Great evening at Hatchards listening to Robert Lyman 🇺🇦 and Roger Moorhouse 🇺🇦 discuss the U-Boat war. Looking forward to reading the book!

They're off.....this week in 1942...the Operation TORCH fleets set sail from UK and USA to North African Mediterranean coast. As an 'insurance' policy against Spanish or Vichy interference, 1 Fleet would land on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, Patton's at Fedala #TunisianCampaign

Evening stroll in Geneva and came across a statue to Empress Elizabeth (Sisi) the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. Elizabeth was assassinated by an Italian anarchist in 1898 on the shores of the lake.

Excellent weekend in Geneva, with a LOT of rain on Saturday we went indoors to the Patek Phillipe Museum. V interesting, lots of beautiful watches and who knew Mr Patek was a Pole who fled during the failed 1830 uprising against Russian rule.

Today the weather cleared (a bit) and we went to do some hiking in France. First snow of the year and some fantastic views of the peaks around Passerelle du Fond de la Combe.

Well I never....the last JU-52 aircraft out of Stalingrad was flown by the SAME CREW as the last JU-52 out of Tunisia. If that's not the answer to a WW2 pub quiz question I don't know what is! #TunisianCampaign

On this Day - 1941, the American destroyer USS Rueben James was sunk by a single torpedo from U-552, off the coast of Iceland. She was the first US Navy ship to be sunk by hostile action in the European theatre. It was still five weeks *before* Pearl Harbor. #OTD #WW2

31 October 1973. 1st episode of the 26-part classic ITV documentary series World at War was broadcast. It was narrated by Laurence Olivier with music by Carl Davies. It cost £900,000 (worth £11 million today).

Epirus saw heavy fighting in World War II when the Italians invaded from Albania. They were beaten by the hard-fighting Greeks, who were eventually powerless when the Germans invaded too on the Macedonian front. This small museum on the Ioannina-Konitsa road is dedicated to it.

We Will Remember Them. In our churches, there are many reminders of tragic toll of the First World War. On the altar at St Beuno's, Penmorfa in Gwynedd is a simple cross that was carved by Emile de Vynck, a refugee from Belgium, who luckily escaped the conflict on the Continent

Two Welsh Guardsmen I think of on Remembrance Day, buried side by side in a Normandy cemetery, killed on the same day. Their epitaphs identical but one in Welsh, one in English: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends

At Leeds Armouries. Ten (blank) rounds challenge, Lee Enfield vs K98.

Each Armistice Day my mind goes to two places- very different but both affected by the war and both known by and dear to me. The first is Karlovy Vary, a spa town in the north west of the Czech Republic, once known more widely as Karlsbad, in the Sudetenland.

A memorial service held by the South African Brigade for its members killed in taking Delville Wood during the First Battle of the Somme, Western Front, the service taking place in early 1917. Film: IWM 169

🇨🇿 15 November 1939 Medical student Jan Opletal's body is laid out and driven through Prague prior to his funeral the following day in his home village. Wounded by German troops during a student demonstration, he died two weeks later. In two days time, the German crackdown on

Just some of the excellent exhibits on display at the Czech Military History Museum. Pieces from the campaigns in North Africa, Dunkirk and Czech RAF Bomber Command squadron. The Pravda Vitez banner (the Truth Prevails) flown in Jericho by Czechs assembling in the Middle East.

Have you heard of Private Saywell Ernest Malley 📚🤨? Remembered in the Czech Military History Museum as a casualty of the May 1945 uprising in Prague against German rule. Apparently the last Australian casualty of the war in Europe.

A fantastic trip to Prague. Always a wonderful city and a great time with friends. 📸 from Vitkov Hill over Prague and the statue of Jan Žižka a Hussite General and Czech hero.

In 1942, during Operation Anthropoid, Jan Kubiš threw 3 bombs at Reinhard Heydrich's car in the assassination attempt on the Nazi Governor of Bohemia and Moravia. Two exploded. One didn't. This is the unexploded bomb at the Czech Military History Museum in Prague. #Czech #WW2

Really great evening at Stanfords listening to the excellent Lucy Ash (whose journalism on Russia and Eastern Europe has been exceptional) talking about her book "The Baton and the Cross" on the history of the Russian Orthodox Church.