⁦@OspreyBooks⁩ ⁦@BloomsburyBooks⁩

Vive la France!

"Far from humanitarian... the Ottoman Empire ended as a proto-Nazi, ultra-nationalist, genocidal state." In this week's Big Picture @sauldavid66 is joined by @simonmontefiore who dismantles popular misconceptions about Ottoman rule. Listen here 🎧👇 linktr.ee/podbattleground

The Race to Rangoon

Here's an extract from my @DailyMail piece, 'My day at Auschwitz with Wayne Rooney and why his reaction to the horrors there confounded every assumption I had about him' dailymail.com/debate/article… Auschwitz and Disney. Putting the two words together is incongruous, if not grotesque. Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of all the Nazi concentration camps, where around a million Jews were murdered along with a further 100,000 ‘undesirables’. There is no place on earth that still resonates more of evil, even to this day, 81 years after its liberation. Yet a forthcoming Disney+ reality series includes its stars being taken around Auschwitz. It seems unimaginably crass. Outrageous, even. And when you learn that the series is The Real Rooneys, starring Wayne and Coleen Rooney, it would be understandable if your reaction was to think that Disney+ had lost all sense of decency. ...So it’s natural to think that our celebrity culture could hardly sink any lower than to pair Wayne Rooney with Auschwitz. For, as part of his reality TV series, the former Manchester United star visits the death camp as he unravels his Polish-Jewish roots. But natural and understandable as that reaction might be, I have a different view. I think it is not only something to be applauded; it is inspired. I say this for one simple reason: I have visited Auschwitz with Wayne Rooney. And I can report first-hand that he was a model of decorum, intelligent curiosity and thoughtfulness. In 2012, the England team were in Poland for the European Championships that summer. To their credit, the Football Association decided it would be good for the players to learn about what was done at Auschwitz and, even more importantly, because as role models, their mere presence there would do much to boost Holocaust education among youngsters. ...First, we were taken to the prison cells. As we entered Block 11 – known as the ‘Death Block’, where prisoners were tortured and left to starve – I saw Rooney dab his eyes. We were then taken to the courtyard between Blocks 10 and 11 where prisoners were executed by firing squad against the so-called ‘Death Wall’. Rooney and his teammates gave their rapt attention to the guide. There was no banter. No sniggering at the back. Just stunned silence. Rooney stared at a picture of SS doctor Heinz Thilo greeting the new arrivals at Birkenau and pointing them into two areas: one for work, another for the gas chambers. When we then made our way to the site where the photo had been taken, Rooney started to pace out the movements for himself, needing to comprehend the dimensions of a death sentence. ...At one point there is a display of 40,000 shoes, removed from the corpses of those murdered. Rooney and I had the same reaction; neither of us could bear to look. Some 240,000 of the victims murdered at Auschwitz were under 15 and their tiny shoes stood out. We looked at each other. ...When we entered one of the larger gas chambers, Rooney asked how many people would be gassed at one time. ‘Around 2,000,’ came the answer. Rooney looked at the space as if trying to work out how 2,000 could even fit into it, let alone then be murdered in it. ...As the visit drew to a close, he explained why he had come: ‘I wanted to see it for myself. What happened here puts football into perspective. It’s good for us to try to understand this history.’ There is always a danger with celebrities that when they publicise a cause, it is dragged down to their level. But not in this case. Rooney and the England team’s presence at Auschwitz that day served to spotlight a dark era of humanity’s past, the memory of which is threatened by the slow passing of survivors, and Holocaust deniers. The visit also served to remind jaded journalists like me that for all their fame and fortune, footballers can be as moved by horror as anyone. ...Cynics may doubt his authenticity, but I have seen it up close when there wasn’t a TV crew in tow. He is an unlikely ambassador for the memory of Auschwitz, but perhaps all the more powerful for that.

Over the moon with this fabulous lead review in @spectator for The House of Cromwell! “Captivating and brilliantly researched”, a “meticulous excavation”, “wonderful”, “salutary”… Thrilled 🤩 Do pick up a copy (of both!) Out now

Imagine thinking that being in the special forces is like working in M&S. It is precisely this mindset,that soldiers in war should be treated as if they were an accountant in Crawley, that is destroying our armed forces. I would be very concerned of our soldiers didn’t swear!

Whats that noise Sarge? Thats HR managers lad, 1000s of em Crikey Sarge what do we do now Dont swear lad, dont swear

No swearing please

Excellent book

A country that can’t defend its own borders, now seeks to secure space.

Listening to Milei ramble on about the Falklands. I love Argentina and the Argentinian people but I find it hard to accept that they don’t see the irony in their claims for the islands. Argentina was built on genocide and ethnic cleansing, the Selk’nam people were systematically slaughtered in their thousands by implanted sheep farming foreigners and their descendants. The people of the Falklands are British, and voted to remain British. Milei is mates with Netanyahu, sold off a chunk of Patagonia to Israel and has sideburns that belong on Epstein island. Don’t listen to him hermanos 🇦🇷 🇬🇧

The Takao was sunk at its moorings by a X-Craft XE3 on 31 July 1945 in an operation in which Ian Fraser and James Magennis were both awarded the VC.

Am loving the vibrant writing of this @Tonisenior. “It’s not written for the Reform Club…”

British battlecruiser HMS Hood arriving in Sydney Harbour during its 1924 Empire Cruise.

Excellent book

Nice to see my friend George Jessel in this picture, standing back left as you look at it. Two interesting facts about George, apart from being a DL. His great great grandfather was the first Jewish Master of the Rolls from 1873 until his death in 1883. His great grandfather Sir Charles James Jessel (the eldest son of Sir George Jessel, the Master of the Rolls) gave his name to Jesselton, now Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, Malaysia. Incidentally, George was also a cavalryman, in the 15/19th Hussars.

Now available on Amazon’s #KindleUnlimited in the UK, US, Canada and Australia. ‘So well written’ @thetimes ‘Unputdownable’ bestselling military historian @robert_lyman ‘Intriguing…masterly’ bestselling author John Lawton Dead In The Water is Frank Merlin 5. #WW2 #crimefiction

Delighted to be able to hold this in my hand at last. Beautifully written and even more beautifully produced by @chiselbury this book tells the story of Erroll Prior Palmer, one of two brothers simultaneously to command armoured brigades in 1944. Erroll commanded 8th Armoured Brigade, the ‘swimming Shermans’ on Sword Beach, taking them all the way to Belsen. But the story is much more than this, Errol having a remarkable life after the war. This book is a tremendous tribute to a remarkable man and a long lost generation .

Two Jewish spies entered Nazi-occupied France. Only one survived. Discover the extraordinary true stories of Joseph "André" Scheinmann and Maurice Pertschuk in 'I Am André' and 'The Moon in Splinters'. Available now from Chiselbury, Amazon and all good bookshops.