European Theater

A fully illustrated study of how the US-led half of the Normandy invasion fleet was composed, commanded, and how it fought, from D-Day until the fall of Cherbourg. The D-Day landings and their aftermath were among the most complex and important naval...

During the Second World War, it is hard to imagine a situation where the British High Command could think that one of the only ways they could attack Hitler was to send ten canoeists with limpet mines to paddle one hundred miles up the Gironde estuary,...

Britain’s first-ever wartime fighter plane, the Hawker Hurricane, shot down more enemy planes than any other fighter. It was the true aviation hero of the Battle of Britain.Often eclipsed by the legend and aerial heroics of the Spitfire, the Hurricane...

Alone, unprepared and weak. These are generally the words used to describe Britain's position in 1940, part of a narrative that has been built up ever since the end of World War II. However, the reality is very different. On land, sea and in the air,...

Pat Hughes is today perhaps the greatest unsung hero of the Battle of Britain. Ranked sixth in the ‘ace of aces’ of the aerial campaign of summer 1940, he shot down at least fourteen enemy aircraft, mostly the Spitfire’s closely matched rival the...

In preparation for the liberation of the northern part of the Netherlands, Operation Amherst was launched on the night of 7 to 8 April 1945. This last airborne operation of the Second World War was carried out by 702 French (SAS) paratroopers. The...

Of the 177 enlisted men who formed Company B in 1941, less than 7% percent were still with the unit in May 1945. Many of the absent 93% died hard, brutal deaths in combat.  In the mold of the classic Band of Brothers, Col. French MacLean presents a...

Lousi Hagen, as a young German Jew in 1934, aged only 17, was sent to a Nazi concentration camp, betrayed for an off-hand joke by a Nazi-sympathising family maid. His time there was mercifully cut short when he was released to his school friend’s father,...

In May 1938 a confidential meeting was held between Officers of the Royal Hospital Chelsea and Government Departments responsible for Civil Defence planning. All participants agreed that should war come, the 500 Chelsea Pensioners living in the Royal...

From training for the operation to the evacuations after D-Day, this is the story of the Glider Pilot Regiment's role in the first stage of the airborne assault in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944. Operation Tonga was vital to the success of D-Day...