Jonathan Anderson

Todays papers: fantastic coverage of the ceremony to honour Newtownards - and Britain's? - most famous frontline soldier. Do please share widely and spread the word.

Jason Gillard messages me about the AMAZING initiative. If you could share that would be Amazing. "I actually auctioned off watch number 001 Darren George at the NI Veterans awards and went for £15,000. The 457 Watch Project is a veteran-led initiative commemorating the 457 British service personnel who lost their lives during Operation Herrick in Afghanistan. Nomadic Watches in Belfast is crafting a strictly limited edition of 457 individually numbered watches (available in 41mm men's and 36mm women's sizes). Each watch is dedicated to one of the fallen service members, numbered in order of the date they died. Every watch comes paired with a dedicated tribute artwork created by military artist Kev Wills MBE and a permanent commemorative book entry detailing the individual's story. The watch caseback features space for 30 characters of custom engraving (such as service numbers, tour dates, or personal inscriptions). The watches are priced at £1,457 each. Of that amount, £457 per watch goes directly to two charities, split equally: Walking With The Wounded & Scotty’s – The Military Bereavement Charity. If all 457 watches are allocated, the project will raise £208,849 for the charities. Developed by Jason Gillard (founder of the Northern Ireland Veterans Awards) through his organisation Connect Through Service (CTS)." The website is the457.co.uk

HUSH - MOST SECRET: the thrill of getting deep into some new WW2 research files ...

Many Second World War units are remembered at the National Memorial Arboretum. The Long Range Desert Group is not yet among them. Help us change all that. Please share widely. Thanks. lrdgmemorialfund.org/

What more needs to be said? Today's Rugby Post. Please share widely. Thanks.

Sadly, the last known surviving WW2 veteran of the SAS, Matthew "Matt/Jock" Mackinnon-Pattison died on Thursday 5th November aged 102years. We remember Matthew. Here is a summary of Matthew's wartime service. Please share widely: Matt MacKinnon Pattison was among hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers who fought Germans in Italy in the spring of 1944. Sometimes remembered as the "D-Day Dodgers", in reference to their role away from Normandy, men in Italy faced brutal conditions as they battled to take Monte Cassino and dislodge enemy soldiers. "We came back from Italy having flogged ourselves to pieces, nervous wrecks, and people say 'where were you on D-Day?'" said Matt, from Penrith, Cumbria. "We just say we were busy bloody well fighting." British Prime Minister Winston Churchill thought of Italy as the "soft underbelly" of Nazi-dominated Europe, but the campaign there proved difficult and costly. With perhaps typical military irony, the men in Italy adopted the "D-Day Dodgers" moniker, even creating a song to the tune of Lili Marleen, a famous wartime melody. "We are the D-Day Dodgers in sunny Italy," rang the chorus. But this was no sojourn in the sun and the Allied forces knew it. Enemy soldiers were dug in on defensive lines across the country, and at Monte Cassino it took four separate attacks from US, British, Polish and Commonwealth forces to destroy and take the hilltop monastery. Matt still has razor-sharp memories of the battles he fought, and the comrades he lost. He fled agricultural service in Kilmarnock as a teenager to get to Glasgow to enlist as an infantryman before ending up "right in the forefront" of the battle for Monte Cassino. Advancing up the slopes amid the fog of deadly artillery bomb blasts and the continual crackle of gunfire, the soldier saw many of his comrades fall. But, he said, there was no time to be frightened. "You don’t look upon it as bravery, you just look at it as part of your life," he told the BBC. "When the officers told you to advance, that was what you had to do. "Every battle is the same. You get pounded to death, whether it was Normandy, Burma or anywhere." Matt was recruited for the SAS after being injured and taken to a Naples hospital to recover. From 100 candidates, he was just one of 10 that made it. He was dropped behind enemy lines near Genoa, tasked with finding Italian dictator Mussolini who by then had been captured by partisans. Once the war was over, he was sent to Germany as part of the War Crimes Unit to find Nazi suspects who had executed captured members of the SAS. There, he said, he saw a broken nation, but people "just like us". Eight decades on, he can clearly recall the claustrophobic horror of war, from German soldiers playing dead to entice Allied soldiers into shooting range, to landmines and enormous loss. "I lost a lot of my mates, especially one called Ginger," he said. "And when he died he was sitting in a trench with his head down. There was a smile on his face." "Still a smile on his face that marked the place where he and his maker met. "And that was Ginger. He was a good lad." Dodging D-Day was no pass, and so many thousands paid the ultimate price in Italy. In his flat, Matt still has his SAS beret, his medals and his memories. He also has his nation’s thanks. (Source: bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce99…)

A new sign has been erected at Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne’s statue, in Newtownards. Please share if you agree!

Today's papers: Churchill’s SAS was never meant to be gentlemanly - my article on the potency of our wartime special forces, and how all that is under threat today ... Do please share if you agree. telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/11…

Huge thanks to all the 565 subscribers to Damien Lewis - Special Forces Heroes. We've only been running a matter of weeks, so bravo to you all. I can't achieve all that I'm planning without your support, so do sign up and get involved. Coming soon amongst lots of prime content - the 'lost chapters' from my new book, BEHIND ENEMY LINES, which will give you fantastic insight into Lewis Archie Gibson and his special forces patrol. Thanks - and do help spread the word, so we can celebrate of Special Forces Heroes. damienlewisspecialforcesclub…

Shocking neglect and abuse of retired Lt Col Stephen Maguire DCM SAS, a natural born leader of men who spent 40 years in service to his country, and his son's long fight for justice. Please share Ben's post widely: "My father, Retired Lt Col Stephen Maguire DCM SAS, is a man who spent nearly 40 years in dedicated service to this country, serving from 1970 until 2009. He is a natural leader, a decorated soldier, to those who served with him. However, he has been completely abandoned and betrayed by the very system he gave everything to. I am fighting for justice for my father. This struggle is a mirror of my own life; my own journey marked by the negligence of MPs, charities, and veteran services which led me to the absolute rock bottom of homelessness as a veteran myself. I know exactly what it is like to be discarded by the people who promised to provide support. After years of fighting, we finally have a pathway toward the right care, but the damage is already done. The sheer scale of the failings along the way has crippled a man who likely only suffered from PTSD. What should have been a manageable recovery became a total collapse because of institutional incompetence. This isn't a failure of one person or one office it is a systemic rot. For too long, the UK government, regardless of which side of the fence they sit on, has played a political game with the lives of our veterans. Whether it is Labour or the Conservatives, the result is the same: service men are treated as assets when they are useful and as liabilities the moment they are broken. We are told our sacrifices are "remembered," but the reality is that once the uniform comes off, the care vanishes. We sought help for my dad, worried about PTSD and dementia resulting from his service. Through the SAS Association and Veterans’ Aid, he was referred to various healthcare facilities. Instead of professional care, he found negligence from these referrals. In the last few years alone, he has been through multiple institutions that have failed him. We've dealt with incorrect diagnoses, doctors who tried to push him out of their care because he was "too difficult," and the removal of life-saving medication that led to him being sectioned under the Mental Health Act. He was sedated and left to decline without specialist care. His PTSD was completely ignored, and his medical history was dismissed. In one instance, he was admitted to the hospital due to low sodium caused by the excessive use of anti-psychotic medication. The most infuriating part is the silence from the top. MPs have explicitly ignored this situation and failed to act for a Lt Col in 22 SAS. The "Military Covenant" is nothing more than a piece of paper used for photo opportunities while men like my father are left to rot. The system has failed. The NHS has failed. Veteran charities have failed. From the MOD passing the buck to the medical incompetence of the facilities, my father has been abandoned like thousands of others. I am posting this because we need accountability. It is not enough to simply "help" now; there must be justice for the way he was treated. My father spent four decades looking after his men and serving at the highest level for the United Kingdom; it is a national disgrace that the government failed to look after him and many like him. Do not listen to the rhetoric the government continues to push. As this is an example of what happens after 40 years of dedicated service. Please share this. We need the people in power to answer for this. We need leaders who actually lead, not politicians who just talk." facebook.com/story.php?story… bobshepherdauthor.com/2023/1…