Battle Guide: History From A New Perspective

Spencer is an award-winning historian and author. He is a Senior Lecturer in Armed Forces and War Studies at the University of Wolverhampton. He also serves as the Regimental Historian of the Royal Regiment of Artillery.

He has published widely on the First World War. His latest book (co-authored with John Buckley) is The Armchair General WW1: Can You Win the Great War? (Penguin, 2023)

More about Dr. Spencer Jones

John Buckley is Professor of Military History in the Department of History, Politics and War Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, UK.
He is the author of a number of books on the interwar years and the Second World War, including Monty’s Men: The British Army and the Liberation of Europe 1944-5 (Yale, 2013), British Armour in the Normandy Campaign 1944 (Cass, 2004) and (as editor) The Normandy Campaign 1944: Sixty Years On (2006). He has also published widely on aspects of air power in the Second World War.

He has led battlefield study tours to Normandy since the late 1990s and has focused on the Anglo-Canadian battles with the Germans in and around Caen such as EPSOM, GOODWOOD and TOTALIZE.

Dr Robert Lyman FRHistS is a leading writer and military historian. After finishing a twenty year career in the British Army in 2001 he has published widely on the Second World War in Europe, North Africa and Asia.He is Field Marshal Bill Slim’s military biographer. His presentation of the case for Slim won a National Army Museum debate in 2011 for Britain’s Greatest General and his case for Kohima/Imphal won a National Army Museum debate in 2013 for Britain’s Greatest Battle. He was the BBC’s historical adviser for the VJ commemorations in 2015 and 2020 and is a regular contributor to documentary films on aspects of the war. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and has been a trustee of the Kohima Educational Trust since 2004, and Chairman between 2008-2016.

Adam is a Lecturer in War Studies at the University of Wolverhampton. He teaches on several of the university’s military history courses, including the part-time MA programmes on the First and Second World Wars. After completing his PhD in military history in 2016, Adam held a teaching fellowship at the University of Birmingham. His research focuses on the history of warfare in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly how the earliest historical accounts of campaigns fought in this period were compiled.

Jesse Alexander is a public historian and the host of the YouTube channel The Great War, and the World War Two documentary series 16 Days in Berlin. He holds an MA in History from the University of Vienna, where he specialized in visual propaganda and Austria-Hungary in World War One. Jesse has 20 years’ experience in public history in battlefield guiding, public speaking, museums, and research. He has worked with the Vimy Memorial, the Juno Beach Centre, the Canadian War Museum, Canada’s Cold War Museum, and the Canadian Museum of Civilization. He hails from Canada, but now splits his time between Vienna and Berlin, and can take your questions in English, French or German.

After a brief stint as a Science Officer with the British MOD, Paul is now a software engineer specializing in Mixed Reality. Since joining a First World War battlefield of Ypres tour he became passionate about ensuring the stories and lessons of the World War periods are not forgotten.

Alexander Owen, having studied Archaeology at university, went from digging in the ruins of a Latvian crusader castle to digging shell scrapes under fire in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. A decade marching and riding with the Household Cavalry saw him complete two operational deployments to Afghanistan as well as leading mounted troops in London as part of the Sovereign’s mounted bodyguard. On leaving the Army Alex worked at The Royal British Legion, the largest Armed Forces charity in the UK, where he was charged with keeping Remembrance alive for the next generation. This work led to him talking to veterans on national media channels. He now works for the UK’s Ministry of Defence. In his spare time he is completing a History Masters and is a director at the Household Cavalry Museum on Horse Guards in London.

Gareth Edwards is a historical writer and journalist. His general areas of study and interest are strategy and logistics in First and Second World Wars, but he has a particular interest in highlighting and explaining the ‘forgotten factors’ that often get left out of popular narratives or histories to audiences with a general interest in history.

This has included writing about a wide variety of subjects, from the vital role played by weather forecasters in the D-Day landings, to the forgotten airforce of the Knights Hospitaller, which was critical to preserving Italy’s military power in the early Cold War. Gareth is also a video game streamer and commentator, with a particular focus on grand strategy and history games.

Dr John Greenacre is a military historian with a particular interest in the development of conflict during the twentieth century. John spent over twenty years in the British Army as a helicopter pilot before completing his PhD at Leeds University. He is a part-time lecturer at the University of Suffolk and also works as a tour guide across Europe and supports current military professional development activity.

Prof. Strohn is a specialist in the history of war in the 20th century, with special interest in the World Wars, the inter-war period, command and leadership and the application of military history in the current military context. He has published widely in these fields (including writing and editing 17 books and numerous articles) and his works were chosen as the core readings for Operation Reflect, the British Army’s commemoration of the First World War. He is a keen battlefield studies guide and has led military and civilian tours in Europe from Madrid to Stalingrad. He has also worked on television and radio as both historical adviser and interviewee.

Clive served in the Royal Signals and with Hertfordshire Constabulary before embarking on a career in military history in 1998. In addition to the publication of “Walking the London Blitz”, ” Wander through Wartime London” and “The Greater Game” he has contributed to Time Team, Time Watch, Blitz Spirit and CBS’s Legacy of War. His specialist battlefield subjects are The Retreat of 1914, The Ypres Salient, 1918, The London Blitz and the Italian Campaign of 1943/44.  Clive was elected onto the prestigious British Commission for Military History in 2010. He has a Masters degree in Great War Studies and is a member of the Guild of Battlefield Guides.

Edwin Popken is a military historian with Masters in Modern Military History and specialises in the post-Normandy period of World War Two in Northwestern Europe (August 1944 – May 1945). Edwin has led many tours in The Netherlands, Belgium, Eastern France and Belgium for the past 15 years, taking private individuals, veterans’ families, tourist groups, school groups and military groups to both well known and lesser known 1944-45 battlefields. In his work, he cooperates with museums and tour operators from around the world. Additionally, he is a member of both the International Guild of Battlefield Guides and the Liberation Route Europe Guide Network. Apart from guiding, Edwin is also active as a historical consultant for media and tourism organisations and regularly gives lectures on different battles and topics within his research interest, both online and in the real world.

Joe Castle is an aerodynamics engineer by profession but his first love has always been history. Growing up visiting museums with his parents and grandparents, the Great War became his main focus after learning of a number of family members who served in the conflict. A frequent visitor to the Western Front in recent years, he loves to share his passion for the history of the people and places with anyone who will listen and is looking forward to the chance to do so in a new and innovative way with Battle Guide.

Michael has been interested in military history from an early age, much like his identical twin and fellow Tour Manager, Ethan Adato; trips to battlefields from the American Revolution, the American Civil War, and battlefields in Israel inspired a lifelong commitment to historical education and remembrance. Michael graduated with a B.A. in History and Political Science from DePaul University, having focused his studies and research on the history of antisemitism. In his day job, Michael creates and leads educational programming about Jewish history, Israeli history, and the history of antisemitism. 

Ethan’s interest with military history began at a young age, watching documentaries and coloring American Civil War coloring books. This love for military history has only grown over the years. When not playing with his band Citrus Sunday, or competing in Rocket League Esports, Ethan can be found learning about military history through books, games and more.

Ethan graduated from the University of Iowa with a B.A. in History and a Museum Studies Certificate and aspires to entertain and inform the public about the fascinating world of military history.

Steve is a leading military historian on the Gallipoli campaign and has a comprehensive knowledge of British military history from the Zulu War to the Second World War. He is an author, researcher and battlefield guide, he has written six Gallipoli books in the Pen & Sword Battleground Europe series, a tome on Uniforms & Equipment of the British Army in World War One (Schiffer Books), and during the centenary co-authored Gallipoli: The Dardanelles Disaster in Soldiers’ Words and Photographs (Bloomsbury).

He is a Trustee of the Gallipoli Association, a badged member of the Guild of Battlefield Guides and director of Great War Digital.

Jo joined the International Guild of Battlefield Guides in 2004. Having served as a Royal Signals soldier on operations in Bosnia in 1995, she feels she has the ability to empathise with the men and women who fought during both world wars. Equally at home touring the Western Front and Gallipoli, she also regularly leads tours over the WW2 battlefields of NW Europe. In 2017 Jo achieved a Masters Degree in military history from the University of Wolverhampton.