Dr Simon Trew, BA
Appointment: Deputy Head, Department of War Studies, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Contact Details
Department of War Studies, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Camberley, Surrey, GU15 4PQ
Tel. +44 (0)1276 412388
Principal research interests
•
The Second World War in Europe, especially the planning and execution of the 1944
Normandy Campaign and the war in the Balkans, 1941-5
•
The history of urban operations
•
How armies learn
•
The history of war photography
Principal Publications
BOOKS
Simon Trew, D-Day and the Battle of Normandy: a Photographic History (Haynes Publishing,
Sparkford, 2012)
Simon Trew, Battle Zone Normandy: Gold Beach (Sutton Publishing Ltd., Stroud, 2004; reprinted
by the History Press, Stroud, 2011)
Simon Trew and Stephen Badsey, Battle Zone Normandy: Battle for Caen (Sutton Publishing Ltd.,
Stroud, 2004)
Simon Trew (Ed.) and Lloyd Clark, Battle Zone Normandy: Orne Bridgehead (Sutton Publishing
Ltd., Stroud, 2004; reprinted by the History Press, Stroud, 2012)
Simon Trew and Nigel de Lee (as ‘Peter Yates’), Battle Zone Normandy: Battle for St-Lo (Sutton
Publishing Ltd., Stroud, 2004)
Simon Trew (Ed.) and Ken Ford, Battle Zone Normandy: Sword Beach (Sutton Publishing Ltd.,
Stroud, 2004)
Simon Trew (Ed.) and Ken Ford, Battle Zone Normandy: Juno Beach (Sutton Publishing Ltd.,
Stroud, 2004)
army.mod.uk/sandhurst
1
Crown Copyright © 2012
Simon Trew (Ed.), Stephen Badsey and Tim Bean, Battle Zone Normandy: Omaha Beach (Sutton
Publishing Ltd., Stroud, 2004; reprinted by the History Press, Stroud, 2011)
Simon Trew (Ed.) and Stephen Badsey, Battle Zone Normandy: Utah Beach (Sutton Publishing
Ltd., Stroud, 2004)
Simon Trew (Ed.) and George Forty, Battle Zone Normandy: Villers-Bocage (Sutton Publishing
Ltd., Stroud, 2004)
Simon Trew (Ed.) and R. P. W. Havers, Battle Zone Normandy: Battle for Cherbourg (Sutton
Publishing Ltd., Stroud, 2004)
Simon Trew (Ed.) and Lloyd Clark, Battle Zone Normandy: Operation Epsom (Sutton Publishing
Ltd., Stroud, 2004)
Simon Trew (Ed.) and Christopher Pugsley, Battle Zone Normandy: Operation Cobra (Sutton
Publishing Ltd., Stroud, 2004)
Simon Trew (Ed.) and Stephen Hart, Battle Zone Normandy: Road to Falaise (Sutton Publishing
Ltd., Stroud, 2004)
Simon Trew (Ed.) and Paul Latawski, Battle Zone Normandy: Falaise Pocket (Sutton Publishing
Ltd., Stroud, 2004; reprinted by the History Press, Stroud, 2012)
Simon Trew and Gary Sheffield (Eds.), 100 Years of Conflict 1900-2000 (Sutton Publishing Ltd.,
Stroud, 2000)
Simon Trew, Britain, Mihailović and the Chetniks, 1941-42 (Macmillan Press Ltd., Basingstoke,
1998)
CHAPTERS/ARTICLES IN EDITED COLLECTIONS
Simon Trew, “Yugoslav Quagmires: The Image of the Past and the Fear of Intervention”, in
Stephen Badsey and Paul Latawski, Britain, NATO and the Lessons of the Balkan Conflicts 19911999 (Frank Cass, London & New York, 2004), pp.3-13
Simon Trew, “New Ideas about Land Warfare, 1919-1939”, in Simon Trew and Gary Sheffield
(Eds.), 100 Years of Conflict 1900-2000 (Sutton Publishing Ltd., Stroud, 2000), pp.103-24
Simon Trew, “The Battle for Crete 1941 – The Pyrrhic Victory”, in Stephen Badsey (Ed.), The
Hutchinson Atlas of World War II Battle Plans (Helicon Publishing Ltd., 2000), pp.193-202
Simon Trew, “The Battle of Berlin 1945 – The Final Battle”, in Stephen Badsey (Ed.), The
Hutchinson Atlas of World War II Battle Plans (Helicon Publishing Ltd., 2000), pp.249-60
OTHER PUBLISHED WORK
Content author/consultant, Mobile Operations in Normandy: 8th Armoured Brigade 6-12 June
1944, CD-ROM, British Defence Film Library, 2002
Various short articles and book reviews in The Wish Stream (the journal of the Royal Military
Academy Sandhurst), The Sandhurst Foundation Journal, Global War Studies, Small Wars and
Insurgencies, History Today and other journals and magazines, 1993-2012
army.mod.uk/sandhurst
2
Crown Copyright © 2012
Media Experience
Consultant, Last Heroes of D-Day, BBC-1 TV documentary (two programmes), due for broadcast in
April 2013
On-screen interviewee, Castle Commando [4 Commando at Dieppe, 1942], BBC Scotland/BBC-2,
2012
On-screen interviewee, True Stories: Saving Private Ryan, Blink Films, 2011
History Channel website, numerous filmed interview contributions on the Second World War in
Europe (for general access see http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/ww2/), 2010
On-screen commentator, BBC-1 and BBC-4 live broadcasts/panel discussions during 65th
anniversary of D-Day commemorations, from Arromanches, France, June 2009
On-screen interviewee, Ground War: Command and Control, 3SixtyMedia, 2009
Consultant and on-screen interviewee, Timewatch: Bloody Omaha, BBC-2, 2008. An edited
version of this documentary was broadcast for the Smithsonian Channel in the USA in 2009 as DDay: The True Story of Omaha Beach (see also ‘Other information’ below)
On-screen interviewee, BBC News 24 all-day live coverage of the 60th anniversary
commemorations of the end of World War II (in studio), 10 July 2005
Consultant and on-screen interviewee, BBC-1 live daily broadcasts during the 60th anniversary
commemorations of the end of World War II (four programmes broadcast from the ‘living museum’
in St. James’s Park), July 2005
Commentator, BBC News 24 live coverage of the 60th anniversary of VE Day, broadcast from the
Cenotaph, May 2005
Consultant and on-screen interviewee, Battlefield Detectives: Pointe du Hoc, Granada television,
2005
On-screen interviewee, BBC News 24 all-day live coverage of the 60th anniversary of D-Day
commemorations, June 2004 (from various sites in Normandy)
Consultant & on-screen interviewee, BBC-1 live daily broadcasts during the 60th anniversary
commemorations of the D-Day landings (five programmes broadcast from Southwick House &
Arromanches), June 2004
On-screen interviewee, The Map-makers: D-Day, Wild Dream Productions, 2003
On-screen interviewee, The Nazis and the Serbs, BBC-2 ‘Leviathan’ series, 1999
On-screen interviewee, approximately 15-20 pre-recorded documentaries on various military topics
for Cromwell Productions, 1996-2000 (examples include programmes on: Luftwaffe fighter aircraft;
The Battle of Britain; The Battle of the Atlantic; The Battle of the Bulge; The Battle of Berlin; The
Battle of Edgehill; The Battle of Quebec; The Battle of Borodino)
army.mod.uk/sandhurst
3
Crown Copyright © 2012
Battlefield Study expertise
Dr. Trew has extensive experience in planning and delivering battlefield tours/battlefield
studies/staff rides for military and civilian audiences, including: Joint Services Command and Staff
College directing staff and students; various British Army division, brigade and unit headquarters;
French Army staff college students; RAF personnel; Young Presidents Organisation and others. His
expertise lies mainly in the following areas:
Normandy (1944 campaign): Many sites across the 1944 Normandy battlefields, with particular
reference to British and US operations from 6 June to early August 1944 (e.g. Pegasus bridge,
Merville battery, Gold Beach, Omaha Beach & Pointe du Hoc, Neuville-au-Plain, numerous US
battle sites around St-Lô, Hill 192, operations ‘Windsor’, ‘Charnwood’ and ‘Goodwood/Atlantic’,
Mortain).
He has also visited battlefields and other conflict-related sites in the UK, Ireland, USA, France,
Belgium, Czech Republic, Norway and Singapore.
Dr. Trew was one of the main architects of the highly successful RMAS Exercise ‘Normandy
Scholar’ (battlefield study/leadership and command exercise) and also worked closely with Texas
A&M University in their attempts to map and preserve the Pointe du Hoc battle site in Normandy
over a period of several years.
Other information
Nominee, The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (the ‘Emmy’ awards), 2009;
nominated for ‘outstanding individual achievement in a craft: research’, for D-Day: The True Story
of Omaha Beach (Smithsonian Channel, 2009)
Editorial board member, Global War Studies journal
Member of The Society of Authors
Life member, Friends of the Imperial War Museum
Education
1983-6, University of Keele, Department of International Relations, BA (Hons) First Class,
International Relations
1986-92, University of Keele, Department of History, PhD thesis title ‘No Pity Distilled: Britain,
Mihailović and the Chetniks, 1941-2’
Languages (apart from English)
A little French, fragments of Serbo-Croatian
[Profile last revised: September 2012]
army.mod.uk/sandhurst
4
Crown Copyright © 2012