Mike Bechthold 🇨🇦🇺🇦
@mike-bechthold.bsky.social
2.7K followers 870 following 500 posts
PhD Historian | Royal Historical Society Fellow RCAF | RAF | RNAS | RFC | Canadian Army First World War | Second World War Cartographer | Graphic Designer https://mikebechthold.com/
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
mike-bechthold.bsky.social
Very pleased that my book, Flying to Victory: Raymond Collishaw and the Western Desert Campaign, 1940-1941, was selected for the RAF's Chief of the Air Staff Reading List.

www.raf.mod.uk/what-we-do/c...
Book cover of Flying to Victory by Mike Bechthold. Shows a flight of 4 Hawker Hurricanes.
mike-bechthold.bsky.social
Great to see the book arriving in the UK!
theaviation.show
Join me for a terribly filmed video of me unboxing the first proper book I've written for, Airpower and the Normandy Campaign!

Many thanks to @mike-bechthold.bsky.social for including me in the team! The book is out now in the US and on the 30th in the UK. @usni.org

📖 www.usni.org/press/books/...
mike-bechthold.bsky.social
Amazing! Glad to see it arriving safely on your side of the Atlantic. Enjoy!
(And you chapter is far better than passable! It's a key contribution to the volume and stands on its own merits.)
mike-bechthold.bsky.social
Such a good book, though tough to read at times.
His Black Snow book is even better.
mike-bechthold.bsky.social
RIP Ken Dryden 💔
One of my favourite players of all time.
mike-bechthold.bsky.social
I guess I still have some work to do!
mike-bechthold.bsky.social
This Saturday I'm speaking at the Military Heritage Day at the Chatham Kent Municipal Airport about Canada and the Liberation of the Netherlands. Also lots of warbirds, military vehicles, and other displays. Hope to see you there!
Reposted by Mike Bechthold 🇨🇦🇺🇦
bookjockeyalex.bsky.social
I refuse to give the NYT my eyeballs, so I can't speak to the specifics of this article. But any historians attempting to use AI for either writing or research should be run out of the field. AI is inherently unable to do anything we need it to do to understand and communicate history.
mkn.bsky.social
Lots of commentary on this piece already, all of which I agree with.

For historians, research is a fundamental part of writing.

To farm it out to AI changes the nature of this intellectual process in fundamental ways.

And as Stacy Schiff points out, it also takes all the fun out of it.
A.I. Is Poised to Rewrite History. Literally.
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Mike Bechthold 🇨🇦🇺🇦
markurban.bsky.social
I've blogged about how the Israeli air force has reshaped the Middle East and what others might learn from them markurban.substack.com/p/israels-sl...
Israel's Sledgehammer
How their air force re-shapes the Middle East
markurban.substack.com
Reposted by Mike Bechthold 🇨🇦🇺🇦
walterolson.bsky.social
Chair of history department at U.S. Naval Academy resigns after order to remove paper from symposium “for reasons having nothing to do with scholarship.” [James Matheson, Baltimore Sun]
Naval Academy history chair resigns over ordered removal of symposium paper
Tom McCarthy cited the removal of a paper on grounds beyond its academic standard.
www.baltimoresun.com
Reposted by Mike Bechthold 🇨🇦🇺🇦
Reposted by Mike Bechthold 🇨🇦🇺🇦
maxbrockbank.com
Trump on WW1: "Recently other countries celebrated the victory of World War I, France was celebrating, really. The only one that doesn't celebrate is the USA. And we're the ones that won the war. Without us, you'd all be speaking German right now. Maybe a little Japanese thrown in."

Ignorant c*nt.
Reposted by Mike Bechthold 🇨🇦🇺🇦
mark-carney.bsky.social
Canada will achieve NATO’s 2% target this year — half a decade ahead of schedule.
 
In an increasingly dangerous world, we will be ready to protect our people, our sovereignty, and our Allies.
mike-bechthold.bsky.social
A. Lazy
B. Misinformed a
C. Indifferent
D. Stupid
E. All of the above
mike-bechthold.bsky.social
Time flies when you’re having fun!
mike-bechthold.bsky.social
Pte Baker survived the landings and the war. He lived to the ripe old age of 80.
Major MacNaughton too survived the landings, but by a twist of fate, he was gunned down later that day while leading his men in Tailleville. His story is told by @historicacanada.bsky.social
youtu.be/-AuKXAftIts
/end
Heritage Minutes: D-Day
YouTube video by Historica Canada
youtu.be
mike-bechthold.bsky.social
I like to think that the comforting hand with the wedding band belongs to Baker's company commander, Major Archie MacNaughton, a First World War veteran, husband, and father who volunteered at the age of 43 to fight in another war.
3/4
Archie MacNaughton
Archie MacNaughton, standing second from the right. Photo taken on 4 June 1944, two days before D-Day.
(courtesy of the family of Major J. Archie MacNaughton)
From the Canadian Encyclopedia https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/archie-macnaughton MacNaughton Family
Grace, Archie, Margaret and Francis MacNaughton at training camp in Woodstock, New Brunswick.
(courtesy of the family of Major J. Archie MacNaughton)
From The Canadian Encyclopedia https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/archie-macnaughton