History of War

From the conquering legions of Ancient Rome to the thunderous tank battles of World War II and beyond, History of War takes you deeper inside the minds of history’s fighting men, further under the bonnets of some of the world’s most devastating war machines, and higher above the battlefield to see the broad sweep of conflict as it happened.

Welcome

CONTRIBUTORS

CHRISTMAS IN THE BLITZ • 11 December 1940

ENTERTAINING TROOPS IN VIETNAM • 24 December 1970

ENJOYING A CHRISTMAS GIFT • December 1915-17

TIMELINE OF CHECHEN WARS • In the aftershock of the Soviet Union’s collapse, a breakaway region in the North Caucasus makes a bid for independence, prompting a brutal response from the Kremlin

A VOLATILE PAST • With the emergence of the Russian Federation, as Moscow sought to assert its power and re-establish its sphere of influence in the world, one defiant region’s desire for independence resulted in a gruesome conflict

GRACHEV, GROZNY & THE GUERRILLAS • The first assault on the breakaway capital saw the Russian federal armed forces shocked by a well-organised rebel defence

STORM IN MOSCOW • Reeling from its embarrassing defeat in Grozny, the Kremlin regrouped and plotted a second, devastating and decisive attack on the separatists

DEATH OF GROZNY • The second Russian offensive saw a brutally uncompromising approach that levelled the Chechen capital to the ground

KADYROV & THE KREMLIN Q&A WITH PROFESSOR MARK GALEOTTI • Since the official end of the Second Chechen War, the region’s status within Russia has remained uniquely complex, with a mutual reliance on Moscow propping up two authoritarian regimes

THE FIRST KAMIKAZE • Desperate to halt the US juggernaut in the Pacific War, Japan unleashed its suicide squadrons off the Philippines

LEYTE GULF

EDWARD ‘MICK’ MANNOCK • New to flying and shunned for his working-class roots, this young Irishman nonetheless mastered his craft to become the RAF’s first VC recipient

THE IRA’S TERROR PRIEST Q & A: JENNIFER O’LEARY • For years, Father Patrick Ryan evaded the British security services while he acquired weapons, finances and even bomb components for the Irish Republican Army

ORTONA • In December 1943, as the British Eighth Army advanced through Italy, Canadian forces were thrust against the coastal town of Ortona in a battle dubbed Little Stalingrad

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CONSOLIDATED PBY CATALINA • The Allies’ maritime patrol workhorse was key to hunting down Germany’s U-boats in the Atlantic and beyond

THE ROAD TO DEFEAT BRITAIN’S ARMY 1918-40 • At the end of WWI, the British Army was one of the most effective fighting forces in the world. But its hard-won superiority was soon discarded

LITTLE WILLIE AND THE PROTOTYPES • First conceived centuries before, the tank finally rolled off the production line and onto the battlefield during WWI

THE TANK TAKES THE FIELD • With a forboding metallic rattle, the first tanks destined for war rolled onto the churned fields of the Somme in 1916

HITLER’S DREAM OF POWER REQUIRED LOYAL COMMANDERS AND KILLER MACHINES • If Hitler's fantasy of a Germanic empire was to be realised he would need to rely on the courage and competence of military leaders and highly trained units and their cutting-edge equipment. Discover the troops and tools that made Nazi Germany such a formidable foe.

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MUSEUMS & EVENTS • Learn about audacious espionage, the new-look Bletchley Park and British soldiers’ experiences of post-war Germany

WWII THIS MONTH… JANUARY 1944 • To commemorate 80 years since the Second World War, History of War will be taking a...