History of War

Britain’s Home Guard has long held the unfair reputation of being rag-tag, hapless, bumbling but endearing volunteers – thanks largely to the sitcom Dad’s Army (1968-77). In recent years the real history of these units has been rediscovered, includin

25 February 1991 An Iraqi soldier holds up a Quran while his comrades wave white flags as they surrender to Saudi and US troops on a road in Kuwait. In this phase of the Gulf War, Iraqi forces used Kuwait’s highways in an attempt to flee the country,

German command devises Operation Weserübung, an ambitious plan to invade Norway and Denmark simultaneously with landings from Narvik to Copenhagen, spreading the entire Kriegsmarine dangerously thin over the vast Norwegian Sea. The Nazis aim to captu

On 14 December 1939, far-right Norwegian politician Vidkun Quisling was invited to a secret meeting with Adolf Hitler. The encounter took place in the newly finished Reich Chancellery in Berlin. With its towering 17ft (5m) doors, gargantuan statues a

At dawn on 10 April 1940, the Royal Navy’s 2nd Destroyer Flotilla steamed up Ofotjord in the middle of a snowstorm. The five ships, under the command of Captain Warburton-Lee, had been part of a force laying mines off the Norwegian coast. At 4.20am,

At 3:55am on 9 April 1940, German forces landed by ferry in Gedser in Denmark and moved north. German Fallschirmjäger units, meanwhile, had made unopposed landings taking Aalborg Airfield, the Storstrøm Bridge and the fortress of Masnedø. At 4am, the

Hitler’s conquest of Western Europe began on 9 May 1940. In a few short weeks, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium had all succumbed to his blitzkrieg. By 24 May, much of France was also in German hands and the British Expeditionary Force surroun

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“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. It stems from a journey Mr Bunting has on a tr

The slog was relentless. Through dark, deep forest and across broken terrain, mountain peaks studded with bare hillocks, draws and ridgelines, the US Seventh Army had fought its way northward nearly 500 miles (800km) from the French Riviera. The Germ

KARELIAN ISTHMUS 25 JUNE – 9 JULY 1944 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 Soviet 63rd Guards Rifle Di

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 was to create a communications channel to r

In spring 1944, the Finnish armoury was almost bare. Its limited supplies of outdated planes, tanks and weaponry stood no chance against the vast numbers of troops, planes and tanks that the Soviets could field once the winter stalemate was over. Ger

Apart from the cameras and lenses, the most important piece of equipment used by tours was their vehicles. They needed to transport the teams of three in reasonable comfort, provide the ‘office’ space for the intelligence collection, transport the la

Anticipating a Red Army attack on the VKT line, Mannerheim asks Germany for assistance. It provides the fighter, dive bomber and ground-attack Detachment Kuhlmey, the 303 Assault Gun Brigade and the 122nd Division. Following an intense artillery barr

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 of monarchists, republicans, conservatives, liberals and leftists. Already br

Stowe Gardens to host Standing with Giants’ 1,475 silhouettes honouring the British casualties at D-Day Visitors to the British Normandy Memorial near Ver-sur-Mer have been moved by For Your Tomorrow – The People’s Tribute, an art installation by the

The Staffordshire Hoard revealed in gold and garnet detail the wealth an early medieval king such as Ecgfrith bestowed upon his loyal warriors. But it was not just the sword fittings that were rich: the weapons themselves were masterpieces of the swo

An uprising by the French Forces of the Interior began in Paris on 19 August following radio broadcasts on the Allies’ advance towards the capital. While limited to skirmishes on the first day, barricades began to go up on 20 August and Parisians org

Author: Gregory Carleton Publisher: Hurst Publishers Price: £27.50 (Hardback) Released: August 2024 In the mid-19th century, the long-standing enmity between the world’s two great empires, Britain and Russia, erupted into open hostility, and it was o

Author: Matt Graydon Publisher: Cranthorpe Millner Price: £12.99 (Paperback) Released: 20 August 2024 Everyone likes to imagine that if they’d been brought up in Germany under the Nazis they would have been a member of the resistance. The simple trut

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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 worthy hosts insisted that he come to see a fountain, built by the long-gone R

In the summer of 1944, the Allied campaign first to establish a bridgehead, then to break out further into France, deployed a range of unique armoured vehicles – and were up against the Third Reich’s formidable panzers. You can read all about them an

Author: Roxanne de Bastion Publisher: Robinson Price: £22 (Hardback) Released: Out Now In this powerful and often deeply moving book, musician Roxanne de Bastion uncovers the remarkable story of her grandfather, Istvan Bastyai von Holtzer, later know

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Author: Giles Milton Publisher: John Murray Press Price: £25 (Hardback) Released: Out now This is a tour de force in wartime diplomacy – Milton is a historian who writes with all the verve of a seasoned novelist gripping the reader from the very star

Thomas Fairfax, the Parliamentarian commander-in-chief pivotal in creating the New Model Army, was only in his 50s when he started using this wheelchair in the 1660s, turning the handles on the armrests to move around his home. The 13 wounds he’d pic