Jo Hook
@jojohook2003
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Professional Battlefield Guide & Military Historian WW1/WW2 Op MG, WF - MA WW1. Presentations & podcasts. Dad designed Quality Street tins & drew maps in WW2
Norfolk GB
Joined July 2012
Father's day this year holds many memories of my Dad. Dad died 10 years ago tomorrow. As opposed to feeling melancholy I thought I would do a little thread about him. So here goes.
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Today’s clients from US booked a tour on the liberation of Nuenen. When meeting them they explained they are huge Band of Brother fans, so we decided to do an ‘Easy during Market Garden’ tour instead, following E/506 from the dropzone till their final action near Koevering on 25
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First Battle of Ypres - 19 Oct 1914 Historians would later mark this day as the opening of the battle. Strategically important, astride transport links to the important ports of Boulogne, Calais & Dunkirk. If the town was lost, it would force a major British withdrawal. Q57287
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Was walking through York yesterday and saw these medals - I had to ask!! This gentleman was the great grandson of Ernest Sykes VC. He was very kind and spoke to me for a good ten minutes about his relative. #ww1 #greatwar #gallipoli #arras #victoriacross #vc
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A young man, badly gassed at Ypres, went to convalesce in a village on the Downs. The schoolmistress made him gingerbread & brought him books, the tame ravens from the copse dropped silver coins by his chair, & one by one, his ghosts carefully took up their packs & whispered
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A young man, badly gassed at Ypres, went to convalesce in a village on the Downs. The schoolmistress made him gingerbread & brought him books, the tame ravens from the copse dropped silver coins by his chair, & one by one, his ghosts carefully took up their packs & whispered
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Some pics of yesterday’s brilliant tour working with Battlefield Tours (@battlefieldgron), guiding a group of 40 guests on ‘the 101st Airborne Division on The Island’, discussing some well-know and many lesser-known actions and events of the division during Oct-Nov 1944 and the
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My 3xGreat Grandfather, John Bull fought at Waterloo in Coldstream Guards. A friend visited the site in July and left a tribute there in his memory. John survived the Battle.
Two iconic features of Hougoumont Farm, key to Wellington’s defence at #Waterloo in 1815: (1) The chapel which miraculously survived when the adjacent Chateau burned down and (2) the route of the famous sunken track down which Wellington fed vital ammunition & reinforcements.
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A special tour today around Bastogne looking at the medical situation during the Siege of Bastogne on Dec 1944. The guests were an US family of a surgeon of 4th Auxiliary Surgical Group. Though their father was not at Bastogne during the siege, he did come up with Patton’s 3rd
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CWGC Oosterbeek - also known as ‘the Airborne Cemetery’ - always is impressive to visit. Especially so with guests at the end of a an Arnhem Tour, including yesterday’s tour with a group of three friends from New York, USA. The cemetery was beautifully covered in autumn leaves,
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As the weather was so good, I took a detour up to Bealach na Ba 😊 When I drove this road this time last year the weather was wet and drizzle with not much views or visibility at all. Glad I made the effort to go today 🚐
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The scars of war in Ranville: from MG/Flak impact marks on buildings to battle-damaged (and later repaired) walls. One of the many layers of that landscape of the Second World War in Normandy.
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Hackett’s Hollow is named after Brigadier 'Shan' Hackett, commander of 4th Parachute Infantry Brigade. It was at this spot that he and some 150 men from the 156th Para Battalion were pinned down for more than eight hours on 20 Sept 1944 during their withdrawal to the Oosterbeek
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110 years ago today...
Remembering the men of 137th (Staffordshire) Brigade who took part in 46th (North Midland) Division's attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt and Fosse 8 105 years ago today. The Knot Unites.
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On our way southwards. One of many films I play on the boring motorway stretches but the only DVD I play that I can honestly say hand on heart is 100% accurate. With many thanks to the Taffster and his chums @Taff_Gillingham
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"Behind The Plough". 🎨 by Simon Palmer (English, b. Yorkshire, 1956).
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Great weekend with friends from the 151/156 Parachute Battalion Association commemorating the 84th Anniversary of their formation in India in 1941. The weekend started with a memorial service and wreath laying over at Saltby Airfield where the 314th Troop Carrier Group were
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At the end of the day he should be allowed to return home to England. It would bring his story full circle I think. That he should go home when so many others were unable to do so END
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Therefore, and it is only my opinion, this sculpture whose journey has taken him to Ireland and now to Belgium i think should remain until the time he is due to return 6 December. It is a visually stunning piece of work and I hope draws the attention of many. But…
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When the British Army came to Ieper in WW1 its aim was to fight for peace, & liberate the Belgian people so that they could live their lives as free people. Most soldiers wanted to get the job done and go home 3
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