The latest Naval Dockyards Society publication (Vol 19) has an article by myself on the naval requisition of the Beaulieu River and estate during WW2. The book can be ordered from the Naval Dockyards Society.

I didn't lead them here.

It's been an incredible weekend at Buckler's Hard for our wartime heritage festival. I want to thank all who visited, exhibitors, speakers, vehicle owners, theatre people, and wonderful volunteers. The festival was beyond my wildest dreams. It was surreal to sign my book for people, so thank you.

If you want an idea for a day out next weekend, there's a WW2 history and heritage event on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 June at Buckler’s Hard. Free talks, exhibition, displays, vintage wartime vehicles, and more.

Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social opened the WW2 Exhibition at Buckler's Hard yesterday. The exhibition will form one small part of the WW2 Heritage Weekend on Sat 13 - Sun 14 of June. Search FB for Buckler's Hard Wartime Weekend for details.

This morning we were delighted to welcome Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social to officially open a new exhibition we've put together: 'Beaulieu River at War' - it runs at Buckler's Hard until October.

Some information on the WW2 heritage weekend we're putting together in the New Forest, at Buckler's Hard (on the Beaulieu River).

This cannon shell - along with other artefacts connected to the incident - will be on display at the Buckler’s Hard Wartime Weekend on 13–14 June. It's a free heritage and history weekend that myself and Mary Montagu-Scott have curated.

Anti-aircraft guns opened fire. Two Typhoons raced to intercept. Moments later, the aircraft crashed near Exbury. All seven German airmen onboard were killed. But here’s the mystery… A Junkers Ju 188 normally carried just four crew. So why were there seven men aboard?

Banana for scale… This cannon shell was fired by an RAF Hawker Typhoon from RAF Needs Oar Point in the New Forest. On 18 April 1944, a lone German Junkers bomber appeared over the Solent and New Forest - an extraordinary sight at a time when the RAF controlled the skies. 🧵

Here’s how AI is rewriting history... I Googl'd Noor Inayat Khan. The left image is a genuine photo. The right AI-generated. The fake is pulled from a clickbait Facebook page. We're in an era where fictional can replace real history, and most casual observers won't even realise.

The Buckler’s Hard Wartime Weekend - 13/14 June, 2026. Step back in time this June as the historic riverside village of Buckler’s Hard hosts a free wartime heritage weekend commemorating the extraordinary role the Beaulieu River and surrounding New Forest played during the Second World War.

I'm organising this history weekend in the New Forest with the Buckler's Hard Shipyard Trust. It's free to attend. Full details of the exhibitors, speakers, vehicles, and things to see including an exhibition and more, will be published in the next couple of weeks.

This morning we led a family visiting from the USA - to the site where their father / grandfather died in 1959. He was a NASA test pilot flying a jet over England. Having this interest in history occasionally leads to days like this where you can help people.

I was walking this evening in the New Forest and found a brick so I thought I’d talk about bricks. Being a few weeks off 50, this is the kind of thing that many men of my age are interested in.

Can you help? I need recommendations for guest speakers to talk to my group in the New Forest, we seat 80 to 95 people twice a month. Military history speakers, aviation, WW2, WW1, etc. If you've seen anyone to recommend please say, or if this sounds like you.

Thank you for all that came to the New Forest this evening to hear about PLUTO. We had just shy of 100 people. The local interest in WW2 history is quite something.

I heard it's someone's birthday today. #spitfire

If you enjoy stories like this, I post a few a week on YouTube, under the NewForestRamble handle.

As it's Friday afternoon, here's a little bit of fun New Forest WW2 history I recorded which includes naked pensioners, witches casting a spell on Hitler, and the invasion scare of 1940.

William Eagle was a WW2 fighter ace, but later tragically killed in front of his fiancee whilst flying over the New Forest in his Typhoon.

I am giving a talk at Bournemouth University on Feb 26 if anyone is local to the campus.

Here's a batch of metal runway tracking that once held the weight of 200 departures of American P-47 Thunderbolts on D-Day from the New Forest. Unfortunately not enough to build a new Advanced Landing Ground but there is an interesting plan for it. #ww2 #d-day

The grave of Martyn King this evening. He was shot down over Southampton. The youngest Battle of Britain pilot killed in action, aged just 18.

Trained in Beaulieu, Executed in Dachau.

Was on the site of a Canadian D-Day camp in the New Forest this morning, and spotted this picket screw. Would have been used to fence the barbed wire and keep the men in camp... it's been left between two limbs, and 82 years later is now part of the tree.

I was at the Montagu Arms hotel in Beaulieu, New Forest, today, so thought a good opportunity to record a 45 seconds of WW2 & D-Day history that happened in the building. #newforest #ww2 #beaulieu #dday

If you look close, you can see where the road's previous level was.

If you attempt to drive under this bridge near Brockenhurst today, it will likely be flooded... due to WW2. The road was lowered in the lead up to D-Day to allow for military vehicles to pass under the bridge. Which is why it floods and traps cars to this day.

Here's a little about the site of the former New Forest D-Day WW2 airfield, RAF Lymington... and news