Phil Curme 🥾🪖

Beautifully illustrated version of my #Clevedon Military History Trail by @ECMillustration available as a free downloadable PDF from @DiscovClevedon courtesy of #ClevedonBID. Dig below the surface and every town and village has a fascinating story to tell. discoverclevedon.co.uk/wp-content/upl…

@48hrsnotice4sea I had no idea, steep learning curve on this one!

@wtbattlefields I had to travel to Chile to see one! There was supposed to be one in Copenhagen but it’s disappeared. They were used in the defences around Copenhagen. Moving between prepared fixed positions.

Stumbled upon this German 1898 Krupp-Schumann Fahrpanzer in the Athens War Museum today. Armed with a 5.7cm cannon it was apparently used by the Bulgarian Army on the #SalonikaFront in 1918 during the #FWW. I haven’t come across this Heath-Robinson style contraption before.

@ReassessHistory It does, but without mention of the Brits. Focuses on the fight between Greek Government forces and the EAM-ELAS resistance fighters.

@wtbattlefields I take it that the Battle of Athens 1944 does not feature?

What, no British and Commonwealth involvement in Greece (including Crete!) during the two World Wars? No, nothing. Happily there is plenty more to see at the Athens War Museum even though there are a few gaps in the story 🤔

@YewneekPhoto @ReassessHistory I like the way that they have separated the Greco-Italian War 1940-41 from the Second World War. They won the former of course!

@ReassessHistory @wtbattlefields In Greece, it only counts as a war if you can take a trophy home...

The forgotten truth about Monty — he was a 'cheeky chappie'. thetimes.com/article/78a194…

@hoyer_kat @JEyal_RUSI Such a powerful way of remembering victims of the Holocaust. Well done, Gunter Demnig 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻

An old lady with no other income, Hedwig fell into poverty before being deported in 1942 to a concentration camp where she died. What's most disturbing to me is that Hedwig vanished from the middle of society and nobody protested. Now only a plaque in the pavement remains. 2/2

I'm in Weimar where there are traces of the people I wrote about everywhere. This was Hedwig Hetemann's shop where she repaired toys for children. It was destroyed by the SA in the pogrom of 1938 because she was Jewish. Nobody helped her. She became withdrawn and isolated. 1/2

@TrenchTrotter You have a point, Tim. Maybe the carriage was just a means of transporting the turret to a static position.

@wtbattlefields There is a well documented image of one installed on the western front. A pre built turret for trenches on its transit carriage?

The grave of Catherine Harley at Lembet Road @CWGC in Thessaloniki. Killed in 1917 whilst running an ambulance service for the Serb Army on the #SalonikaFront - this remarkable woman was a leading Suffragist who had served with the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service.

@BillAlexander4 @GlennStennes Yes, me too. Aside from his skills as a battlefield guide, by virtue of his 4x4, Glenn gets you to places that it would otherwise be very difficult to reach. Ideal for lone explorers or groups of two or three.

@wtbattlefields @GlennStennes He is so knowledgeable. I had a great tour with him. Highly recommended.

Hiked the Grand Couronne to Kale Tepe (The Devil’s Eye) with @GlennStennes. This Bulgarian strongpoint dominated the Doiran battlefield and Daniel Burges from my home town of #Clevedon won a #VC leading 7th Bn, The South Wales Borderers in an attempt to storm it in Sept 1918.

And of course, you can’t go to #Macedonia without seeking out ‘local lad done good’ #AlexandertheGreat

Who doesn’t like a #thenandnow? Thessaloniki seafront (with a view of the White Tower) taken by an onlooker in April 1941 compared with an image captured from the same spot today.

Some good content in the Thessaloniki War Museum. Fascinating to see the Greek perspective on the two World Wars, and to learn about the two pre #FWW Balkan wars.

One night stopover in Thessaloniki before taking a train to Athens. Wasn’t expecting to find the #WW2 Pacific War veteran USS Charrette berthed in the port. And she has a pair of Hedgehogs, as developed by the Wheezers & Dodgers of the DMWD and trialled at #BirnbeckPier

I’ve got so much respect for the writers, poets and musicians who insisted on joining up in WW1, or becoming medics or stretcher-bearers, even if they were ill or long over-age: Edward Thomas, Maurice Ravel, Henri Barbusse, Ford Madox Ford, Toscanini, Compton Mackenzie, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Reynaldo Hahn, Guillaume Apollinaire, Arnold Schoenberg, C.E. Montague (who dyed his white hair to get in), John Buchan, Hugh Walpole (only 30 but with awful eyesight), and the wonderful Colette, who at 41 smuggled herself into the fighting area round Verdun to be with her husband, and tended to wounded soldiers under heavy fire. What a woman!

The superbly maintained Karasouli @CWGC Military Cemetery near Polykastro, Greece. Casualties are mainly from the 1915-18 #SalonikaCampaign #FWW

Fascinating morning looking at the 66 Brigade assault on Pip Ridge on 18 Sept 1918. One can’t imagine what the men of the 12th Cheshires and the 9th South Lancs went through in trying to take Pip 4. Whilst 66th Brigade failed to break through, the Bulgarians were held in check.

Missing #WW2 RAF pilot found strapped in his sunken Hurricane is laid to rest. thetimes.com/article/9e9a66…

Interesting time this morning looking at the British attack on Petit Couronne (nr Doiran), May 1917 - focussing on the 7th Bn, Ox and Bucks. Started at the British 18 pdr bunkers on La Tortue, finished by walking part of the Jumeaux Ravine with @GlennStennes #SalonikaCampaign