Andy Saunders

A bit late with the re-post, but why not give a listen?

If only one could read the serial number on that Anson then we might be able to work it out!

Only just seen this! Yes, Phyllis was one of the WAAFs I discovered incorrectly listed at Runnymede as ‘no known grave’. Having discovered where she was, I alerted CWGC who erected a stone for her.

Home front privations, 1942:

Very sad to learn that the IWM will be removing the Ashcroft VC/GC Gallery at Lambeth.

Controversial view? Most of the ‘big’ historians who have written on the Battle of Britain have got the big picture about right - but nearly ALL of them fail miserably on the detail/minutiae of the battle. It really irks me. Maybe I need to get out more? 🤔🤷‍♂️

A regular Yuletide ‘tradition’ is to visit this lonely grave at Battle, East Sussex, and leave flowers. At 16, she was the youngest female casualty of WW2 commemorated by CWGC.

No Northern Lights in the rain sodden SE tonight. Anyway…

Well, ‘tis the season for ghost stories…

When one realises that it is necessary to get out more. This is Queen Vic on St Leonards seafront with her usual Xmas finery - but with a German bullet hole in her skirts. Why do I need to get out more? I have a shortlist of Luftwaffe pilots who probably did it.

When Hastings Post Office closed few years back and moved to W H Smith I campaigned to have these memorials moved to the store. It didn’t ‘fit the corporate image’ of @WHSmith and so they are now hidden away and rarely seen by the public at the sorting office.

No 1 son (with London Fire & Rescue) was selected to receive his Coronation Medal at Buckingham Palace yesterday. Elderly relative: “How wonderful that they took him there in that carriage.”

This truly is an absolutely bloody brilliant read!

Out with a bang! My last issue of ‘Iron Cross’ magazine under my editorship has landed from the printers. Handing over the editorial desk from this issue forward. On to other things for 2025!

Christmas Pudding!

Myths of Messines: The ‘Lost Mines’ How was it that in 1955 a massive mine charge blew up in a Belgian field? When nineteen mines were detonated along a six mile front at the opening of the Battle of Messines on 7 June 1917, six more…

I wrote some blogs a few years ago on misunderstood aspects of the Battle of Messines. This one is about how many of the mine charges laid beneath the German lines were not used, the reasons, and where they remain to this day.
simonjoneshistorian.com/2017/05/01/l...

Another of the Osprey titles that left my desk in 2024. Maybe you didn’t know all that you thought there was to know about the Bf 109 in the Battle of Britain? 😉

Damn! I think I may have to pull that article from the very last issue of the magazine I edited that erroneously credits the Royal Navy.

We have really enjoyed writing our tours and it's nice to know we're in such good company. For me, it's been like having a digital version of my dotty map. Something I have been working on for more than a decade now!

This new book in the Osprey Books ‘Duel’ series is now out. A few more will leave my desk in 2025 - all being well!

Special times indeed! Bonkers, though.

Interesting stuff: phys.org/news/2024-12...

Lucy raises interesting points that are close to my heart. One ‘restored’ Hurricane is V7497 which purports to be built from aircraft I recovered in 1986. It isn’t. Neither was it ‘recovered from a bog’ and nor did I sell or part with the wreck to current owner. This is a murky old world, sometimes.

Have you any idea how much that colour triggers me? 😐

Battle of Britain Then & Now

Having just signed off my very last issue of ‘Iron Cross’ magazine it is on to new projects once the desk is cleared. Major project next year is editing a re-worked and updated ‘Battle of Britain Then & Now’

Yup! Peanut butter definitely the way…

Well, here I am. Over from the other place. Although I’m still also hanging out there!

My first post here. Let’s see how it goes?