The troops returning home to Germany after the 1918 Armistice found their country riven by internal unrest, and its eastern borders threatened. Though reluctant to support the new Republic, the man...więcej »
From the German occupation of Belgium in May 1940, Flemish recruits from northern Belgium - considered by the Nazis to be 'Germanic' - were accepted individually into Waffen-SS units. From Hitler's...więcej »
As the outbreak of World War II approached, Nazi Germany ordered artillery manufacturers Krupp and Rheimetall-Borsig to build several super-heavy siege guns, vital to smash through French and Belgi...więcej »
A soldier's "web gear” is as important to his ability to live and fight on the battlefield as are his clothing and weapons. In World War II the US Army issued equipment items that had or...więcej »
France's colonial wars in sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia were very largely fought by an organization completely separate from both the home-defence Metropolitan Army and the Arm...więcej »
In the early 1900s, the decaying Ottoman Turkish Empire had lost some of its Balkan territories, but still nominally ruled all of North Africa between British Egypt in the east and French Algeria i...więcej »
The Italian Renaissance marked a period of political and military turmoil. Many regional wars were fought between the states ruled by Milan, Venice, Genoa, Florence, the Papacy, Siena and Naples. F...więcej »
Between 1550-1600, Europe witnessed a rapid evolution in the art of ship design which enabled safer and more efficient transatlantic travel. This was the pinnacle of the Age of Discovery and Explor...więcej »
At the outbreak of World War II, the four key Capital German ships comprised the Bismarck, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Their primary threats where the Royal Navy's King George Vclass b...więcej »
When the revolutionary twin jet-powered Arado Ar 234 first appeared in the skies over north-west Europe in the summer of 1944, it represented the state-of-the-art in terms of aeronautical and techn...więcej »
By the end of the first week of November 1942, the German Sixth Army held about 90 per cent of Stalingrad. Yet the Soviets stubbornly held on to the remaining parts of the city, and German casualti...więcej »
In 1941-44, Nazi Germany's Gebirgsjäger - elite mountain troops - clashed repeatedly with land-based units of the Soviet Navy during the mighty struggle on World War II's Eastern Front. Formed...więcej »
The peace that followed the First Punic War was shallow and fractious, with the resumption of hostilities in 218 BC sparked by Carthaginian expansion in Iberia seeing Rome suffer some of the worst ...więcej »
In August 334 BC, Alexander the Great invaded the Persian Empire and systematically set about its conquest. At the core of Alexander's army were 10,000 members of the phalanx, the phalangites. Arme...więcej »
In 53 BC, Roman and Parthian forces collided in a confrontation that would reshape the geopolitical map and establish a frontier between East and West that would endure for the next 700 years. From...więcej »
During World War II, the US Army and its allies faced a formidable challenge: the need to assault Hitler's ‘Fortress Europe' from the sea. As a result, during 1941-45, the US Army had to add ...więcej »
In a bid to recapture territory conceded following the Winter War of 1939-40, Finnish forces cooperated with Nazi Germany and other Axis powers during the invasion of the Soviet Union i...więcej »
The Nazi invasion of Poland in September 1939 saw mostly untested German troops face equally inexperienced Polish forces. With the Polish senior leadership endeavouring to hold the coun...więcej »
Equipped with the largest guns and heaviest armour and with the greatest displacement of any ship ever built, the Yamato proved to be a formidable opponent to the US Pacific Fleet in th...więcej »
The Bismarck is perhaps the most famous - and notorious - warship ever built. Completed in 1941, the 45,000-ton German battleship sank HMS Hood, the pride of the British Navy, during one of the mos...więcej »