Nick Hewitt ⚓️🇺🇦🇹🇼
@NickHewitt4
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#naval #historian FRHistS #Orkney Culture Team Lead @OrkneyCouncil . Author. new book Normandy: The Sailors’ Story with @YaleBooks On TV. Views all mine.🇪🇺
Kirkwall, Scotland
Joined August 2012
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Pinned Tweet
#NormandySailors
out in the wild tomorrow! Thanks again to all who’ve supplied such amazing endorsements including
@thehistoryguy
@timbenbow1
@Tessadunlop
@kejamieson_
& Professors Lambert and Knight, who are sadly not on X.
#DDay80
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So now that it’s all public I can FINALLY tweet pictures of the new
#ScapaFlow
Museum. What an absolute privilege it has been to help my amazing
@OrkneyCouncil
colleagues see this one over the line. We open TOMORROW! Can’t wait to see what people think :)
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Unpopular opinion: there's never been a "special relationship" at govt level. 🇺🇸 stayed out of
#WW2
until it saw its interests were directly threatened, then billed 🇬🇧 for help provided, destroying it as a postwar trading rival. Time to grow up, "America First" is nothing new.
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A little
#RiverPlate
thread. Some folk who question the significance of the Graf Spee eagle seem to have very little sense of the significance of this strange little action. It took place at a point when Nazi Germany had successfully carved up most of central Europe. 📸Getty
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Well this is exciting!!
@YaleBooks
tell me I can now share the cover of my forthcoming book. It looks amazing, I’m so thrilled - it sure feels real now!
#NormandySailors
out May 2024.
@jo_godfrey
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So this happened! Our 15cm SKL/45 from SMS Bremse arrived back at the Scapa Flow Museum after months of painstaking conservation by the extraordinary Ian Clark. Doesn’t it look amazing? Available to see from 1 March :)
@OrkneyCouncil
now calm down
@jerijerod14
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I am SO proud to work for an organisation that could look at a rusty funnel sticking out of a dock seven years ago and believe it could be turned into this. Pat yourself on the back and enjoy your
@MandHShow
award
@NatMuseumRN
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Unpopular opinion: talk of Nuremberg is nonsense. Nuremberg happened because Nazi Germany was crushed militarily & occupied. Unless the west defeats & occupies Russia (!) there will be no trial. There’ve been dozens of tyrants since 1945 who should have been tried. Very few were.
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Be warned. This isn’t my usual stuff.
#SarahEverard
I’ve had this on my FB and in a reply to someone else but I’ve been encouraged to share it publicly. I’ve learned a little over the last few days & it seems the single most important thing we as men can do about this is OWN it
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It’s……..PUBLICATION DAY <whoop>
#nervousanticipation
@jo_godfrey
@YaleBooks
I know Amazon have sold out - hopefully a good sign - Yale are on it!
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Anyone else being absolutely spammed to death in here lately? Unless all these young women really do care passionately about naval history 🙄
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So this was…..exciting!!!! So so pleased and proud about this one, thanks so much to the
@YaleBooks
team for doing such a fab job. Out in the world from 9 April, can’t wait to find out what y’all think of it!
@jo_godfrey
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Beyond thrilled and super proud to have been elected a Fellow of
@RoyalHistSoc
as of 3 July, I just received the letter!! Really delighted to be endorsed by my peers like this, actually quite emotional.
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That’s it!
#NormandySailors
is out of my hands. Index and final comments submitted, maps and images signed off. Thanks to all who’ve supplied such lovely endorsements including
@timbenbow1
@Tessadunlop
@kejamieson_
& several not on X. Out in the world in time for
#DDay80
!
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Well this has been an exciting second week working for
@OrkneyCouncil
at
#ScapaFlowMuseum
Really good to get these incredibly rare and fragile German guns from the
#FWW
safely undercover, so we can dry them out and work out a future for them.
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Deutschland was renamed Lutzow afterwards because the Fuhrer was so worried about a ship named after Germany being sunk like her sister. This is why I think this eagle should be retained, to tell an important and very poorly understood story of the war against fascism. 📸BBC
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Sun’s coming up, barge is sitting down nicely and the bridge is shaping up well.
#LCT7074
#LastJourney
#DDay
@TNLUK
@TheDDayStory
@TNLUK
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So the great adventure is underway! Goods and chattels finally packed, flat empty and I’ve made it as far as Carlisle. Next stop,
#Orkney
!
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So it really is about time I tweeted out my huge news isn’t it? After ten incredible years in Portsmouth, most of them doing amazing things for
@NatMuseumRN
I am leaving at the end of October to go on a fantastic adventure. 1/
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More
#LCT7074
adventures today! Got the Churchill Crocodile loaded up but high winds prevented craning of the Sherman Grizzly. If I hear the words ‘unseasonable weather’ again I’ll weep. Guarantee it will be fine as soon as we finish craning.
@NatMuseumRN
@TheDDayStory
@TNLUK
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@AndrewRawson11
Museums are broken Andy. Public funding has plummeted, without self-generated income they will all close. Collections are in crisis. A donation request is exactly that, if you can't or won't pay you don't have to, nor do you have to buy coffee or travel by car.
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This is my hill. In a very crowded field 633 Squadron has the best theme music of any war film. <ducks>
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So I'll be spending LOTS of time in here! Thanks to the fab
@jo_godfrey
I've signed a contract with
@yalepress
@YaleBooks
to write about the naval campaign which mirrored the Battle of Normandy in 1944. Target pub date for 'Battle of the Seine Bay' (provisional title) is 6/2024.
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Please forgive the shameless self promotion! If you’ve seen the news about the discovery of
#smsacharnhorst
and want to know more about the Battle of the Falklands this is my book on the campaign and the hunt for the rest of Imperial Germany’s raiding cruisers in 1914-15
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I have been trying to figure out the best way of engaging with today's Twitter debate of choice without joining in a truly nasty witch hunt of someone I still feel was guilty of nothing more than being young, naive and inexperienced.
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My daughter's friend said "you're going to
@taylorswift13
with your dad? Your dad the naval historian?" I think I may be living my best life 😆😆😆
#PeakMe
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Just flicked on Saving Private Ryan, which for the record I like, but it reminds me why I wrote
#NormandySailors
. Naval gunfire support, in particular destroyers operating impossibly close inshore, were arguably the difference between success & failure at Omaha. Where are they?
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Meanwhile, in Orkney......!
@wmarybeard
@OrkneyArts
Tomorrow morning on
@BBCRadio4
at 9.00 on (Tuesday)...the first of our new series of 'Being Roman' (and on BBC Sounds). 👇👇👇
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80 years ago
#WW2
was nearly a month old & people were joking about the
#PhoneyWar
. It was never phoney at sea. First
#CoastalConvoys
began on 6 September 1939, London needed 40,000+ tons of coal a week & roads & railways couldn’t provide it. The East Coast was brutal from day 1.
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So I just got back from a few days with my mum and went for a walk up to St Martha’s Church near Guildford. Like all churchyards there’s some great military history if you spend a bit of time looking, but the stories at St Martha’s really are amazing!
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We bloomin’ well did it people!! Really emotional here
@SeaSpitfires
@Pritchard_Arch
@NatMuseumRN
@TheDDayStory
@ArteliaUK
@aype
@The_Workhaus
MLUK (get on Twitter, you did the work) and so so many more individuals and organisations!! ❤️ this ship ❤️
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Sitting in
@UkNatArchives
photographing Ultra decrypts with a very small camera feels wonderfully like being a Hollywood spy. 🕵️♀️
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I really am so bloody RAGING that people have been driven off here for gently speaking their minds. Diversifying our field is vital. Ignored narratives should be told by those closest to them. Old white men like me need to take up LESS bandwidth so others can fill it. End.
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So close now to being safe on dry land!!! Excitement levels here are palpable.
#LCT7074
#LastJourney
#DDay
@TNLUK
@NatMuseumRN
@TheDDayStory
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Gorgeous views across Scapa Flow today from the 3.7” AA battery on Lyrawa Hill and my favourite WW2 concrete in the world, the Communications Centre for HMS Proserpine on Wee Fea.
#Orkney
#NavalHistory
#GetOutside
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I will never regret the path I chose. I frickin' LOVE public history. Bringing history to people who may never have given a damn about it before is a true joy. But you really, REALLY have to put the hours in before you stick your head above the parapet IMHO. Thanks for listening.
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I am so proud and excited to tell you I’m moving straight from one dream job to another ❤️ I’m going 900 miles due north to join
@OrkneyCouncil
as Team Leader (Culture), responsible for
@OrkneyMuseums
marvellous museums, visitor centres and interpreted sites. 2/
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@JJintheUS
@William58634898
@SpaghettiKozak
@RitaKonaev
@EmmaMAshford
More UK/Canadian Valentines supplied than US Shermans. Far more UK aircraft supplied than US. Britain supplied Russia when it was desperate, and British sailors died taking it over.
So “US/UK/Canadian lend lease” please.
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Visiting beautiful
#Vienna
Trying to take a break from war but couldn’t miss the amazing Military History Museum and some of the most extraordinary objects I’ve ever seen: the car Franz Ferdinand was travelling in when he was associated & his uniform. Incredible.
#museumsmatter
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IMO this is why Graf Spee’s eagle matters: not as a symbol of Nazism, but as a symbol of the Nazi war machine getting a resounding kicking at a vital moment. The destruction of Graf Spee shook Hitler’s faith in his navy and he never really recovered it. 📸
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Anyone remember those little aircraft kits you used to get in cereal boxes? They were amazing! I had an actual B36 which I’ve never forgotten. Have searched eBay for a nostalgia hit but they have vanished without trace, I can’t even find many photos of them.
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I’ve read transcripts of Eisenhower’s famous
#DDay
failure message before but I’ve never seen it. This careful amendment from ‘the troops have been withdrawn’ to ‘I have withdrawn the troops’ speaks volumes about this extraordinary leader. It’s called taking responsibility.
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Thanks to
@BBCBreakfast
for a chance to talk about HRH Prince Philip’s naval service just now, he really was a proper fighting sailor which is so often forgotten. RIP.
@NatMuseumRN
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I’ve never paid much attention to ‘cancel culture’ but lately there’s been a distinct vibe on this platform that if you read the wrong author, play the wrong game or even, apparently, build the wrong model kit you’re in for it. Anybody else caught themselves self-censoring?
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Not a bad day at the office! Launch of the new
#NightHunters
#CoastalForces
exhibition
@explosionmuseum
for
@NatMuseumRN
Amazing support afloat from
@BoatHouse_4
@medusa1387
@RoyalNavy
@SeaSpitfires
@ShawJacquie
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PS the naval history is pretty flipping incredible too. There is no better place to stand and absorb the story of the
@RoyalNavy
in two world wars. Expect a LOT of tweets! End/
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In other news my new running head torch has a Jawa mode and I can’t stop laughing 😂
#StarWars
#MayTheForceBeWithYou
#WhoSaysJawasCantRun
@kejamieson_
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Just realised this is the one platform where I didn’t share my pix of my magical new home this morning!
❤️
#Orkney
❤️
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My plan today was chores but the hills and the sunshine beckoned….!
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Follow the sad passing of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, today, many tributes noted his service at the Battle of Matapan, where he was Mentioned in Despatches.
@SeaSpitfires
produced an excellent thread on Prince Philip's naval career earlier.
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Recalling that when I was young, in any high street bookshop, you could actually buy novels about the exploits of a tough, devil-may-care band of Waffen SS 😳 Written under an appropriately Germanic pen name by a well-known military history writer. What the hell was THAT about?
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Never, ever, ever buy a leasehold property. Here endeth the lesson.😡😡😡
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More than the 2,000 followers, what has really made my Monday is discovering just how many history folks turn out to have collections of gaming miniatures ❤️ To celebrate here’s HMS Belfast in 1/1250
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Excited to read this, had no idea it was even a novel! Found in the Lyness ferry terminal building book rack.
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This is my OTHER commuting route round the south side of mainland. ❤️
#LoveOrkney
#Orkney
#LivingTheDream
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We also need to recognise that actually just suddenly waking up because of this case throws a spotlight on our failings even more. Sarah was young, pretty, white, professional, so ‘decent’ men sat up and took notice for once. That’s part of the issue too.
Thanks for listening.
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In a dreadful blow to RN pride which cost the lives of 835 sailors, U-47 slipped inside the Royal Navy’s base at Scapa Flow and torpedoed the battleship HMS Royal Oak, just a few miles from where I am writing this. 📸
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I figured the best way might be to talk about my own journey rather than pontificate about someone I've never met. But before I do, NOBODY deserves death and rape threats, not ever and especially not right now. It's never fucking OK. People who do it should be booted off Twitter.
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#LCT7074
got her new bow ramp today! Replacing a badly deteriorated blanking plate from 1945, this has been designed using original plans and will actually WORK when the ship arrives at
@TheDDayStory
So super proud to be working on this epic six year project for
@NatMuseumRN
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So today I was back in Sanday with
@wessexarch
to take a look at THIS!
#Shipwreck
#mystery
#Orkney
@OrkneyCouncil
@OrkneyArts
@NatMuseumRN
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Someone in The Other Place shared this wonderful picture of
#LCT7074
by
@MarcinJ_Photos
with me and I just had to share, ain't she pretty? ❤️So so proud to have worked on this incredible project for
@NatMuseumRN
and
@TheDDayStory
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Thread on the importance of
@CWGC
and the way every beautifully tended grave can unlock the stories of lives lost and sacrifices made. I saw this lonely stone in a huge churchyard attached to an isolated, derelict church in Buckfastleigh, Devon.
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Presumptuous tweet, but if anyone wants to find out more about
#CoastalConvoys
after my talk on
@WW2TV
I foolishly bought 100 copies of my book & then moved to Orkney (!) DM or tag me if you’d like a copy. Retails at £12.99, happy to sell for £12 including UK 2nd class postage.
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All ready for the new season at
#ScapaFlowMuseum
…you can NEVER have too many ducks!
@OrkneyCouncil
@KirstyCooncil
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Fantastic to meet Liz Robertson from the mighty
@I_W_M
today and show her around the treasures of Scapa Flow!
@OrkneyCouncil
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Having spent seven years basically married to a landing craft, today I got to go to sea in one - fantastic trip around the harbour in Falklands veteran F8 thanks to
@FemConstruct
@BoatHouse_4
Even got to sail into the Camber
@explosionmuseum
which I’ve never done in ten years!
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Finally started watching this. It holds up incredibly well considering it’s 45 YEARS OLD! Fabulous drama, well acted.
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When my Dad died in 2016, I cleared out his garage, and found this incredible collection of flint scrapers, axe heads etc. I have no idea where he got them. One or two have dated labels going back to before he was born. I wish I knew more about them.
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Anyone know how to fold the wings back into a Tomahawk LAM...? 🤔
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On the other hand he passed his prisoners over to be incarcerated in truly dreadful conditions aboard the supply ship Altmark, until the ship was stormed by sailors from HMS Cossack whilst skulking in Norway and they were finally liberated in February 1940. AWM OO3626.17
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It was a victory against the odds, during a very dark time. Harwood out-maneuvered, out-fought and in the end out-bluffed his opponent. Look at the number of the photo in my previous: Admiralty Official Photo A2. This is the moment when the RN starts documenting the war! 📸Alamy
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What a lovely site! While we wait for the tide the team are starting to set up the steel bridge to get
#LCT7074
off the barge and back on dry land.
#LastJourney
#DDay
@NatMuseumRN
@TNLUK
@TheDDayStory
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Huge day yesterday! We started high pressure water blasting
#LCT7074
Condition of the steel is far better than anticipated and some amazingly sharp features are coming back into view.
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In short when Graf Spee was finally caught off the River Plate by 🇬🇧 cruisers Ajax and Exeter and the 🇳🇿 manned HMS Achilles on 13 December 1939 on 13 December 1939, it came at the end of a pretty torrid period for the British and French navies. 📸IWM ART LD7394
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Further afield the pocket battleships Graf Spee and Deutschland were sinking merchant ships with impunity. Graf Spee’s Captain Langsdorff has been described as a ‘gentleman’ which if the bar is kept low, he probably was. He did allow crews to abandon ship unmolested. 📸IWM MH2
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I’M HAVING A PINT in an ACTUAL BAR and I am BEYOND EXCITED!!!!!
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Long overdue catch-up and a little light book crossing with
@SeaSpitfires
😀 Lovely to finally meet
@rentaquill
too, thanks for taking the great photos!
#NormandySailors
#SwordBeach
#LCT7074
#DDay80
@YaleBooks
l
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First day in the office
@OrkneyCouncil
Not a bad start to the commute after the weekend’s gales!
#firstday
#newboy
#foundthecarpark
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Commodore Henry Harwood’s force managed to drive Langsdorff into Uruguayan waters, where he eventually scuttled his ship in full view of the watching press. It was a cause for huge celebration. The British were outgunned, and Graf Spee should have escaped. 📸IWM A2
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Production line going on. Honestly blown away by how many of you lovely people wanted my book. Thank you all so much ❤️
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Bless you Germany, still friends despite our recent bizarre behaviour. Thank you. This has actually made me unexpectedly emotional.
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Finally got to meet the elusive
@churchill_alex
on a super blustery day at Marwick Head. Turns out we get on rather well! Apparently all it takes is a visit to the location of a national icon’s death to be mates for life 🤣 Happy travels south Alex!
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Unpopular opinion: the steady, measurable decay of 20c steel wrecks means the "take only photos, leave only bubbles" approach (which restricts heritage to those with the 💰 ⏰ and health for diving) is done. Sensitive curated recovery is the way to go.
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There’s still an actual shooting war going on in Europe and a climate emergency but hey, did you see Will Smith slapped Chris Rock? So over the western world’s collective butterfly mind. We are unable to remain focussed on what actually matters for longer than a few days.
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That’s it!
#CoastalConvoys
is now out in paperback so here is obligatory very chuffed author in very cheesy photo. Many thanks
@penswordbooks
for doing such a great job :)
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Incredible -
#NormandySailors
in
@Telegraph
list of six recommended new books on the subject. Very chuffed indeed :)
D-Day at 80: The best new books for its anniversary
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79 years ago today, a vast armada set out to land an army in Normandy and begin the liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe. This feels like just the right day to talk about the project I've been working on for
@jo_godfrey
&
@YaleBooks
📷IWM A23916
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So proud to have arrived in time to play a small part in getting this fantastic project over the line! The naval heritage in
#Orkney
is unsurpassed.
The multi-million pound renovation project at
#Orkney
's Scapa Flow Museum is really taking shape 🤩
Work is now focusing on the interior and the display of its fascinating wartime artefacts.
Read more ➡️
#VisitOrkney
#ScotlandIsCalling
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Amazing! Lined up, smooth as anything. The comparison to last night is incredible. Now we wait for the tide to go out so she sits on the pad.
#LCT7074
#BigMove
#LastJourney
@TheDDayStory
@NatMuseumRN
@TNLUK
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Now THIS is how to block the
#Suez
Canal. If it’s worth doing it’s worth doing properly.
#Nasser
#SuezCrisis
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- ‘evaluated’ women with a group of our mates.
- told a sexist joke
Then we have contributed, however inadvertently, to Sarah’s death. It’s on all of us. It really is that simple.
For the record and with shame and embarrassment, I have done all of these things in the past.
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I have no words! So so chuffed!
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