HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2026-01-26T13:17:26.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: How grim was life on Hitler's U-boats?
items: Did Hitler have sexual relations with Eva Braun? What my research reveals about the Führer's love life
items: The SAS played a vital role in defeating Hitler – so why did Britain disband them?
items: Why Belgian agents risked their lives spying for Britain
items: How tanks redefined warfare
items: The road to the Holocaust
items: The Bengal Famine was one of the 20th century's greatest tragedies – so why is there no memorial to it?
items: Life in the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain
items: Emperor Hirohito: life of the week
items: Keep calm and carry on singing: why Britons fell in love with opera during World War Two

How grim was life on Hitler's U-boats?
type: item
date: 2026-01-26T08:00:13.000Z
creator: Spencer Mizen
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: Roger Moorhouse tells the story of the U-boat war from the perspective of the German crews themselves
encoded: "Statistically, they were on a suicide mission." That's Roger Moorhouse's assessment of the odds facing Hitler's U-boat crews in the final years of the Second World War. Speaking with Spencer Mizen, Roger relates the story of these missions from the German perspective – a tale encompassing scurvy, sleep deprivation, terror and acts of astonishing kindness. Roger Moorhouse is the author of Wolfpack: Inside Hitler's U-boat War (William Collins, 2025). Buy it now from Waterstones

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Did Hitler have sexual relations with Eva Braun? What my research reveals about the Führer's love life
type: item
date: 2026-01-25T16:00:59.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Fascism
subject: Historical people
subject: Holocaust
description: Last year, the results of a groundbreaking study into Adolf Hitler’s DNA were revealed to the world. The project’s senior historical consultant, Alex J Kay, looks at what the findings might be able to tell us about the Führer’s relationship with Eva Braun and the other women in his life
encoded: In November 2025, I was lead historian on the television documentary Hitler’s DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator, which revealed the results of a world-first analysis of Adolf Hitler’s DNA. The results – as explained by the project’s lead geneticist, Turi King – revealed that Hitler had a disorder known as Kallmann syndrome. Among other things, this condition can result in impaired testosterone production, low libido, underdeveloped reproductive features and, by extension, a disrupted reproductive function. The revelation that Hitler had Kallmann syndrome is intriguing because of the likely implications for his private life. This finding strongly suggests a causal relationship between Hitler’s genetic make-up and particular facets of his behaviour. It complements what we already knew about this part of Hitler’s biography, and it sheds light on aspects of his life that we could previously only speculate about. Born in provincial Austria in 1889, Hitler had a very traumatic childhood, experiencing abuse at the hands of his father and losing four out of five siblings as well as both parents by the time he turned 19. He later wrote in his autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf that his mother’s death had been “a dreadful blow, particularly for me”. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/01/2-Traumatic-childhood-248974imagno-5c13625-e1769175795531.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="Two black and white photos alongside each other. A woman is on the left, wearing a high collar and looking straight at the camera. On the left there is a man, wearing a jacket with several buttons down the middle. He is facing the left, and has a large moustache" title="Hitler’s parents, Klara and Alois, pictured around 1890. The future Nazi leader would go on to describe his mother’s death in 1907 as “a dreadful blow” (Image by Topfoto)" /> The family doctor, Eduard Bloch, subsequently remarked: “While [Hitler] was not a ‘mother’s boy’ in the usual sense, I have …

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The SAS played a vital role in defeating Hitler – so why did Britain disband them?
type: item
date: 2026-01-23T15:30:41.000Z
creator: Gavin Mortimer
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Historical people
subject: Second World War battles
subject: Soldiers
subject: Wartime Britain
description: Britain’s War Office thanked the SAS for its remarkable efforts in WW2 by abolishing it – yet soon realised the error of its ways. Gavin Mortimer tells the story of how the elite unit reinvented itself to confront the challenges of the postwar world
encoded: “Light-hearted banditry”, “ruthless pirating”, a “phantom army” – it’s fair to say that the Special Air Service (SAS) didn’t always attract the most complimentary headlines. In the white heat of the Second World War, when this and other British special forces achieved unlikely successes through a series of daring raids, disparaging press reports could be discarded as merely tomorrow’s chip paper. Nonetheless, they fuelled the impression that the SAS operated outside the rules of the regular British army, and were used as ammunition by some who aimed to whip special forces into line – or even shut them down altogether. That threat became a reality after the conflict ended. David Stirling, the founder of the SAS, coined a description – “freemasons of mediocrity” – for a certain kind of staff officer who looked upon his men with suspicion and, in some cases, hostility. These ‘freemasons’ regarded the SAS and other irregular outfits – the Long Range Desert Group and the Chindits – at best as private armies, at worst “café gangsters”. This view extended to the Special Boat Squadron (SBS), which spent the spring of 1944 waging a bloody guerrilla campaign in the Aegean to tie down German troops ahead of the invasion of France. Its actions prompted a sharp exchange between Winston Churchill and Simon Wingfield Digby, the Conservative MP for West Dorset. “Is it true, Mr prime minister,” enquired Wingfield Digby, “that there is a body of men out in the Aegean Islands, fighting under the Union Flag, that are nothing short of being a band of murderous, renegade cut-throats?” “If you do not take your seat and keep quiet, I will send you out to join them,” retorted Churchill. One could argue that Churchill was the founding father of Britain’s special forces. It was he, shortly after coming to office in May 1940, who instructed the formation of a commando force to launch a “vigorous, enterprising and ceaseless offensive” against the Axis. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/p…

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Why Belgian agents risked their lives spying for Britain
type: item
date: 2026-01-23T08:00:49.000Z
creator: Spencer Mizen
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: Helen Fry tells the story of the network of Belgian spies who passed secrets to Britain from deep behind German lines – and helped win the world wars
encoded: In the chaotic opening months of the First World War, Britain's intelligence services were desperate to learn where the Germans would attack next. Enter the White Lady. As historian Helen Fry lays out in her new book, this courageous network of Belgian civilians began spying on German troops from behind enemy lines – and, in the process, changed the course of the war. Here, in conversation with Spencer Mizen, Helen tells an extraordinary story of massacres, drug dealing, double-crossing and secret messages encased in potatoes. For more on spycraft in the Second World War, don't miss our interview with Helen Fry on the ingenious British intelligence operation to bug German prisoners during the conflict. Go beyond the podcast

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How tanks redefined warfare
type: item
date: 2026-01-21T08:10:15.000Z
creator: Emily Briffett
subject: First World War
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: Mark Urban chronicles the characters and conflicts that contributed to the dramatic evolution of armoured warfare
encoded: From the mud-churned battlefields of the First World War to the high-stakes clashes of the Cold War, the tank has shaped the course of conflict like no other machine. In this episode, Emily Briffett is joined by Mark Urban, as he reveals the dramatic evolution of armoured warfare through its iconic vehicles – and the engineers, commanders and crews who drove them into the history books.

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The road to the Holocaust
type: item
date: 2026-01-19T08:00:47.000Z
creator: Spencer Mizen
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: Frank McDonough tells the story of the escalating persecution of the Jews under the Nazis – from Hitler's rise to power to the horror of the death camps
encoded: In his latest book, The Hitler Years: Holocaust 1933–1945, Frank McDonough offers a heart-rending year-by-year narrative of the Nazis' escalating persecution of the Jews – from Hitler's rise to power to the death camps. Here, in conversation with Spencer Mizen, Frank describes how a campaign of intimidation on the streets of Germany evolved into genocide.

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The Bengal Famine was one of the 20th century's greatest tragedies – so why is there no memorial to it?
type: item
date: 2026-01-16T15:00:35.000Z
creator: Kavita Puri
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Death
subject: Historical people
subject: Why we should remember
description: Kavita Puri on the first event commemorating the 1943 Bengal Famine
encoded: In a museum in Manchester, on an autumn evening just a few weeks ago, history was made. I joined a group of people who had gathered to pay their respects to casualties of a long-overlooked episode of the Second World War. Curators, students, interested locals and descendants of those involved milled around, drinking chai, looking at pictures in a temporary exhibition. Organisers believe this was the first event to commemorate the estimated 3 million victims of the 1943 Bengal Famine. Those who died were Indians, but they were also British subjects. It’s one of the largest losses of civilian life among the Allies – yet there isn’t a memorial, a museum or even a plaque to them anywhere in the world. So that night – organised by the University of Manchester, Manchester Museum and the Imperial War Museum North, and inspired by my BBC podcast Three Million – marked a very special moment. Read more | The 1943 Bengal famine: "People began collapsing in the streets and dying on the pavements" The exhibition featured portraits of some of the survivors I had interviewed in the Bengal countryside. There was Jamuna Purkayeth, who had travelled to Calcutta (now Kolkata) as a little girl with her father in search of charity. When I spoke to her, she told me that she believed that if she had stayed in her village she would have died of hunger. Also on display were extracts of letters to and from Indian soldiers stationed in the Middle East, censored by colonial authorities for mentioning the extent of the food crisis. Now those letters – uncensored – were presented in a public space. There were also Japanese propaganda pamphlets encouraging the Indian population to rise up against the British. In one cartoon, the wartime prime minister, Winston Churchill, is pictured feasting on a sumptuous roast chicken, while underneath the dining table are emaciated, dead Bengalis. The message is clear: Japan will feed you, but the British won’t. Also on display were evocative photographs of Su…

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Life in the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain
type: item
date: 2026-01-16T08:00:44.000Z
creator: Emily Briffett
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: Aviation historian Dr Victoria Taylor explores the experiences of the Luftwaffe as they faced the perils and pressure of the Battle of Britain
encoded: In the eyes of a German fighter pilot in the skies over English Channel in 1940, the Battle of Britain was as much a struggle of human endurance as it was of strategy and skill. Speaking to Emily Briffett, aviation historian Dr Victoria Taylor takes us inside the mind of the Luftwaffe, revealing the experiences of pilots, ground crews and support personnel as they faced the perils of aerial combat, the brutal pressure of Nazi ideology, and the relentless intensity demanded of them by those in command.

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Emperor Hirohito: life of the week
type: item
date: 2026-01-13T08:00:37.000Z
creator: Rob Attar
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Life of the week (podcast series)
description: Christopher Harding explores the life story of the emperor who reigned over Japan during the Second World War and the decades of postwar transition that followed
encoded: While most of the other surviving Axis leaders were put on trial following the end of the Second World War, Japan's Emperor Hirohito never faced justice and, instead, continued to reign until his death in 1989. Debate continues about how far he was personally responsible for Japanese aggression in the 1930s and 40s, and in today's Life of the Week episode, Dr Christopher Harding guides Rob Attar through those arguments – and explores Hirohito's role in Japan's hugely successful postwar transition.

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Keep calm and carry on singing: why Britons fell in love with opera during World War Two
type: item
date: 2026-01-07T15:00:58.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Historical events
subject: Second World War battles
subject: Soldiers
subject: Wartime Britain
description: As the conflict with Nazi Germany raged on, British tram drivers tuned in to Tchaikovsky and waitresses revelled in Wagner. But why? Alexandra Wilson explores the surprising Second World War obsession with opera
encoded: Glasgow, 1942. The Carl Rosa Opera Company was in town to perform Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Tickets had been snapped up by local people – including many who didn’t really know what an opera was. The soprano Joan Hammond, who sang the title role that night, later recalled that there were always newcomers in the audience wherever the Carl Rosa performed, searching for something different to do – but also for some kind of transcendental escapism. Invariably, they cheered the singers to the rafters. Surprising though it may seem to us today, opera was hugely popular during the Second World War. This was part of a broader surge of interest among the British in the so-called high arts – a sudden and rather urgent desire to ‘become cultured’ and to enjoy the best that life had to offer – when every day might be your last. Guy Ramsey reported in the Daily Mail in 1943 that “every day in every way Britain’s musical and dramatic taste is becoming more and more ‘highbrow’”. Tram drivers were listening to Tchaikovsky, waitresses were revelling in Wagner, and operas were drawing large audiences at provincial theatres. This war, Ramsey wrote, was more personal than any before it, and felt closer to home. Serious times called for serious art, and popular variety shows no longer seemed in step with the national mood. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/01/2X2FXR2webready-9f2accf-e1767623285427.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A black and white photograph shows a man in a cap with round glasses and a cigarette in his mouth sitting on one of many stools outside a theatre. In front of him to the right, a billboard advertises the Sadler's Wells Opera" title="Stools for hire by people queueing for Sadler’s Wells Opera Company performances at the New Theatre, 1943. Tickets started at just 1/6 (about £4 today) (Image by Alamy)" /> Workers’ playtime Opera had already enjoyed reasonably wide popularity in Britain during the interwar years. In Lond…

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