Welcome

WAR IN FOCUS

© Getty OKINAWA UNDER FIRE 31 May 1945

BLACK SEA FLEET

Since its founding in 1783, Russia’s prized, powerful and instrumental naval force has remained an ominous presence in Eastern Europe

BUILDING THE FLEET

For more than two centuries Russia jealously guarded its only warm-water port, located in south-eastern Europe

THREE AGAINST ONE

Fears of an emboldened Russia trampling over Europe made France and Britain form a coalition to help the Turks seize Crimea

FROM POTEMKIN TO STALIN

The collapse of the Russian Empire and the emergence of the Soviet Union did not lessen the Black Sea’s importance in two World Wars

SOVIET DOMINION

Triumph in World War II settled any argument over who controlled the Black Sea, and with NATO at Russia’s doorstep there was a powerful incentive to militarise the whole region

THE MIGHTY EIGHTH OVER EUROPE

Sometimes called the ‘masters of the air’, American bomber crews faced terrible conditions to win the air war over occupied Europe

SIEGE OF MADRID

At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalist rebels marched on the capital. When the local Madrileños rose up to defend their city, they could not have imagined that their brave defence would last two-and-a-half years

MUTTERKREUZ MOTHER’S CROSS

This unusual award was introduced to boost the Third Reich’s population, as well as to imprint the warped ideals of National Socialism onto the role of motherhood. Its origins can be found in the Führer’s relationship with his own mother

DAVID LORD

His aircraft ablaze, this pilot’s decision to make a second approach to a drop zone near Arnhem earned him the RAF Transport Command’s only VC

BUFFALO SOLDIERS

AMERICA’S FORGOT TEN FRONTIER FORCE

COUNTY CLASS CRUISER

The Royal Navy’s interwar heavy cruisers were designed to protect Britain’s trade routes and fight independently across the globe

CHARLES LINDBERGH HAD RUN FOR PRESIDENT?

Could a fascist really have run for the presidency of the United States in 1940 and won?

CHANGING OF GUARDTHE

In their new history of the Household Division, co-authors Simon Doughty and Paul de Zulueta cover over five decades of the British Army’s oldest and among its most prestigious regiments. Here they discuss what inspired them to write this new study, and how the Guards have continued to expertly carry out their ceremonial and frontline roles across the last half-century

MUSE& EVENTS

Discover life inside an infamous war machine, a newly unearthed Roman wall and the artistic spirit of post-war London

FEBRUARY 1944

To commemorate 80 years since the Second World War, History of War will be taking a look at some of the key events taking place during each month of the conflict

HAWKER

IT IS A TRAGIC IRONY THAT THE MAN WHO ‘INVENTED’ THE VERY CONCEPT OF AERIAL FIGHTING WAS ULTIMATELY TO DIE THROUGH AIR COMBAT; THAT MAN WAS MAJOR LANOE HAWKER VC

SOLDIERS DON’T GO MAD

AN ABSORBING AND MOVING STORY THAT MASTERFULLY DESCRIBES THE FRIENDSHIP OF TWO OF BRITAIN’S GREATEST WAR POETS AND THE BATTLEFIELD TRAUMA THAT BOUND THEM TOGETHER

THE ONES WHO GOT AWAY

MIGHT Y EIGHTH AIRMEN ON THE RUN IN OCCUPIED EUROPE

THE HEAVY WATER WAR

BE ATING HITLER TO THE BOMB

TARGET HONG KONG

A TRUE STORY OF US NAVY PILOTS AT WAR

SUPER HEAVY TANK GUNSIGHT

For years, an unidentified gunsight sat in The Tank Museum’s archives. New research has identified it as part of the German Maus project to build the world’s heaviest tank