Military

There is nothing new about uncrewed aircraft.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Great Powers competed for the vast oil reserves around the Iraqi city of Mosul. The motivation – and prize – was energy security. 

European powers sought to colonise the world. They could not do so without the support of indigenous peoples.

The work of military nurses at Passchendaele transformed the perception of women’s war service, showing they could perform life-saving work and risk their lives at the front.

Since the Iliad, war has inspired stories – mixing fact and fiction – which reveal as much, if not more, about the realities of conflict as academic studies. John E. Talbott examines writing about ‘the human condition at its most extreme’.

Unpicking a tangle of history, myth and misunderstanding reveals why, for so long, we believed King Harold was shot through the eye at the Battle of Hastings.

The epic German offensive to take the strategically crucial fortress in north-east France reached its bloody end in September 1916. Robert Foley looks at how and why Erich von Falkenhayn, the Chief of the German General Staff, sought to break the deadlock on the Western Front.

The first day of the Somme has become synonymous with incompetent leadership during the First World War. The true picture of the battle – and the role played by General Sir Douglas Haig – is more complex.

The appearance of a Short Stirling Bomber near St Paul's Cathedral prompts Roger Hudson to recall the Wings for Victory campaign.

On its 75th anniversary, Philip Weir remembers Britain’s first attempt to smash a major hydroelectric dam: the bombardment of Genoa in 1941.