into the water. Instead he drove his LCTs directly onto the beach and dropped the ramps in the shallows. The tanks rolled off onto sand. Nine tanks were knocked out by German fire during the assault. But they were there. They were fighting. The infantry had armor. At Utah Beach, the sea was calmer, protected from the prevailing winds. 28 of 32 DD tanks launched there made it ashore. The infantry had support. Utah Beach cost 197 casualties. Omaha cost 2,400. The sunken tanks of the 741st Tank Battalion still lie on the bottom of the English Channel off Omaha Beach. They have never been raised. Divers have visited them. Inside some of the wrecks, they found what they expected. They are still there today, 82 years later, three miles off the coast of Normandy, on the bottom of the sea. Today is June 6th. Remember them.

We are off to the Western Front in a couple of weeks to walk the Old Frontline. Of course, LinesMan will be locked and loaded, ready to use. For more information please see our website: greatwardigital.com #WW1 #FWW #Trench #Maps

Getting my armoured car presentation ready for next Tuesday’s Kent WFA zoom talk #WW1 @TheWFA @Gallipoli100 @rollsroycecars

Map from 1st Australian Division Headquarters, July 1916, preparations for attack on Pozieres. Bottom left a tramway built to Gordon Dump, facilitated casualty evacuation to Becourt.

Each silhouette represents a soldier who never returned from Normandy. 1,475 figures. 1,475 lives. Lest we forget. 🇬🇧

Look what's arrived! The very first copies of WEIMAR - LIFE ON THE EDGE OF CATASTROPHE! I have to say, the maps and the cover look fantastic. Allen Lane really make beautiful books. WEIMAR is available for pre-order now and will be out on 7 May 📚

Drawing of Essex Farm Advanced Dressing Stations by Lance Corporals S.T. Smith and A.R. Watt, RAMC, of the 23rd Division Field Ambulance.

Looking for a special gift for that budding trench trekker? Have you thought about LinesMan? Visit our website for more information on this must-have GPS mapping companion. It’s more than just a map! Works on Windows, iPhone, iPad & Android - See: greatwardigital.com

German 105mm howitzer. A Great War trophy gun that still sits alongside Cranbrook’s war memorial.

Gallipoli in bloom @CWGC @Gallipoli100

Packing up another LinesMan2Go tablet for a new customer who is off to the Western Front next week. For more information please see our website: greatwardigital.com #WW1 #Trench #Maps

Tavronitis bridge, where the first German gliders stormed the island. Still with bullet and cannon holes 85 years later. #Crete #Greece #History #Charity

A Suvla and North Anzac day for the Gallipoli Association’s 2026 walking Gallipoli tour @Gallipoli100 @bhltours

Still walking Gallipoli, this time with this year @Gallipoli100 @bhltours group #GallipoliAssociation

Walking Gallipoli

No guesses where

Getting ready for my third battlefield trip this year to Gallipoli. Hopefully I can leave behind the RAB jacket 🌧️ and pack the sunglasses 😎 this time