second world war history
Vindictive to the last: a Nazi atrocity in Tuscany
Even in retreat in August 1944, a German posse carried out a particularly brutal triple murder at a hillside farm outside Florence in a vendetta against the Einstein family
Heroes of the Norwegian resistance
Among many fascinating characters is Gunnar Waaler, a double agent who passed on intelligence to the British while posing as an enthusiastic member of Quisling’s police force
What did Britain really gain from the daring 1942 Bruneval raid?
The night-time dismantling of a German radar site in Normandy was a feat of skill, courage and imagination. But there was little improvement to Bomber Command casualties as a result
When Stalin was the lesser of two evils
Churchill detested Stalin, but Britain and the US needed his help against an even worse enemy. Giles Milton reveals the true nature of the Big Three’s dysfunctional relationship
The misery of the Kindertransport children
Wrenched from their parents and familiar surroundings, the young refugees found safety in Britain, but were tolerated rather than cherished, says Andrea Hammel
Passports out of hell
Roger Moorhouse describes how various diplomats stationed in Europe risked their positions to issue as many forged ‘tickets to safety’ to Jews as possible
On with the next escape plan
Given the prisoners’ histories, it’s not surprising there were so many attempted breakouts from Colditz, says Clare Mulley
Heroes of the siege
Sometimes the struggle for a single small strongpoint can tip the whole balance of a greater battle. One thinks of…
Brave men in small boats
‘I found this story by accident,’ begins Julia Jones’s Uncommon Courage, referring to documents belonging to her late father that…
Chariot on fire
Eighty years ago, just after midnight on 28 March 1942, the British destroyer HMS Campbeltown crept up the estuary of…
The war in the shadows
When in 1941 Winston Churchill famously declared that the newly formed Special Operations Executive, set up to encourage resistance movements,…
Britain’s inglorious war
Despite prostrate Germany’s need for the return of its men, in Britain we didn’t release our prisoners of war until…
In the thick of it
When the shrill air raid sirens blared their familiar warning cries over the city at 6.01 p.m. on 29 December…
Speed and stealth
Fast boats and fast women have been the ruin of many a poor boy. But they can also prove a…
The turning point of the war
If you can tell the difference between Jack Hawkins and John Mills, and between a Stuka and a Sten gun,…
The road to hell
In the 1930s, a group of American airmen had a dream. Air power, they believed, would do away with the…
Forewarned, but not forearmed
The most extraordinary thing, still, about Operation Barbarossa is the complete surprise the Wehrmacht achieved. In the early hours of…
A necessary evil
Of the two dictators who began the second world war as allied partners in crime but ended it in combat…
Secrets of the double cross
Für dich, Tommy, ist der Krieg vorbei. However, many British servicemen, officers especially, didn’t want their war to be over.…
The good, the bad and the ugly
Most monuments are literally set in stone — or cast in bronze to better survive the weather. Being enduring, they…
Taking a lot of flak
Those of us who write occasionally about military aviation can only admire the compelling personal experience that John Nichol brings…
Nazi on the run
In 1926, while putting in place the repressive laws and decrees that would define his dictatorship, Mussolini appointed a new…
Bloodbath in the Pacific
The US operation of 1945 to take the island of Okinawa was the largest battle of the Pacific during the…
The shape of things to come
To begin not at the beginning but at the end of the beginning. Or rather, to begin at another beginning,…
Strategies for survival
Late in his life, I asked my uncle René about his exploits in wartime France. What I knew was that…
