Sword Beach, the first detailed study of the British landings at Ouistreham on D-Day, is now available in a range of formats.

The gun was almost certainly part of Artillerie Regiment 170. Whether it came into action against the Anglo-Canadian forces advancing from the causeway (Nieuwland was liberated by 6 Highland Light Infantry) I've yet to determine. We will see....

Mounted in the bandstand on a dyke and with an effective range of 1.3 miles (and a maximum of 10!) it was well positioned to cover the whole length of the road to the junction. And this was the main junction for any major traffic coming onto Walcheren from the causeway.

P/O Goodchild of the RAF who took the photo thought it was targeting the town's crossroads. But he also thought it was a 75mm gun. In reality there's a small T-junction 75m away and another 200m away, but the likelihood of enemy armour coming from the side roads was... well, nil.

Taken #OTD in 1944 (probably), a German 88mm Pak 43/41 anti-tank gun positioned in a bandstand in Nieuwland, Walcheren. 📷IWM CL 1519 & Google

I'm sorry what now?

This complete tat that I tweeted last month has a news article now. I love how under the 'Ethical quandaries' section the main concern is how to legally obtain sand from Normandy, not whether or not this crass piece of marketing junk should even be made.

I still haven't found any primary sources that say Johnston amended his uniform for the surrender. As most secondary sources claim it was 1 pip to make him a Lt Colonel, while primary sources state he assumed the role of a colonel, I think I'll leave the pip story out of my book!

And what about the story that Johnston 'borrowed' a pip to promote his rank? Well he doesn't mention it in (almost certainly) his report, or in a post-war account where he only states he "became a Colonel... but in a smock and old scarf... I looked more like a tramp"!

So who is he? No war diary says, but two other sources name him as Major John Knox, 52 Division's Royal Artillery Brigade Major, which checks out in the officer lists. Admittedly it's hard to find pics of these people to corroborate it, but it's a sure thing he isn't Johnston.

He wears on his beret the flaming grenade insignia of the Royal Artillery, rather than the Star of the Order of the Thistle cap badge worn by Royal Scots officers.

And then it dawned on me. Although lots of images caption this officer as Johnston, he's not.

Eventually the general is loaded onto a boat and taken across, along with the major. And it was this that made me wonder why Major Johnston would be leaving his company behind, when according to the war diary they remained in Westkapelle until 8 November.

The flour mill across the other side was used as an ammo dump by the Germans, and was detonated by artillery fire a few days before.

Here the general and his cohort wait for a collapsible boat ferry service to take them over the canal.

Although only a 10 minute 750m walk, a car is more appropriate for a general and he is driven to the end of the row of houses 2 tweets above, accompanied by the major.

It would appear top be at this point that Daser leaves his HQ. Here he exits 8 Dam, accompanied by 'Major Johnston' (it's not him) watched by a Lowlander guard who looks like an 'Allo 'Allo-esque Italian.

And the line stretched all the way to the end of the street where it meets the canal.

By now there was a much larger force of LVTs to watch them.

Enter George Rodger of Life Magazine who took numerous pictures of this movement, which began in the morning. Her we see lines of PoWs moved down Dam (a road name) towards the main canal crossing the island.

With more reinforcements arriving overnight, command passed to Lt Col Rosie of the Highland Light Infantry. By dawn there were hundreds of PoWs arranged in the squares and it was time to start moving them.