Simon Trew | |
---|---|
Born | 1965 |
Occupation | Military historian |
Academic background | |
Education | Keele University |
Alma mater | Keele University (B.A.) (PhD) |
Thesis | No Pity Distilled: Britain, Mihailovic and the Chetniks, 1941-2 (1991) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | History |
Sub-discipline | Military history,Yugoslav history |
Institutions | Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Keele University |
Main interests | Second World War in Europe;Normandy campaign;Balkans campaign |
Simon Trew (born 1965) is a British military historian and author,specialising in D-Day and the Normandy Campaign. Trew served as a senior lecturer in the Department of War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for nearly three decades,also serving at times as deputy and acting head. Trew has been featured in various television historical documentaries and live broadcasts,and has received a nomination for an Emmy award in 2009 for his contributions as a historical consultant.
Born in 1965, [1] Trew earned a First Class Honours Bachelor's degree in International Relations from Keele University in 1986,before completing his PhD in History in 1992. [2] His doctoral dissertation No Pity Distilled:Britain,Mihailovic and the Chetniks,1941-2 focused on British relations with the Yugoslav Chetnik resistance movement during the Second World War. Trew lectured at the University of Keele before joining Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where he served as a senior lecturer in the Department of War Studies from 1993 to 2022. [2] During this time,he also held roles as deputy head of department from 2002 to 2012 and acting head from 2013 to 2014. [2] Recognised as an expert on D-Day and the Normandy Campaign, [3] Trew has made numerous appearances in television historical documentaries and live broadcasts,including the BBC's commemorative anniversary broadcasts from Normandy. [4]
In 2004,the 13-part series Battle Zone Normandy, that he edited and contributed to,was selected in The Times D Day:Essential reading by the organisers of the Imperial War Museum’s D-Day exhibition. [5] In 2009 he was nominated for an Emmy award for his work as historical consultant on the BBC documentary D-Day:The True Story of Omaha Beach. [6]
Omaha Beach was one of five beach landing sectors of the amphibious assault component of Operation Overlord during the Second World War.
Operation Goodwood was a British offensive during the Second World War, which took place between 18 and 20 July 1944 as part of the larger battle for Caen in Normandy, France. The objective of the operation was a limited attack to the south, from the Orne bridgehead, to capture the rest of Caen and the Bourguébus Ridge beyond.
Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović was a Yugoslav Serb general during World War II. He was the leader of the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army (Chetniks), a royalist and nationalist movement and guerrilla force established following the German invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941.
Gold, commonly known as Gold Beach, was the code name for one of the five areas of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during the Second World War. Gold, the central of the five areas, was located between Port-en-Bessin on the west and the Lieu-dit La Rivière in Ver-sur-Mer on the east. High cliffs at the western end of the zone meant that the landings took place on the flat section between Le Hamel and La Rivière, in the sectors code-named Jig and King. Taking Gold was to be the responsibility of the British Army, with sea transport, mine sweeping, and a naval bombardment force provided by the Royal Navy as well as elements from the Dutch, Polish and other Allied navies.
Norman Daniel "Dutch" Cota, Sr. was a senior United States Army officer who fought during World War II. Cota was heavily involved in the planning and execution of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in June 1944, codenamed Operation Neptune, and the subsequent Battle of Normandy. He is known for rallying demoralized troops on Omaha Beach on D-Day, by engaging in combat beside them and personally leading their first successful breakout, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC).
Operation Charnwood was an Anglo-Canadian offensive that took place from 8 to 9 July 1944, during the Battle for Caen, part of the larger Operation Overlord in the Second World War. The operation was intended to capture the German-occupied city of Caen, which was an important objective for the Allies during the opening stages of Overlord. It was also hoped that the attack would forestall the transfer of German armoured units from the Anglo-Canadian sector to the American sector to the west, where an offensive was being prepared. The British and Canadians advanced on a broad front and by the evening of the second day had taken Caen up to the Orne and Odon rivers.
The Battle for Caen is the name given to fighting between the British Second Army and the German Panzergruppe West in the Second World War for control of the city of Caen and its vicinity during the larger Battle of Normandy. The battles followed Operation Neptune, the Allied landings on the French coast on 6 June 1944 (D-Day).
The 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army that was formed during the Second World War and fought in the Battle of Normandy. In March 1939, after Germany re-emerged as a significant military power and invaded Czechoslovakia, the British Army increased the number of divisions in the Territorial Army (TA) by duplicating existing units. The 59th (Staffordshire) Motor Division was formed in September 1939, as a second-line duplicate of the 55th Motor Division. The division's battalions were all, initially, raised in Staffordshire.
Christopher John Pugsley is a New Zealand military historian. He is published as Chris Pugsley and Christopher Pugsley.
Operation Goodwood was an offensive operation by the British Army against the German Wehrmacht, which took place between 18 and 20 July 1944 as part of the larger battle for Caen in Normandy, France during the Second World War.
Operation Windsor(4–5 July 1944), was a Canadian attack of the Battle of Normandy during the Second World War. The attack was undertaken by the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division to take Carpiquet and the adjacent airfield from troops of the 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitler Jugend of Panzergruppe West. The attack was originally intended to take place during the later stages of Operation Epsom, to protect the eastern flank of the main assault but was postponed for a week.
Lieutenant Colonel Zaharije Ostojić was a Montenegrin Serb and Yugoslav military officer who served as the chief of the operational, organisational and intelligence branches of the Chetnik Supreme Command led by Draža Mihailović in Yugoslavia during World War II. He was a major in the Royal Yugoslav Army Air Force prior to the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, and was involved in the coup that deposed Prince Paul of Yugoslavia on 27 March 1941. After the coup, he escorted Prince Paul to exile in Greece, and was in Cairo during the invasion in April. In September 1941, he was landed on the coast of the Italian governorate of Montenegro along with the British Special Operations Executive officer Captain Bill Hudson and two companions. He escorted Hudson to the German-occupied territory of Serbia and introduced him to the Yugoslav Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito at Užice, then accompanied Hudson to Ravna Gora to meet Mihailović. Ostojić soon became Mihailović's chief of staff, and after the German attempt to capture the Chetnik leader during Operation Mihailovic in December 1941, brought the Chetnik Supreme Command staff to Montenegro where they were re-united with Mihailović in June 1942. During the remainder of 1942, Ostojić launched a counter-attack against Ustaše troops of the Independent State of Croatia returning to the eastern Bosnian town of Foča where they were expected to continue their genocidal anti-Serb policies. As many as 2,000 local Muslims were subsequently killed in the town by forces under Ostojić's command. Ostojić later oversaw large-scale massacres of civilians and burning of Muslim villages in the border region between Montenegro and the Sandžak.
Dragutin Keserović was a Yugoslav Chetnik military commander holding the rank of lieutenant colonel and vojvoda during World War II. Keserović was likely the most active commander of Mihailović's Chetniks in Serbia.
Brigadier Charles Douglas Armstrong was a British Army officer in World War I and World War II. In the latter conflict he was the head of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) liaison mission to the Chetnik forces of Draža Mihailović in Yugoslavia from July 1943 to early 1944.
The Battle of Višegrad was the battle between Chetnik forces and Axis, and part of an Chetnik offensive in Eastern Bosnia in autumn of 1943, in Axis occupied Yugoslavia during World War II. The Chetnik forces of 2,500 captured Višegrad, destroyed big railway bridge across river Drina and continued their advances toward Rogatica and Sokolac. The German and Ustaše garrison in Višegrad and garrison that protected the bridge of total 1,100 soldiers had 350 dead and 400 wounded. The Chetniks had 21 dead and 30 wounded. In subsequent battle for Rogatica waged ten days later, the Chetniks captured Rogatica and killed more than 200 Axis soldiers.
Stanley William Bailey was a British Army officer in World War II, who reached the rank of colonel and was most notable for being the head and then political advisor of the British Special Operations Executive Liaison Mission to the Chetnik Forces of Draža Mihailović from December 25, 1942—January 29, 1944. British policy toward Mihailović was shaped by the regular reports from Bailey. Bailey's position on General Mihailović was influential in undermining the relationship between Mihailović and the Chetniks with Churchill and the British Foreign Office, and consequently with the other Allied nations.
The Chetnik sabotage of Axis communication lines was a campaign of the Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland in which it sabotaged Axis communication lines, mostly along the rivers Morava, Vardar and Danube, to obstruct the transport of German war material through Serbia to Thessaloniki and further to Libya during the Western Desert campaign. The Chetnik sabotages were organized from 31 April, or according to some sources, since July or early August 1942.
Sir John Still Bennett, CBE, CVO was a British lawyer, career diplomat and agent for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) Yugoslav section and the British Information Services during World War II. Following the war he served in several diplomatic posts around the world before serving as High Commissioner to Barbados.