Search

As the snow melted in the spring of 1942, Leningraders emerged from the worst winter experienced by a population under siege. Amid a mounting death toll driven by starvation, cold, [...]

The Second World War saw grand military strategy play out on the largest scale ever seen, stretching across most of the globe. Shaping this complex strategic situation were what historian [...]

Scotland's King James IV was a quintessential Renaissance prince, ruling his kingdom in an era when the great works of Greece and Rome were being recovered and classical culture reborn [...]

According to the Oxford Companion to World War II: 'Only Model and Keitel among the German generals rivalled [Ferdinand] Schorner as a devotee to Hitler.' It is probably also fair [...]

In the early hours of 26 September 1944, the exhausted survivors of British 1st Airborne began to evacuate the northern bank of the Rhine. This was the shameful culmination of [...]

This glider was a terrifying way to enter battle. The troops in the fuselage couldn't see outside, and their first warning that they were about to go into action was [...]

During the predawn hours of 30 January 1968, the Vietnam War took on a new dimension--and the thin line between life and death became all too real for Specialist Five [...]

8 May--26 June 1945 SETIF AND GUELMA MASSACRES 01 On the same day that Nazi Germany surrenders, Algerian anti-colonial activists protest in Setif and Guelma. The demonstrations are violently repressed [...]

As the Great War was coming to a close, a new perceived threat faced Europe: Bolshevism. Standing in the way of the 'Reds' were the 'White' Russians: a jumbled amalgamation [...]

The red brick Roman walls of Carlisle loomed high over Cuthbert. The bishop of Lindisfarne had only arrived the day before, after a long and weary journey, and already his [...]

The Royal Navy's Battle Class destroyers were designed specifically for war in the Pacific against the Imperial Japanese Navy. The previous 'war emergency' destroyer programme produced 112 ships that were [...]

Lieutenant-Colonel Arvo Roininen, the Finnish 26th Heavy Battery commander, jumped as his radio crackled to life. The date was 30 June, 1944, and reports were coming in that the elite [...]

In September 1946, the British military government of occupied Germany, and its Soviet opposite number, signed an agreement formalising a military liaison between the two newly neighbouring powers. The idea [...]

'They would have killed without compunction.' This quotation is taken from Mr Bunting at War. Written in 1942, Robert Greenwood's novel describes the wartime experience of an 'ordinary' British civilian. [...]

14 December 1939-1 March 1940 PLANNING INVASION German command devises Operation Weserubung, an ambitious plan to invade Norway and Denmark simultaneously with landings from Narvik to Copenhagen, spreading the entire [...]

For three long years, Austria's best field commander, Archduke Charles, sat on the sidelines, humiliated by his defeat at the Battle of Caldiero (30 October 1805) and furious that he [...]

By July 1944 the Allied armies were back on European soil. As they began to push east towards Germany, the Nazi conspirators of Operation Valkyrie triggered their plan to blow [...]

When Margaret of Anjou's marriage to King Henry VI of England was arranged in 1445 in the name of peace, no one could have foreseen that it would contribute to [...]

The Supermarine Spitfire Mk 1 entered service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1938. It was the RAF's most modern fighter: sleek, fast, heavily armed and beautiful. Two years [...]

Edging his midget submarine X-6 stealthily through the anti-torpedo netting in place in Kaafjord, Norway, in the wake of a small coaster, Lieutenant Donald Cameron, RNR, slowly guided his craft [...]

What do you remember about the buildup to Operation Desert Storm? When it all started back in August 1990 [with] the invasion of Kuwait... It was a lightning bolt out [...]

On 5 March 1804, a group of 233 convict rebels who had revolted against their incarceration in the British colony of New South Wales (corresponding to modern-day Sydney, Australia) were [...]

After being severely underfunded during the inter-war years, the Royal Navy entered the Second World War without a single modern carrier-borne fighter. The Hawker Hurricane was quickly adapted as the [...]

1 May 1898 BATTLE OF MANILA BAY 01 Early in the Spanish-American War, the US concludes it must defeat a Spanish squadron in Manila Bay. With a force that massively [...]

WAR in FOCUS COMPASSION IN GORLICE 13 June 1915 During the Gorlice-Tarnow offensive on the Eastern Front, a German infantryman pauses to give a wounded Russian soldier a drink from [...]

A 1960s design that first flew in 1974 and entered RAF service in 1982, the Tornado GRI proved to be one of the most versatile and longest-serving RAF jets. Created [...]

On 2 August 1990, Saddam Hussein ordered his army to invade neighbouring Kuwait. The unprovoked attack and brutal Iraqi occupation sparked outrage, international condemnation and a demand from the United [...]

The contribution of Gurkha regiments to the British effort during the Second World War cannot be overstated. Gurkhas won more than 2,000 medals for gallantry, including 12 Victoria Crosses. As [...]

In the spring of 1940, Nazi Germany launched its devastating campaign into Western Europe. Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and France all fell in quick succession. German forces also developed [...]

Saul David tells the story of the legendary British airborne troops in his latest book, Sky Warriors: British Airborne Forces in the Second World War. Nicknamed the 'Red Devils', they [...]

When King Charles III brought Spain into the Seven Years' War (1756-63) on the side of France, Austria and Sweden, he may have hoped that his nation's belated contribution would [...]

Ireland's contribution during the First World War was substantial, and in many ways remarkable given the political divide on the island. Around 50,000 Irishmen were already serving or reservists in [...]

BATTLE OF MARATHON 01 A fleet of 600 triremes brings the Persian army, numbering 26,000, into a bay near Marathon. Despite landing a giant force on Athenian soil, the Persians [...]

THE BIG APPLE CELEBRATES 8 May 1945 In New York, wounded veteran Staff Sergeant Arthur Moore watches ticker-tape raining down from the surrounding buildings as the end of war in [...]

From breathtaking battlefield landscapes, to intimate glimpses of life on the home front, many of Britain's most iconic military history masterpieces are the work of women artists. Often overlooked by [...]

Despite the daunting prospect of landing troops on the beaches of Normandy, Allied planning and logistics were so impressive that the operation never really looked like failing. Even amid the [...]

OPERATION BOLERO US Army troops first arrive in the UK in January 1942, and their numbers increase substantially with Operation Bolero. The US presence in England swells to 1.5 million [...]

Machine guns chattered, mortar shells exploded and shrapnel whirled across Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6 1944. D-Day, the most ambitious Allied military operation of the Second World [...]

Historian Taylor Downing's latest book, The Army That Never Was: D-Day and the Great Deception, covers the audacious schemes of Operation Fortitude, the misdirection and misinformation mission to confuse German [...]

On the night of 7/8 July 1944, a clumsy human torpedo containing a 19-year-old German sailor named Karl-Heinz Potthast was pushed into the water at Villers-sur-Mer near Le Havre. Nicknamed [...]

William 'Bill' Gladden was just 20 when he dropped into France on the evening of 6 June 1944. Packed into an enormous Hamilcar glider, he had shared the journey across [...]

On 6 June 1944, the long-anticipated assault on occupied France took place along a 50 mile (80km) front - however the amphibious landings were confined to roughly 12 miles (19km) [...]

LANDING CRAFT, VEHICLE, PERSONNEL LCVP Often referred to as a Higgins Boat after its designer, Higgins Industries of New Orleans, the LCVP was the standard American assault craft on D-Day. [...]

WAR in FOCUS WE'LL MEET AGAIN 6 June 1984 Singer Vera Lynn is pictured on Utah Beach before a backdrop of vehicles used during the D-Day landings. After this gathering [...]

Marie Scott was just 13 at the outbreak of the Second World War, and four years later she decided it was time to play her part on the home front. [...]

The Fairey Swordfish entered service with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA) in 1936. Already slow and outdated by modern standards, a requirement was issued in the same year [...]

As Hitler's army marched into Poland on 1 September 1939, beginning the Second World War, the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco struggled to consolidate power in Madrid. His Nationalist Army had [...]

For a short period, the revolutionary fervour that swept France from 1789 remained a largely internal political affair, punctured occasionally with civil unrest as politicians set about dismantling the old [...]

Motor racing was one of the glamour sports of the 1930s and German drivers were at the forefront of the pinnacle of the sport, the Grand Prix. Rudolf Caracciola won [...]

With the starboard engine on fire, the wireless unresponsive, one weapon jammed and the entire aircraft shaking violently, pilot David Hornell pressed his Canso 9754 'P' into the attack. Below [...]