Some Big Failures & Strangest Looking Inventions of War
New technology, more powerful guns, over-active planners, and the demands of warfare often resulted in wild creations that resembled flights of fancy or Frankenstein experiments…
American Occupied England – Life in the D-Day Staging Zone
By the time the D-Day invasion was launched in June 1944, the south of England had spent months filled with soldiers preparing for war. The…
Dietrich von Saucken: The German General Who Told the Führer, ‘I Will Not Take Orders from a Local Chieftain’
Any school teacher or parent will give the same advice to a child who is being harassed by a bully: stand up to him and…
8 French Self-Propelled Artillery Weapons
Self-propelled artillery has a history almost as old as tanks, and the French were early adopters in both fields. From First World War field guns…
Churchill’s Account of Lord Mountbatten Nearly Shooting an Air Chief Marshal
A previously unpublished draft of a letter written by Winston Churchill was unearthed from the estate of the late Commodore Gordon Allen and is now…
British Warship Recognition: The Perkins Identification Albums Volumes 5, 6 & 7
Richard Perkins is something of a mystery. He built a vast collection of warship photographs he either took himself or acquired through a network of…
5 Twentieth Century ‘British’ APCs
From the first improvised vehicles to professional, custom-made versions, the British army’s armored personnel carriers (APCs) saw some serious changes during the 20th century. Kangaroo…
How Neutral Countries Responded to WW2 – Some Made a Fortune From It
When the Second World War broke out, it looked set to redefine the shape of Europe. Despite this, many countries on the continent tried to…
Declassified Files: “My Grandfather did not have to play James Bond, he was James Bond”
In 2014, the relaxation of the British Official Secrets Act allowed a family that had always been curious about their grandfather’s wartime service to find…
The “English patient” a Bungling Nazi Intelligence Officer “very ugly & Shabbily Dressed, With a fat & Pendulous Nose”
The romantic war film, The English Patient, was based on the novel of the same name by Michael Ondaatje, which was awarded the Booker Prize…
The Scharnhorst – only 36 members of the crew escaped a watery grave
Nazi Germany’s navy, known as the Kriegsmarine, possessed in its arsenal some of the most impressive ships of its time. German engineers managed to manufacture…
17 Facts About the Spitfire – We all Know These, Right?
The iconic British aircraft of World War Two, the Spitfire, has come to represent defiance, courage, and ingenious engineering. Here are some facts about one…