“The Battlefield Tour Guide” with Bob Shaw

Summary

Robert Shaw joins Andrew to discuss his experience working as an accredited Battlefield tour guide. Bob’s career in the British Army spanned over 25 years. 

What You’ll Learn

Intelligence

• Becoming a battlefield tour guide
• IEDD and Intelligence Work in Northern Ireland
• Hypothetical WWIII scenarios 
• Special Forces, TECHINT, & the Bin Laden Raid

Reflections

• Learning from history
• Interpretation and understanding

And much, much more …

Episode Notes

This week on SpyCast, Andrew was joined by Bob Shaw, accredited Battlefield tour guide, military history author, and retired British Army veteran. Over the span of his 25+ years in the army, Bob specialized in the areas of improvised explosive device disposal, intelligence, and logistics. After his retirement, Bob traveled the world managing training for the United Nations and NATO. Now, he spends his time sharing his knowledge of battlefield history with curious people from around the world. 

Andrew and Bob are something of old friends – Led by Bob’s expertise and organized by The National WWII Museum and SPY, the two (along with a fantastic group of fellow travelers) spent over a week together in the United Kingdom exploring the sites of British intelligence during WWII. Tune in to learn more about where Andrew and Bob traveled together, and where they’d like to go next! 

And… 

Andrew was lucky enough to be guided by Bob on a tour of the United Kingdom’s World War II intelligence sites. You, too, can experience Bob’s incredible wealth of knowledge firsthand on one of his amazing tours. See here for more information! 

Quotes of the Week

“One of the things about being an IEDD operator, our intent of course is investigation. And part of that is asking questions, lots of them, and getting, in a sense, answers and then following off and chasing trails or rabbit holes … It's good to be able to question everything and work out why it's there and does it fit … So it does really help with battlefield touring.” – Bob Shaw.

Resources 

SURFACE SKIM

*SpyCasts*

• Alan Turing: Codebreaker, Visionary, Enigma with Andrew Hodges (2024)
• The Real Ian Fleming with Nicholas Shakespeare (2024)
• ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: The D-Day Deception with National WWII Museum Curator Corey Graff (2023)
• St. Ermin’s Hotel, London – The History of a Legendary Spy Site with Stephen Duffy (2023)
• The IRA, The Troubles & Intelligence with Eleanor Williams and Thomas Leahy (2022)

*Beginner Resources*

• World War II Chronology, B. Johnson, Historic UK (n.d.) [Timeline of Britain in WWII]
• Secret War: What you need to know, Imperial War Museum (n.d.) [Short article]
• Technical Signals Intelligence, National Security Agency (n.d.) [Brief overview of TECHINT]

DEEPER DIVE

Books

• The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park, J. D. Turing (Arcturus, 2020)
• Churchill's Spy Files: MI5's Top-Secret Wartime Reports, N. West (The History Press, 2018) 
• No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden, M. Owen & K. Maurer (Dutton, 2014) 

Explore the Sites and Battlefields Discussed

• Thames House
• Vauxhall Cross
• Bletchley Park 
• Monument to SOE Agents
• The Old War Office Building
• The Admiralty Building
• Beaumanor Hall
• Battle of Arnhem / Operation Market Garden 
• The Khyber Pass 
• The Falklands Conflict  
• Abbottabad Raid / Operation Neptune Spear 
• Battle of Stalingrad 

*Wildcard Resource*

• The Battle of Gettysburg is perhaps one of the most well-known and most visited battlefields in the United States. 
• Take a virtual tour of this historic American site here – Tour guidance by Bob not included.