Military history

© Dreamstime
Did conkers help win the First World War?
[2nd February 2012]

When Britain’s war effort was threatened by a shortage of shells, the government exhorted schoolchildren across the country to go on the hunt for horse chestnuts. Saul David, who fronts the current BBC Four series Bullets, Boots And Bandages: How To Really Win A War, explains why

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© National Maritime Museum
Arctic convoys
[11th November 2011]

To accompany this week's podcast interview with Quintin Colville, curator of naval history at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, we bring you a selection of images from an exhibition on arctic convoys, currently on show at the museum

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© Rex Features
From first Remembrance Day to remembrance today
[11th November 2011]

It’s 93 years since Britain first came to a standstill in honour of the dead of the First World War. Fiona Reid analyses how the way we commemorate the war has changed since that first Remembrance Day.

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Master and commander
[26th September 2011]

A new exhibition on Admiral Lord Cochrane goes on show at the National Museum of Scotland next month. Here are just some of the items on display

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© Royal Mail Group Ltd 2011, courtesy of The British Postal Museum & Archive
The last post
[21st July 2011]

An exhibition exploring the vital role played by the Post Office during the First World War is now on display at The Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham, Kent. We bring you some of the poignant archive images on display

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Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park codebreakers honoured
[15th July 2011]

We bring you a selection of features, new stories and podcasts on the codebreakers at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire

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Monument to Spanish Civil War © Dreamstime
Spain’s very international civil war
[15th July 2011]

Spain’s army rose up against its left-wing Republican government in July 1936. The civil war that ensued is often viewed as a precursor to the Second World War for the way it sucked in the wider international community. In July 2006, best-selling military historian Antony Beevor talked to David Musgrove about the conflict

 

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© Alamy
The Somme: a terrible learning curve
[1st July 2011]

Ninety five years on from the First World War battle where many thousands of soldiers died, Gary Sheffield, professor of war studies at the University of Birmingham, explains what British generals learnt from the bloodbath

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Christmas in the trenches © Mary Evans
Christmas parcels
[8th December 2010]

Sent from loved ones at home to the frontline troops, food packages at Christmas were packed with something extra for the festive period. Christmas boxes were saturated with treats so that Christmas dinner could be an occasion when the disappointments of military rations were forgotten.

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© Kobal Collection
Pearl Harbor: Three films
[22nd November 2010]

Mark Glancy looks at three films covering the Japanese attack on the US naval base Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.

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