by Mark Simmons | Oct 20, 2023 | Uncategorized
I Knew John Mussell, although we never met, for over twenty years since my first article appeared in Medal News in 2002 and I went on to write dozens more. He was always a ‘gent’ and great to work with. I would like to express my condolences to his Wife...
by Mark Simmons | Sep 30, 2023 | Uncategorized
And D-Day Betrayed? Were the D-Day landings ‘Operation Neptune’ betrayed? The popular view is they were not. Rather more it is felt through the British ‘Double-Cross System’, through their double agents fed the Germans a huge amount of miss-information which they...
by Mark Simmons | Sep 6, 2023 | Uncategorized
Two English officers see the American Civil War Henry Charles Fletcher of the Scots Fusilier Guards (now Scots Guards) in November 1862, in just a few weeks travelling largely by rail, covered an immense distance through the Southern States. It was...
by Mark Simmons | Aug 28, 2023 | Uncategorized
by Mark Simmons | Jul 31, 2023 | Uncategorized
Coming Soon my New Book Memories and Echoes: A Brits Journey into the American Civil War. For over thirty years my wife Margaret and I have been travelling to the USA. During that time we explored the background of the Civil War visiting all the major sites and...
by Mark Simmons | Jun 30, 2023 | Uncategorized
Gavin Lyall Gavin Lyall was born in Birmingham in 1932. He completed National Service 1951-1953 as a pilot officer in the RAF flying Gloster Meteors, after that he went to Cambridge and graduated in 1956 with honours in English. He went on to write for several...
by Mark Simmons | Jun 6, 2023 | Uncategorized
James Bond Where did 007’s name come from? According to C.H. Forster of the Ministry of Aircraft Production, on hearing from Ian Fleming toward the end of World War II that he was writing a book, he asked how he would choose the characters names. Fleming, he says,...
by Mark Simmons | May 18, 2023 | Uncategorized
Meeting at Hendaye The small far south westerly French town of Hendaye is the last stop on the Franco-Spanish railway line from Paris-Madrid before the border. Its palm tree lined waterfront lapped by Atlantic rollers to the west and to the east tower the mountains of...
by Mark Simmons | May 10, 2023 | Uncategorized
Out of the trip came my book: The Serpent & the Cross. The great Mille Miglia (Thousand Miles) road race was held twenty four times 1927-1957 with a gap during World War II. The race continues today as an historic classic car event. https://1000miglia.it...
by Mark Simmons | May 7, 2023 | Uncategorized
