Second World War

The Dambusters Raid is one of the best known operations of the Second World War. But, as James Holland explains, the development of the ‘bouncing bomb’ took place against a background of bitter rivalry between the armed services.

The indiscriminate use of ‘Nazi’ to describe anything to do with German institutions and policies during Hitler’s dictatorship creates a false historical understanding, says Richard Overy.

Britain’s loss of Singapore in February 1942 was a terrible blow. But Japan failed to make the most of its prize, says Malcolm Murfett.

Roger Hudson explains a moment of panic on the streets of the newly liberated French capital.

Seventy years ago this month a Nazi train was stopped by resisters as it travelled from Flanders to Auschwitz. Althea Williams tells the story of a survivor.

Despite a lack of style or personality, W.N. Medlicott argues, Neville Chamberlain overcame his unique capacity for being misunderstood to achieve a record of consistency.

Peter Mandler explains how the anthropologist Margaret Mead, author of best-selling studies of ‘primitive’ peoples, became a major influence on US military thinking during the Second World War.

L.B. Namier on both the pre- and post-war case against would-be plotters within the Nazi regime.

Benjamin Ziemann examines the enigma of Karl Mayr, the reclusive army officer who nurtured Adolf Hitler’s early political career and participated in the Kapp Putsch of 1920, only to join the Reichsbanner,  the million-strong social democrat group devoted to defending the Weimar Republic.

Only the infirmity of purpose displayed by the key-figure at the top, John Wheeler-Bennett writes, prevented the revolt against Hitler, which had failed in Berlin, from being continued successfully from Paris

Even after the Bomb-plot had failed, John Wheeler-Bennett shows how the Wehrmacht conspirators in Berlin had it in their grasp to overthrow Hitler and stop the war.

John Wheeler-Bennett's account, with many illuminating details, of the attempt that nearly put an end to the Third Reich.

Colin Smith recounts the Allied invasion of French North Africa, which commenced on November 8th, 1942.