All articles in Military
1st May, 2018 in Local & Family History, Military
Liverpool during the First World War
In 1914, Liverpool was an attractive and prosperous place. It has been said that there are more Georgian buildings, terraces and squares in Liverpool than exist in Bath. Liverpool’s population in 1700 was about 6000; by 1800, it was nearly 80,000. By the beginning of the twentiet…
30th April, 2018 in Military
Operation Mincemeat: The Man Who Never Was
On 30 April 1943, at half-past four in the morning, the dead body of a man in his early thirties was slipped overboard from His Majesty’s Submarine Seraph, 1,600 yards off the south-west coast of Spain. Picked up a few hours later by a fisherman, it was easily identified by the l…
19th April, 2018 in Military, Society & Culture
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 1943
Seventy-five years ago on Thursday 19 April 1943, in a stand that would become the largest single act of Jewish resistance against the German army during World War II, starving Jews trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto mounted a rebellion against the Nazis. Although ultimately…
28th March, 2018 in Aviation, History, Military
The RAF and Imperial War Museums
As the centenary of the First World War came to an end in 2018, it was also the centenary of the RAF. Founded in 1918, the Royal Air Force has a remarkable place within the collections and history of Imperial War Museums (IWM). IWM Duxford, formerly RAF Duxford, was an early RAF…
15th March, 2018 in Military
Winchelsea at war
Picturesque Winchelsea, which claims to be the smallest town in England, sits on top of a hill overlooking marshes near Rye, East Sussex. It is the epitome of tranquillity, bypassed by the main road and, it seems, by centuries. But it has claim, leaving aside the World War Two bl…
8th March, 2018 in Aviation, Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
Stella Rutter: Spitfire draughtswoman and D-Day secret keeper
Stella Rutter was the only female draughtswoman working at the Vickers-Supermarine Aircraft Company during World War II. Her artistic and creative talents led to a very interesting career and some unique wartime experiences in what was a very male-dominated environment and line o…
5th February, 2018 in History, Military, Women in History
Women’s war work and 1918’s Representation of the People Act
By the end of World War I about one million more women were at work than had been in the summer of 1914. Most of them had taken jobs previously done by men who were in the armed forces. The large number of working-class women was nothing new; such women had always gone out to wor…
2nd February, 2018 in Military
Hitler’s defeat at Stalingrad
The battle of Stalingrad, fought between Stalin’s Red Army and Hitler’s forces from 23 August 1942 to 2 February 1943, is considered one of the major confrontations of World War II. The failure of intelligence officers on both sides to influence their leadership, combined with Hi…
30th January, 2018 in Military
The Vietnam War: Tet Offensive
By the end of January 1968 the American people thought their armed forces were winning in South Vietnam after three years of escalating conflict. Then the North Vietnamese People’s Army of Vietnam (NVA) and Viet Cong struck back against the forces of the South Vietnamese Army of…
14th November, 2017 in Military
Combined arms warfare at Cambrai
‘The first time tanks were massed together for an attack occurred on 20th November 1917 during the Battle of Cambrai.’ This often-used statement has been the focus of many accounts of that battle. What is normally not discussed are the advances in technology and tactics on both s…
10th November, 2017 in Military, Society & Culture
The poppy as a symbol of remembrance
The remembrance poppy has become the defining symbol of reverence for the millions of soldiers who lost their lives in conflict. In the present day the ‘poppy appeal’, organised by The Royal British Legion, takes place in the weeks leading up to Remembrance Sunday, which occurs o…
30th October, 2017 in Biography & Memoir, Military
Who were the real Enigma heroes?
On 30 October 1942, two Royal Navy men serving on HMS Petard drowned whilst capturing codebooks from a German U-boat. A teenager, who helped them, tragically died two years later. Able Seaman Colin Grazier, from Tamworth in Staffordshire, was 22 and had been married for just two…