Jack Bowsher - Thunder Run
@historybowsh
Military Historian, Author & Educator Associate Fellow Royal Historical Society Author of Forgotten Armour: Tank Warfare in Burma - Chiselbury Publishing Media Representative Past Preservers: casting@pastpreservers.com
Next Sat 1 August at 7pm I’m giving a talk about Thunder Run: Meiktila 1945 for the wonderful New Forest & Hampshire Wartime Assoc - if you’re nearby and free you can book tickets here 👇 tinyurl.com/4nwa465w
I listened the WHW 1000 ep this morning & was just really reminded how special the community around this is. I will always appreciate the opportunity the pod & IC gave me. Two books down, two more coming in 2027, and other irons in fires! Thank you @almurray.bsky.social James Holland & Tony Pastor
I’m writing about the final withdrawal of Burma Army back into India for my new book for Osprey & chanced looking on Google Earth for any sign of the abandoned tanks in the jungles near Shwegyin. And I think I’ve found them! This is the specific area where around 50 Stuarts were burned or smashed up
Very saddened to hear of the death of @NUFC legend Kevin Keegan. I know clubs do this a lot but it was still very special to get this signed note when I was hit by a car aged 8 and fractured my femur in June 1996 (same day we were knocked out of Euro 96!). Go well King Kev 🫡
Look at this Panther tank drawn by one my students GCSE history students! Never let anyone tell you girls don’t like military history.
A few weeks ago I went on my annual school Battlefield tour with the brilliant Zeitgeist Tours. We visited several students’ relative’s graves and they also laid a wreath at the Menin Gate in honour of their relatives. We often do this, but they are usually the most special part of the trip. 1/3 🧵
I’m back at the excellent New Forest & Hampshire Wartime Association with a talk on Thunder Run: Meiktila 1945 - Saturday 1 August, doors open at 7pm. Get your tickets here if you can make it tinyurl.com/4uvesv4k
‘I heard the crescendo of diving aircraft, and the deep throated bark of the American Volunteer Group’s 0.5-calibre machine guns, against which one could pick out the staccato return fire of the Japanese machine guns...’
Passed 100k words on my next big book on the 1942 retreat campaign. Peter Fleming and Mike Calvert are about to do a deception operation and drop fake papers for the IJA to find, then get across the Ava Bridge just before it was demolished. 20k to go … but I’ll probably add a few more 😬.
Long & hot day today (20 hours in!) on the Somme with the wonderful @ZGTours4Schools & some amazing colleagues (some top arm folding from Dr Captain, Turnips, Field Marshal Bowsh, Major Cannons and Laingy Long Legs-latter not in pic) 3 more days at Arras & Ypres,my fave time of the year!
Long & hot day today (20 hours in!) on the Somme with the wonderful @ZGTours4Schools & some amazing colleagues (some top arm folding from Dr Captain, Turnips, Field Marshal Bowsh, Major Cannons and Laingy Long Legs-latter not in pic) 3 more days at Arras & Ypres,my fave time of the year!
In school at 6:45am for a final revision session at 7:30 before this morning’s GCSE Medicine exam. Good luck everyone 🤝
Today's belated #MapMonday can only be this Google Earth image of the Donbaik chaung, still mostly paddy either side.This is a dangerous area today, but I'd love to go and have a look where the three Valentines fell into the chaung to the right of the label, survivors went R to L ending on the beach
Wonderful talk from Charlotte Carty on Jessami, Kohima, her grandfather ‘Bruno’ Brown, and the 39 hours. I’m also very excited about her book on this story later this year from @chiselbury
On my way to the lovely London Scottish House for the Second World War Conference - looking forward to seeing some old mates, and meeting some new ones 🤝
My #ThingThursday this week is a cigarette card of the 18 (Eastern) Division from the First World War. My great-great uncle Denis Crotty fought in the Machine Gun Corps in 18 Division, beginning as a replacement for casualties on the first day of the Somme...
Bank Holiday #MapMonday is a revealing one about the Battle of the Admin Box: it was just one part of the Japanese Ha-Go offensive. The entire 7 Indian Division took part, and of course the battle at the division's adminarea was the most dramatic part with the non-combatants fighting in the line ...
Next weekend I'm speaking the SWW Conference in London, on a panel with Paul @ww2tv.bsky.social Woodadge & @jamesjhistory.bsky.social & also hosting a Burma Breakout room with Charlotte Carty. Looking forward to seeing @lmbd1418.bsky.social. You can get your free tickets here👇 tinyurl.com/bp8nh3z6
Not really sure if this week's #ThingThursday is something my Grandfather had made, or was given formally when he left the army (former seems more likely). It's another little reminder of his short time as a National Serviceman in the late 1940s, driving Sexton SPGs in Germany, mostly at Sennelager.
My #MapMonday was a fascinating find at the National Archives - a map from the Chinese Nationalists report on the 1942 campaign showing their different armies' movements down to divisional level. The file is the English translation, with the original included.
Even then they push south in Irrawaddy Valley&help destroy the rest of Burma Area Army-some tanks reported their guns had been worn smooth by the time campaign was over! The 2 troops of C Sqn had fought for about fifteen months almost non-stop. They are a big part of my first book Forgotten Armour.
My #ThingThursday is a cap badge for possibly my favourite tank regiment in the Burma Campaign - 3 Carabiniers. They fight in the Battle of Imphal like a fire service being deployed to threatened sectors across the perimeter of the plain, including up in the mountains around the Silchar Track...
It's a two for one on #MapMonday - 4 Corps' operations in the reconquest of Burma, in the first map in red. 19 Div was originally 4 Corps but when the deception advance down the Gangaw Valley was decided it was switch to 33 Corps - so it changed to green partway through the campaign.
Some words I have written today: The most important aspect of this first meeting for Stilwell was the issue of command: ‘it has been a hell of a mental load’ he confided in his diary, ‘apparently he [Chiang] told the Fifth&Sixth [Chinese] Armies to take orders only from me as soon as I arrived’.
My #ThingThursday this week is a nice little find, a First World War era watch, it somehow still ticks if I wind it but doesn't keep time so I just leave it be. The strap claimed to be original but who knows, its certainly old.
Major milestone this afternoon/evening. I crossed over the 60k mark - so halfway through - on my next book about the 1942 Retreat Campaign. Rangoon has fallen and I’m just getting into the Chinese in the Sittang Valley. Preparing myself for Stilwell’s entry! 😬
Today's #MapMonday is also an on this day - 13 April 1944! This is the map I made to illustrate the assault on Nunshigum - about 5 miles northeast of Imphal. The Japanese 51 Regiment captured it a few days before, in an action that also saw the award of a VC to Jemadar Abdul Hafiz of 3/9 Jats.