Martin R. Baker
@ecrivelo.wsocial.eu
Journeys through war-torn Europe on my bike.
Je voulais me rendre sur cette tombe depuis longtemps.
Corporal 2982682 Colin Langley Panton, 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, tué le 6 juin 1940
— quelques jours avant la chute de la 51e Division à Saint-Valery.
Le nom gravé sur la pierre n'a pas toujours été le sien. 🧵
#StValéry1940
Corporal 2982682 Colin Langley Panton, 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, tué le 6 juin 1940
— quelques jours avant la chute de la 51e Division à Saint-Valery.
Le nom gravé sur la pierre n'a pas toujours été le sien. 🧵
#StValéry1940
August 24, 2026 at 5:48 PM
Je voulais me rendre sur cette tombe depuis longtemps.
Corporal 2982682 Colin Langley Panton, 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, tué le 6 juin 1940
— quelques jours avant la chute de la 51e Division à Saint-Valery.
Le nom gravé sur la pierre n'a pas toujours été le sien. 🧵
#StValéry1940
Corporal 2982682 Colin Langley Panton, 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, tué le 6 juin 1940
— quelques jours avant la chute de la 51e Division à Saint-Valery.
Le nom gravé sur la pierre n'a pas toujours été le sien. 🧵
#StValéry1940
— #BeachyHead
Voici le RAF Bomber Command Memorial, au-dessus de Beachy Head — autrefois un point de
passage fréquent pour les bombardiers en route vers l'Europe.
Inauguré en 2012, grâce au travail de l'ancien rear gunner Joe Williams — abattu au-dessus de la
Tchécoslovaquie en 1945. 🧵
Voici le RAF Bomber Command Memorial, au-dessus de Beachy Head — autrefois un point de
passage fréquent pour les bombardiers en route vers l'Europe.
Inauguré en 2012, grâce au travail de l'ancien rear gunner Joe Williams — abattu au-dessus de la
Tchécoslovaquie en 1945. 🧵
August 22, 2026 at 6:11 PM
— #BeachyHead
Voici le RAF Bomber Command Memorial, au-dessus de Beachy Head — autrefois un point de
passage fréquent pour les bombardiers en route vers l'Europe.
Inauguré en 2012, grâce au travail de l'ancien rear gunner Joe Williams — abattu au-dessus de la
Tchécoslovaquie en 1945. 🧵
Voici le RAF Bomber Command Memorial, au-dessus de Beachy Head — autrefois un point de
passage fréquent pour les bombardiers en route vers l'Europe.
Inauguré en 2012, grâce au travail de l'ancien rear gunner Joe Williams — abattu au-dessus de la
Tchécoslovaquie en 1945. 🧵
Post 1/5 #AdmiralPrune
Setting the record straight - not just the plaque.
This is me with my great friend Dan, over from Australia, at the memorial for the crash of the Admiral Prune, 4 February 1943.
It's good to have a detective on the team — his research turned up something worth correcting.🧵
Setting the record straight - not just the plaque.
This is me with my great friend Dan, over from Australia, at the memorial for the crash of the Admiral Prune, 4 February 1943.
It's good to have a detective on the team — his research turned up something worth correcting.🧵
August 11, 2026 at 3:05 PM
Post 1/5 #AdmiralPrune
Setting the record straight - not just the plaque.
This is me with my great friend Dan, over from Australia, at the memorial for the crash of the Admiral Prune, 4 February 1943.
It's good to have a detective on the team — his research turned up something worth correcting.🧵
Setting the record straight - not just the plaque.
This is me with my great friend Dan, over from Australia, at the memorial for the crash of the Admiral Prune, 4 February 1943.
It's good to have a detective on the team — his research turned up something worth correcting.🧵
Post 2/5 #HistoricalCorrection
A 2024 report in Valsonne magazine claimed rear gunner John Picken escaped the crash uninjured and was helped at the scene.
A German POW medical card tells a different story: Picken was admitted with a fractured rib and fractures to his left leg.
A 2024 report in Valsonne magazine claimed rear gunner John Picken escaped the crash uninjured and was helped at the scene.
A German POW medical card tells a different story: Picken was admitted with a fractured rib and fractures to his left leg.
August 11, 2026 at 2:59 PM
Post 2/5 #HistoricalCorrection
A 2024 report in Valsonne magazine claimed rear gunner John Picken escaped the crash uninjured and was helped at the scene.
A German POW medical card tells a different story: Picken was admitted with a fractured rib and fractures to his left leg.
A 2024 report in Valsonne magazine claimed rear gunner John Picken escaped the crash uninjured and was helped at the scene.
A German POW medical card tells a different story: Picken was admitted with a fractured rib and fractures to his left leg.
Post 3/5 #Écrivélo
Picken was one of several crew hospitalised after the crash, later held as a POW. After the war he settled in North Arm Cove, Australia. He died there on 1 October 2003. No children.
His relatives have shared photographs — they'll appear properly in Écrivélo.
Picken was one of several crew hospitalised after the crash, later held as a POW. After the war he settled in North Arm Cove, Australia. He died there on 1 October 2003. No children.
His relatives have shared photographs — they'll appear properly in Écrivélo.
August 11, 2026 at 2:58 PM
Post 3/5 #Écrivélo
Picken was one of several crew hospitalised after the crash, later held as a POW. After the war he settled in North Arm Cove, Australia. He died there on 1 October 2003. No children.
His relatives have shared photographs — they'll appear properly in Écrivélo.
Picken was one of several crew hospitalised after the crash, later held as a POW. After the war he settled in North Arm Cove, Australia. He died there on 1 October 2003. No children.
His relatives have shared photographs — they'll appear properly in Écrivélo.
Post 4/5 #POW
The other correction: Richard Peter Sutton, also reported seriously injured by Valsonne magazine at the time. His own POW record shows no wounds recorded at all.
What happened to Sutton after the war is still an open question.
The other correction: Richard Peter Sutton, also reported seriously injured by Valsonne magazine at the time. His own POW record shows no wounds recorded at all.
What happened to Sutton after the war is still an open question.
August 11, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Post 4/5 #POW
The other correction: Richard Peter Sutton, also reported seriously injured by Valsonne magazine at the time. His own POW record shows no wounds recorded at all.
What happened to Sutton after the war is still an open question.
The other correction: Richard Peter Sutton, also reported seriously injured by Valsonne magazine at the time. His own POW record shows no wounds recorded at all.
What happened to Sutton after the war is still an open question.
Post 5/5 #HistoricalInvestigation
We believe Sutton may have died in the West Country — unconfirmed. If you know more, we'd genuinely like to hear from you.
More on the Admiral Prune crew, and getting their stories right, in Écrivélo.
We believe Sutton may have died in the West Country — unconfirmed. If you know more, we'd genuinely like to hear from you.
More on the Admiral Prune crew, and getting their stories right, in Écrivélo.
August 11, 2026 at 2:54 PM
Post 5/5 #HistoricalInvestigation
We believe Sutton may have died in the West Country — unconfirmed. If you know more, we'd genuinely like to hear from you.
More on the Admiral Prune crew, and getting their stories right, in Écrivélo.
We believe Sutton may have died in the West Country — unconfirmed. If you know more, we'd genuinely like to hear from you.
More on the Admiral Prune crew, and getting their stories right, in Écrivélo.
Part 1
The Forêt du Brou sits above the Azergues valley. In July 1944, a Mosquito came down among its trees. Aboard were two RAF officers, John Christie and Dennis Keiran Flaherty. Neither survived. A local Resistance leader, Commandant Georges Lassalle, sent word to the valley.
Photo P Belvés
The Forêt du Brou sits above the Azergues valley. In July 1944, a Mosquito came down among its trees. Aboard were two RAF officers, John Christie and Dennis Keiran Flaherty. Neither survived. A local Resistance leader, Commandant Georges Lassalle, sent word to the valley.
Photo P Belvés
August 11, 2026 at 2:44 PM
Part 1
The Forêt du Brou sits above the Azergues valley. In July 1944, a Mosquito came down among its trees. Aboard were two RAF officers, John Christie and Dennis Keiran Flaherty. Neither survived. A local Resistance leader, Commandant Georges Lassalle, sent word to the valley.
Photo P Belvés
The Forêt du Brou sits above the Azergues valley. In July 1944, a Mosquito came down among its trees. Aboard were two RAF officers, John Christie and Dennis Keiran Flaherty. Neither survived. A local Resistance leader, Commandant Georges Lassalle, sent word to the valley.
Photo P Belvés
Part 2
Lassalle asked local residents to attend the funeral. Among them was Pierre Belvès, a teacher sheltering nearby with his family that year, part of the wider effort to stay ahead of the German occupation. He went to the funeral. And he brought a camera.
Photo of Pierre Belvés
#resistance
Lassalle asked local residents to attend the funeral. Among them was Pierre Belvès, a teacher sheltering nearby with his family that year, part of the wider effort to stay ahead of the German occupation. He went to the funeral. And he brought a camera.
Photo of Pierre Belvés
#resistance
August 11, 2026 at 2:42 PM
Part 2
Lassalle asked local residents to attend the funeral. Among them was Pierre Belvès, a teacher sheltering nearby with his family that year, part of the wider effort to stay ahead of the German occupation. He went to the funeral. And he brought a camera.
Photo of Pierre Belvés
#resistance
Lassalle asked local residents to attend the funeral. Among them was Pierre Belvès, a teacher sheltering nearby with his family that year, part of the wider effort to stay ahead of the German occupation. He went to the funeral. And he brought a camera.
Photo of Pierre Belvés
#resistance
Part 3
Belvès wrote an account of what he witnessed and took numerous photographs. Nearby, friends of his, a Jewish family in hiding, depended on the same quiet watchfulness that had brought him to the valley. He would go to see them when he could.
Photos Pierre Belvés
#Letra #WW2history
Belvès wrote an account of what he witnessed and took numerous photographs. Nearby, friends of his, a Jewish family in hiding, depended on the same quiet watchfulness that had brought him to the valley. He would go to see them when he could.
Photos Pierre Belvés
#Letra #WW2history
August 11, 2026 at 2:40 PM
Part 3
Belvès wrote an account of what he witnessed and took numerous photographs. Nearby, friends of his, a Jewish family in hiding, depended on the same quiet watchfulness that had brought him to the valley. He would go to see them when he could.
Photos Pierre Belvés
#Letra #WW2history
Belvès wrote an account of what he witnessed and took numerous photographs. Nearby, friends of his, a Jewish family in hiding, depended on the same quiet watchfulness that had brought him to the valley. He would go to see them when he could.
Photos Pierre Belvés
#Letra #WW2history
Part 4
Long after the war, Belvès stayed in touch with the airmen's families, one of the few locals who did. He was later sent one of the pilot's RAF badges. Decades on, his son Yves still holds the photographs and papers.
Photo Belvés wife & children sent to parents of RAF Officers.
#penpals
Long after the war, Belvès stayed in touch with the airmen's families, one of the few locals who did. He was later sent one of the pilot's RAF badges. Decades on, his son Yves still holds the photographs and papers.
Photo Belvés wife & children sent to parents of RAF Officers.
#penpals
August 11, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Part 4
Long after the war, Belvès stayed in touch with the airmen's families, one of the few locals who did. He was later sent one of the pilot's RAF badges. Decades on, his son Yves still holds the photographs and papers.
Photo Belvés wife & children sent to parents of RAF Officers.
#penpals
Long after the war, Belvès stayed in touch with the airmen's families, one of the few locals who did. He was later sent one of the pilot's RAF badges. Decades on, his son Yves still holds the photographs and papers.
Photo Belvés wife & children sent to parents of RAF Officers.
#penpals
Part 5
The name may be familiar for another reason: after the war, Pierre Belvès became a well known French children's book illustrator, working for years on the Père Castor series at Flammarion. More in my book, Écrivélo.
Find out about the lifes work of Pierre at lescouleursdepierrebelves.fr
The name may be familiar for another reason: after the war, Pierre Belvès became a well known French children's book illustrator, working for years on the Père Castor series at Flammarion. More in my book, Écrivélo.
Find out about the lifes work of Pierre at lescouleursdepierrebelves.fr
August 11, 2026 at 2:37 PM
Part 5
The name may be familiar for another reason: after the war, Pierre Belvès became a well known French children's book illustrator, working for years on the Père Castor series at Flammarion. More in my book, Écrivélo.
Find out about the lifes work of Pierre at lescouleursdepierrebelves.fr
The name may be familiar for another reason: after the war, Pierre Belvès became a well known French children's book illustrator, working for years on the Père Castor series at Flammarion. More in my book, Écrivélo.
Find out about the lifes work of Pierre at lescouleursdepierrebelves.fr