All articles in Military
23rd October, 2017 in Military
El Alamein 1942: Its place in history
El Alamein 1942 was heralded as a great victory for the Allied forces in the Second World War and marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign. It also saw two of the greatest generals of the war pitted against one another: ‘Desert Fox’ Erwin Rommel and ‘Spartan Ge…
10th October, 2017 in Aviation, Military
The captured RAF Chaplain-in-Chief’s cross
Many of the objects included in The RAF in 100 Objects offer poignant reminders of extremely difficult times in remote places far away from home. One such object that shows courage under adversity is a standing metal cross that once belonged to The Venerable (Air Vice-Marshal) Al…
9th October, 2017 in Aviation, Military
Early aerial warfare: Darfur 1916
Dramatic images on news broadcasts of stealth jets striking targets in the world’s trouble spots with radar-guided bombs are the epitome of modern technological warfare. But such methods can be traced back to a far less sophisticated beginning on a spring day in 1916 when a 19-ye…
4th October, 2017 in Aviation, Biography & Memoir, Military
A view from the RAF front line during the Cold War
I was a 20-year old pilot when I arrived on No 16 Squadron, based at RAF Laarbruch in what was then West Germany. It was May 1964 and I was joining an operational RAF squadron whose primary role was to fly at low level, by day and night, to deliver tactical nuclear bombs to…
3rd October, 2017 in Military
Flying for the RAF: Bizarre incidents
When writing Tales of Lancasters and Other Aircraft: Dangerous Skies in World War Two, I recorded some unusual incidents when I was navigating first a Wellington and then a Lancaster. I also learned of the remarkable experiences of scores of other aircrew members: pilots, navigat…
8th September, 2017 in Military
Executions for desertion in World War I
The 302 British and Commonwealth soldiers executed for military offences committed while on active service on the Western Front cast a long shadow and their cases remain controversial to this day. As shocking as that figure might be, it represents only 10 per cent of the 3,076 se…
27th July, 2017 in Military, Women in History
Kate Luard and the Third Battle of Ypres
Kate Luard, a fully trained military nurse, was already a war veteran when she arrived in France in 1914, having served in the Second Boer War. She worked on the ambulance trains and a field ambulance for the first year, and in July 1917 was in charge of the most important A…
20th July, 2017 in Military
The Third Battle of Ypres in photos
Stunning, poignant and incredibly moving photographs of Passchendaele, and some of the battles before and during, drives home the experiences of those men that risked – and gave – life and limb. The lead-up In 1914, as war crept across the Flanders landscape, few people in Y…
18th July, 2017 in Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
Was Mata Hari condemned because of her sexuality?
Mata Hari was a Dutch fantasist, an exotic dancer and a grand courtesan. She was shot on 15 October 1917 as a German spy but what was the basis of the case against her? She had once stated, ‘I loved men: a strongly built male brought me to a state of ecstasy.’ And that was the tr…
19th June, 2017 in Military
The first Victoria Cross hero
The first act of bravery ever to be rewarded with the Victoria Cross was by Irishman Charles Davis Lucas during the Crimean War. Lucas, who was born in Poynntzpass, County Armagh, had enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1848 at the age of 13, served aboard HMS Vengeance, HMS Vanguard…
12th June, 2017 in Aviation, Military, Women in History
‘Doing their bit’: The female fighter pilots of World War II
No, they told me again and again, there was nothing special about them. They were just ‘doing their bit’ for their country. Modest to a fault, these women faced danger, sudden death, serious injury or bereavement on an almost daily basis. Yet there was nothing, they insisted, rem…
9th June, 2017 in Local & Family History, Military, Women in History
The heroine of Operation Basalt
The record of people who lived under German Nazi occupation is a mixed one. Some resisted, some collaborated. This was true both on the continent and in the one part of Britain which fell under Hitler’s rule, the Channel Islands. On the tiny island of Sark, on the night of…