#DDay80: The role of the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) in the #Normandy campaign was a crucial one. Battles & wars cannot be won without logistics & the RASC were in the forefront of supplying them from D-Day onwards. 1/12 🧵 #DDay80: As Operation Overlord was a Combined Operations amphibious operation, on D-Day the RASC used the DUKW as its main tool. Here a column of DUKWs are lined up in England ready for the invasion. 2/12

#DDay80: The role of the Royal Engineers (RE) on D-Day & in the #Normandy campaign is another aspect of the #WW2 British & Commonwealth story that deserves more focus. On most beaches the RE were among the first to land, clearing the beaches making the assault possible. 1/14 #DDay80: Assault Engineers hit the beaches in LCAs & cleared smaller obstacles, also supported by Assault Squadrons RE equipped with Churchill Tank Assault Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE) designed to destroy obstacles & bunkers with their Petard Mortar. 2/14

#DDay80: the role of the British & Commonwealth Medical Services on #DDay and in the #Normandy campaign is an important part of our understanding of events that summer 80 years ago. [thread] 1/14 #DDay80: When a soldier was wounded on the battlefield the first level of medical treatment was from Regimental Stretcher Bearers. These were infantry soldiers posted to the Stretcher Bearers section. As such, despite the myth, they were not Conscientious Objectors. 2/14

Some days the world seems unrecognisable to us, and so it’s good to retreat in our minds to those places that mean the most, even if we can’t visit yet. For me it will always be the battlefields of the Great War, the #OldFrontLine. Having spent most of my life walking them, it’s easy for me to close my eyes and be back there again. Something I’m enjoying verbalising each week via the #OldFrontLine podcast.

#DDay75: the role of the British & Commonwealth Medical Services in the #Normandy campaign is an important part of our understanding of events that summer 75 years ago. [thread] 1/14 #DDay75: When a soldier was wounded on the battlefield the first level of medical treatment was from Regimental Stretcher Bearers. These were infantry soldiers posted to the Stretcher Bearers section. As such, despite the myth, they were not Conscientious Objectors. 2/14

#DDay75: the role of the Royal Engineers (RE) on D-Day & in the #Normandy campaign is another aspect of the #WW2 British & Commonwealth story that deserves more focus. On most beaches the RE were among the first to land, clearing the beaches making the assault possible. 1/14 #DDay75: Assault Engineers hit the beaches in LCAs & cleared smaller obstacles, also supported by Assault Squadrons RE equipped with Churchill Tank Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE) designed to destroy obstacles & bunkers with their Petard Mortar. 2/14

Travelling to France for #DDay75? Fancy seeing some lesser-known locations connected to #DDay & the Battle of #Normandy? Then I hope this is of interest! No 1: 50th (Nortnumbrian) Division Memorial, Bayeux. This division landed on Gold Beach on D-Day & pushed inland, fighting at Tilly and Hottot. The memorial is on an old convent wall, opposite the cathedral & easily missed. #DDay75

I’ve been lucky to be able to take thousands of battlefield photos during the #WW1Centenary, here some of my favourites. Dawn in the trenches at Beaumont-Hamel on the #Somme, June 2016. The Thiepval Memorial, #Somme - November 2014.