The charge of the light, battle illustration

Military history

A Chinese tank nears the city of Lang Son in Vietnam, 1979 and (right) Chinese and Vietnamese ministers meet for talks, 1991. Rana Mitter highlights the role of diplomacy in bringing war between Vietnam and China to an end.

Historians debate: how do intractable conflicts come to an end?

The Iranian embassy siege: an SAS hostage drama in London

The 1943 battle of Kursk – and its present-day echoes

Portrait of Oliver Cromwell

The Western Design: Oliver Cromwell's disastrous campaign in the Caribbean

Video podcastThe Battle of Megiddo: ancient Egypt's greatest victory?

Women of the Greco-Persian Wars

Crusader criminals: how the Holy Land became a hotbed of lawlessness

German tank at the battle of Kursk, 1943. (Photo by Roger Viollet via Getty Images)

Second World War

The 1943 battle of Kursk: was it the biggest tank battle in history?

Henry Cavill as Gus March-Phillipps in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Second World War

Is The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare based on a true story? The audacious real history of Operation Postmaster

Soldiers of the English infantry in France, running out of their trenches at the signal to assault.

The ultimate First World War quiz

A silhouette of troops of the 1st Australian Division during the First World War.

First World War

QuizHow much do you know about WW1?

Anne Frank: life of the week

The West Africa Squadron: Britain's war on slave ships

Dismemberment & disgrace: the grisly fate of Simon de Montfort

Has imperial history become too politicised?

Second World War

Airborne assault: the spearhead of the D-Day invasion

Video podcastBritish Redcoats: everything you wanted to know

King Robert I of Scotland statue at Stirling Castle.

The man, the myth, the murderer: how Robert the Bruce slaughtered his way to the throne

William III of England at the Battle of the Boyne

The battle of the Boyne: what happened at the July 1690 clash and why is it commemorated on ‘the Twelfth’?

The Normandy campaign's forgotten naval heroes

How the Dreyfus Affair tore France apart

A depiction of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence. John Adams, Roger Sherman Robert R Livingston, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.

Your guide to the 1776 American Declaration of Independence

How Stalin ran rings round the west

A 21st-century Holocaust trial

A portrait of Kublai Khan

Kublai Khan: the Mongol ruler who conquered China

A German soldier seeks cover from the Soviet artillery fire in a field. In the background, smoke rises from the hitting grenades. (Photo by Alamy)

Operation Bagration 1944: the perfect victory on the Eastern Front

What if Hitler hadn't sent the Wehrmacht into the Soviet Union?

Has WW2 become a national religion?

War, peace & cherry trees: finding hope after WW2

Churchill's evolving perspective on D-Day