A lovely clear photo!

Out in May.

Why don't we Remember The Regulars but Remember the Home Guard? A Critical Analysis YouTube video by Remember the Regulars

What better way to start the weekend than recording a video looking at why the role of the Regular and Territorial Army have largely been forgotten?

#SecondWorldWar #History #WW2

youtu.be/yztlRdOGKGw

Invasion of Crete 1941 isn't known for its armoured element, but yes, according to Wikipedia, the Germans apparently landed 2 PzKw II tanks & the Italians a company of L3/35 tankettes.

British had 9 Matilda IIs & 16 Light Tank Mk. VIs, none of which were in good shape, it seems.

Always a possibility!

The Panzerjäger battalions were certainly used offensively, but I take your point.

Possibly guarding, but given the vehicle is sitting in the open & not in a defensive position, I'd say its unit is probably halted temporarily, awaiting orders to move off.

The photo has a mixture of tanks & trucks. As we don't have any info on the units shown here, it's hard to say what's going on.

The Panzerjäger I wasn't used by Panzer Divisions, so this seems to be a case of a tank unit bypassing one or more other units.

I'm not sure I can add much commentary to this photo.

It's a vehicle from the first series with a 5-side gun shield in Europe (France 1940 or USSR 1941). No unit markings are visible.

90 years ago today, on 2nd April 1936, General Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne died in Paris aged 75. He was the father of French tanks.

Want to know more? If so, why not get me to give my talk on French tanks in the Great War to your group.

That's my boy! 😁

Read yesterday about MI19’s antics at Trent House, AKA the Cockfosters Cage, where they kept both ranking German POWs in WWII.

Oh. My. God.

The British were scary good at this shit in WWII. Scary good.

They played up, HARD, every stereotype the Germans had about the British upper class.

A black and white photo of a Matilda II parked at a road junction in the Sussex village of Findon. Behind the tank is a hotel whose walls are covered in ivy. To the left of the hotel is a road (School Hill) which inclines up and away from the centre of the village. Houses and tall bushes line either side of School Hill. A light truck is driving away from us up School Hill, followed by a motorbike. A light truck is driving down the same road with another parked up at the side of the road. The tank is a Matilda IIA* (or Matilda II Mk. III) with a Besa turret machinegun. It has the early 'H' pattern tracks, track mudguard extensions, a two-tone camouflage paint scheme and has a rolled tarpaulin attached to the left-hand side of the turret. The only marking visible is the War Department number on the upper hull - "WD No. T10422". Its engine deck is raised for maintenance. Two crewmen, one a sergeant, are leaning against the front of the tank, obscuring any bridge classification badge or arm of service markings which were usually painted there. Another tankman is walking past the tank looking at the camera. All three are wearing black RTR berets. In front of the tank is a group of 5 small children in coats and hats standing next to the railings of a front garden. The boy at the front is pointing at the tank turret. While the IWM photo doesn't identify the tank's unit, Mike Anton has researched this photo and has identified it as almost certainly belonging to B Squadron of 44 Royal Tank Regiment, which was based at nearby Castle Goring at the time of this photo (4th March 1941). Photo: IWM H7680

A colour photo of the same scene as the black and white shot, taken on 8th March 2026. The only change is the railings have been replaced by a low wall. The ivy has been also cut away from the Village Hotel. Apart from that and a change in the manhole cover in the foreground, very little has changed in the intervening 85 years. Photo: P. Blanchard

THEN & NOW

On the way back from the Tank Museum in Dorset a couple of weeks ago, I happened to pass through the area where this 1941 photo was taken & took a modern photo of the same place.

Many thanks to @m1ke-a.bsky.social for his research.

Photo credits & full details in Alt text.

That's a great pic!

Have you signed up yet? This online conference has a really broad range of subjects and speakers (and me) and it’s a bargain. Sign up details are in the quoted post.

A black and white photo of a Churchill Mk. I tank rumbles towards the camera over North African scrubland.

An Otter Mk. I in North Africa, 1943.

Agreed. That and the Balkenkreuz markings with no black in them.

Pzkw I and (especially) II always of interest!

Possibly the best WW1 tank design (ignoring the vile cupola) was the French FCM 1A Heavy Tank with its 105 mm gun and multiple machine guns. Too late for the war it was surpassed by different ideas. Images c.1917/1918 1/4 #Tank #WW1

Haha! That said, I must point out there's a serious point to such large emblems. The last thing you want when driving a captured enemy tank is a friendly anti-tank gunner shooting at you.

So you paint your national emblem as big as you can all over the tank. The Germans did this all the time.

35 yrs ago in the early hours of 26 February 1991, 4th Armd Bde attacked Objective Bronze before moving on to Copper South & then on to Brass & Steel (all in Iraq). I was commanding a small packet of assorted AFVs incl 14/20H Step-Up & an RE Sqn SHQ as we moved towards the Iraq/Kuwait border.
1/5

Christie's M1928

Hello all there

Up for having first of two partial knee replacements very soon

Is there any useful advice about recovery and coping during recovery?

The talk is now rescheduled for 24 February and I hope you can join us.

346.Infanterie-Division in action near Bréville-les-Monts This article includes photographs of fatal casualties At the time of the Normandy invasion, 346.ID was positioned in the area around le Havr...

I've added a small update to an article on my rather amateurish but hopefully informative and accessible blog. Might be of interest to some. Germans up near Bréville-les-Mont, c.11th June 1944.
Cheers.

#Normandy44 #WW2

normandyinsightresearch.blogspot.com/p/346infante...

That's a great personal connection. I'll keep an eye out for him 👍

Photograph of a book, Airborne Armour, by Keith Flint. The cover shows a well-known photo of a British Tetrarch tank exiting a large Hamilcar glider. The sub-heading of the book is "Tetrarch, Locust, Hamilcar and the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment 1938-50".

Finally got round to getting a copy of this book.

That's my reading for tomorrow's forecast rain.

Answering a request from Facebook I've added a few BEF designs and put them in their own category in the shop:

www.redbubble.com/people/uktan...

As ever, open to further requests!

Woman in Euston Station: Don’t stress.
Woman she’s with: Don’t stress? Don’t stress Rona? We’re at the wrong station, at the wrong time, on the wrong day. Again!

Due to illness I have had to postpone.