british military history

WWII Spies: Oreste Pinto

By Robert Whiter

Two men were seated on either side of a paper-strewn table inside an office of MI5, the British intelligence service, in the Royal Victoria Patriotic School at Clapham, London, shortly after the fall of France in the spring of 1940. Read more

Advancing across the Italian countryside in the summer of 1944, a Churchill tank of B Squadron, 51st Royal Tank Regiment crashes through brush and undergrowth. The Churchill became the basis for a number of innovative armor designs with specialized functions.

british military history

Ordnance: The British Churchill Tank

By Christopher Miskimon

­­The German town of Goch lay east of the Reichswald forest, a scene of heavy fighting for the British Army as it ground its way steadily into the heart of Germany. Read more

American soldiers man an artillery post on the south end of San Juan Island. A dispute over the boundary between Washington Territory and British Columbia almost led to an armed conflict between the United States and Great Britain in 1859.

british military history

James Douglas’ Audacious Plans after the Trent Affair

By William Silvester

On November 8, 1861, two distinguished diplomats from the newly established Confederate States of America were arrested and removed from the British mail steamer Trent by the American ship San Jacinto in the Bahama Channel near Havana, Cuba. Read more

English battleships erupt in flames as their big guns answer German bombardment in the opening moments of the Battle of Jutland.

british military history

Trafalgar in Reverse: The Battle of Jutland

By James Dunn

In the spring of 1916, as the result of intense international pressure, Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer called in all his submarines after Germany announced an end to unrestricted underwater attacks on transatlantic merchant ships. Read more

Surrounded by the inflamed Muslim warriors of the self-proclaimed Mahdi, British General William Hicks makes a hopeless stand in Shaykan forest outside El Obeid.

british military history

Famous Soldiers: Indian Army Veteran William Hicks

By Robert Barr Smith

The year 1883 was one of horror for the people of northern Africa. Grim tidings made their way down the Nile from the benighted wastes of the Sudan, ghastly tales of rebellion and massacre in the holy name of God. Read more

british military history

“I Order You To Die”

By Victor J. Kamenir

In the English-speaking world, most students of military history would be hard-pressed to identify the time, place, or antagonists of the Canakkale Campaign. Read more

Preparing for an invasion by the Japanese, Indian troops, which comprised a large number of the British Commonwealth forces in Burma, march past a pagoda toward defensive positions. (Imperial War Museum)

british military history

The 17th Indian Division in Burma: Disaster on the Sittang

By Marc D. Bernstein

The Japanese looked unstoppable. Two divisions of the 15th Army had crossed from Thailand into Burma in mid-January 1942, bent on capturing Rangoon before the British could land reinforcements and block the seizing of the Burma Road. Read more

A group of Greek partisans searches for remiaining Nazis in a Greek town.

british military history

The Greek Civil War: World War II’s Epilogue in the Mediterranean

By Jon Latimer

As 1944 drew to a close, the British in Greece found themselves in a parlous situation. They had agreed to support the restoration of Greek civil authority while overseeing the distribution of aid and the re-creation of armed forces to ensure internal security, all while commitments elsewhere were straining them almost to the breaking point. Read more

British commandos march through the ruins of the French town of Caen. An objective of the Allied D-Day landings that was supposed to have been captured on June 6, stiff German resistance prevented the city from being liberated until a month later.

british military history

Fleming, Ian Fleming

By Hervie Haufler

Some accounts of Ian Fleming’s life make it seem that only at the age of 44, as an antidote to the shock of finally agreeing to get married, did he suddenly commit himself to the unplanned task of creating his James Bond novels. Read more