Second World War

As Battle of Britain Day approaches Brian James has been finding out why some of today’s leading military historians argue that it was not the RAF but the Royal Navy that saved Britain in 1940.

Richard Dimbleby’s account of what he witnessed at Bergen-Belsen in April 1945 has become infamous in Britain. Less well known is the work of two other BBC employees who made radio programmes about Belsen shortly after the camp’s liberation.

Rhiannon Looseley uncovers the forgotten history of the evacuation of over 100,000 French soldiers from Dunkirk to Britain in May 1940, and describes what happened to them on their brief sojourn across the Channel and return to France soon after.

Brian Girvin explains the tensions between the Irish government and many of the Irish people in their attitudes to the war against Nazism.

Simon Kitson explores the prevalence of spying for and against the Nazis in southern France after the German invasion.

Simon Henderson explains the significance of Hans and Sophie Scholl in the history of Nazi Germany.

Paul Dukes assesses the roles of the major statesmen from Britain, the USA and the USSR during the Second World War and the onset of the Cold War.

Donald Zec has written the life of his brother, the wartime political cartoonist Philip Zec, to remind the world of his rich collection of cartoons that caught the mood of the British people at war. The following is an extract from the book.

As the rest of Britain gears up for the sixtieth anniversary of VE Day on May 8th, Peter Tabb describes the last moments of the German Occupation of the Channel Islands, where the end of the War came twenty-four hours later.

John Erickson assesses the massive Soviet assault into Germany in the final year of the war and the price of liberation.