Pick up the nearest book, turn to p. 42, and post the second sentence:

St Gaston

These are all fantastic!
👇

Advert for punk gig in Caen

Off out tonight.
Should be fun!
😀🧷🍻

Yep

Bergen-Belsen: How British troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp On 15 April 1945, the British Army found 60,000 prisoners who were in desperate need of help and medical attention

60,000 starving prisoners. 13,000 bodies left unburied

On April 15, 1945, British troops liberated Bergen-Belsen — and faced a humanitarian catastrophe that didn't end with freedom

A stark reminder of the scale of Nazi atrocities🔗⬇️

Excellent! Look forward to this!

Out in May.

The Associated Press to cut under 5% of global news staff The Associated Press will cut under 5% of its global news staff, as part of a restructuring of its U.S. operations, ​according to a memo sent to employees and seen by ‌Reuters.

Another day ... another announcement of impending layoffs at another national media organization.

1/

49 years ago today
Released on this day in 1977, the eponymous debut studio album by English punk rock band The Clash.

It is widely celebrated as one of the greatest punk albums of all time

#punk #punks #punkrock #theclash #punklegends #history #punkrockhistory #otd

(1944, Normandy, France.) One of the artificial harbours. #WW2 #HISTORY

yep, Nestlé had their sales reps *dress up as nurses* and give out free formula *in maternity wards* to make families dependent on it, in countries where many didn't have access to clean water for mixing with formula.

researchers estimate that 10.9 million babies died.

We saw Numan a few months back. He and his band were excellent.

This week, Brexit finally killed our family business. We cleared out our warehouse, handed back the keys, paid the final bills and said goodbye to our last employee.
What was once a thriving firm died a slow, sad death, all thanks to Farage, Johnson and the gullible idiots they conned. 1/18

Check the date 😬

Homunculi figures from the TV series Small Prophets, on display at the BBC's Broadcasting House in London

Home after a lovely week in London.
Yesterday morning we managed to pop in to see these chaps.

Finding your way around the battlefield – German style Background Michael Dorosh kindly provided (for my old website on counterbattery) the following information from the Canadian Army Training Memorandum No. 24, March 1943, which came as a welcome pie…

Also ask me about the Stoßlinie, a map overlay system so good the British army in the desert seriously thought about adopting it.

A favourite things is watching a kid get on the DLR in London and run to the front seat, so they can pretend to drive it.

It never matters who is sitting there. EVERY adult gets up and concedes that seat.

As humans, we recognise and are bound by a sense of joy and wonder. Above everything else.

Jake Burns from Stiff Little Fingers giving it some at the Roundhouse

That was fun. Stiff Little Fingers as good as ever. The Meffs providing excellent support.
We're a little battered and bruised but very happy.

a brown chair with a plaid curtain behind it ALT: a brown chair with a plaid curtain behind it

So, pull up a chair, and let's look at where we are three weeks into the sh-tshow that is Trump's Iran war.

TL:DR it's not great, but it's not catastrophic (yet) either and there's an opportunity here.

1/n

Chuck(le Brother) Norris not being a dick-head

What was it like for a regiment on the 'deadliest day' in French military history?

Not Verdun.
Not 22nd August 14.

But 25th September 1915, where over 21,000+ French died in a few hours.

One regiment — the 315e RI — suffered the 4th highest losses.

This is their story 🧵 ↓

handwritten ledger showing Pompey Fleet, 26, short & stout Suky Coleman, 21, slight make Sam Fleet, 5, small boy

Happy Evacuation Day!

While Boston celebrates the retreat of the British in 1776, let's also remember the Black Bostonians who found their freedom by leaving Massachusetts with the British.

Pompey Fleet was a skilled printer enslaved by the Fleet family (printers/booksellers/auctioneers) in Boston

Happy birthday!!

Get off Twitter and delete your accounts. It’s unsafe. My account got stolen and it could happen to you too

We are safe in Athens, and I want to share what actually happened to get us out, because the story being told by US politicians is not the whole truth. While we were in Riyadh, sheltered by the incredibly generous families of the American International School of Riyadh who took in my ASD colleagues and us, the acting ambassador came to speak with our group. She told us evacuation flights were happening. That same morning, I had received two calls. One from the State Dept in DC telling me there were no evac flights, no help, and nothing they could do. And one from the Doha embassy offering to put me on a bus to Riyadh, where we already were, a fact clearly stated on our intake form. After the ambassador's talk, Jim and I stayed for 1:1 questions and told her exactly what we had been told all week. She asked for my number. Within an hour, a career diplomat from the embassy in Riyadh called me personally, told me about three evacuation flights, and asked if we wanted a spot. We said yes and flew to Athens the next day. When we arrived at the rally point, there were fewer than 30 people for a very large plane. It was heartbreaking. Embassy staff on the ground, who were absolutely wonderful, told us that DC controls the manifests, not them, and that DC was disorganized and not communicating well. We felt enormous guilt getting on that plane. cc: ABC News NBC News CNN MS NOW Fox News CBS News

Shortly after arriving in Athens, the same career diplomant reached out and said she could get more people out and to send her names. I did, and we were able to help many more colleagues get on flights. I also want to be clear about what "evacuation" means in practice: many flights are going to Athens, and once people land, they are on their own. Find your own lodging. Book your own onward flight to the US at your own expense. Politicians are boasting about the Americans they are getting "home," but Athens is not home, and the support stops at the jetway. A friend was on a flight last night with only 90 people on it. I am deeply grateful to the people on the ground in Riyadh who went above and beyond. I won't name them because I refuse to give this administration a target. And I am grateful to a certain US Representative's office that worked tirelessly behind the scenes for us. Please, keep calling your elected officials. Tell them you know what is actually happening. The pressure you applied got us out. There are still people who need it. Thank you for your support, care, prayer, and calls. #MiddleEastConflict

Meanwhile, elsewhere, the US evacuation ‘effort’ is about what you would expect from this administration. Turns out effectiveness is now woke too.

Long Facebook post in ALT.

Sherman tanks in Granville in 1944

Same location as Sherman tanks today

German soldiers awaiting transfer to the Channel Islands during WW2

Same location today

Lovely day out with my good lady in Granville. Couple of #ThenAndNow photos seemed almost obligatory

They both look great!
Looking forward to seeing further progress

Andrew O’Hagan · Stay Classy: Mummy’s Favourite The late queen can be held responsible for much, but nobody could accuse her of seeming to enjoy her role. For the...

A savage, magnificent, virtuosic and unlikely to be surpassed evisceration of "Mummy's Favourite".

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

The Panzer I was Germany’s first mass-produced tank. It entered service in 1934 and though it was built ostensibly for training, it did see action during the Spanish Civil War and in the early years of WW2. Its capabilities were limited by its two-man crew and the fact that there was only room inside for a radio receiver. Thus from 1935 Panzer battalions were also issued with these special command tanks or Panzerbefehlswagens - which featured an enlarged superstructure in place of the rotating turret, room inside for a crew of three, two radio sets, and a single machine gun for defence. This would enable the commanders to not only send messages out to the rest of their platoon, battalion, or regiment of tanks - but also to report back to headquarters or command centres. These command tanks proved so useful that they remained in service until late 1942. In addition to panzer units, they were issued to artillery regiments as armoured observation posts and at least one was converted in an armoured ambulance. Our particular tank was sent out to Tripoli, North Africa in March of 1941 – 85 years ago this month - and served with the 5th Panzer Regiment. It was captured by the British and was the subject of a 1943 School of Tank Technology report after its capture.

View of the side of the super structure showing battle damage and the vehicle recognition code I03, indicating it was a command tank in battalion staff 1st Battalion Panzerregiment 5 - Stab I./PR5. I need to check loss lists but suspect it was captured during CRUSADER when the regiment lost all its command tanks. A couple of key features of note - battle damage (thought to be from 2 pdr rounds) on the side of the superstructure (shown in the 2nd photograph,) and the extra armour plate which has been added on the front, as a result of experience in Poland in 1939.

From @tankmuseum.bsky.social on Facebook.

One of the first tanks to make it to North Africa, a command tank in battalion staff 1st Battalion Panzerregiment (Brigade in the UK) 5.

Details in ALT.

The crossroads where the Pionierzug and the Fahrradzug split up. Ustuf. Dröge moved on Ster where he collected all the men to walk them to Renardmont as a human shield. They were murdered in Renardmont. Ustuf. Kollatschny continued his advance and was responsible for the spree killings in Parfondruy