Second World War battles

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Welcome home: the cruiser 'Exeter' arrives back at Plymouth, c15 February 1940, after taking part in the battle of the River Plate. The action resulted in the scuttling of the German pocket battleship 'Admiral Graf Spee', which had sent several British merchant ships to the bottom of the Atlantic. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Battle of the Atlantic: the “desperate” WW2 campaign featured in Tom Hanks film Greyhound

Members of 617 squadron, known as the Dambusters

Second World War

How successful was the Dambusters raid?

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US Army 7th Division's tanks equipped with flame throwers climbing a ridge on Okinawa. (Photo by W. Eugene Smith/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images)

Okinawa: the battle and the bomb . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Female aviators Dorothy Spicer and Pauline Gower in a bungalow in Reading, 9 September 1931. Gower later became an officer of the Air Transport Auxiliary's No 5 Ferry Pilots Pool. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

When women flew Spitfires

German prisoners of war

What would you have done? 6 terrible choices people had to make during the Second World War

A young American woman gazes at a human skull, sent to her by a boyfriend during WW2

Opinion: Midway’s treatment of the Japanese enemy highlights the power and limits of empathy

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The American aircraft carrier USS Yorktown is being bombed in the Battle of Midway, June 1942. (Photo by Corbis via Getty Images)

Midway: the Pacific War on screen . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Soldiers at the battle of Arnhem

Second World War

9 things you (probably) didn’t know about the battle of Arnhem

The wrecked remains of an Allied glider that participated in Market Garden

Second World War

Why Operation Market Garden, the Allies’ battle for Arnhem, was a disaster in the planning

The Pearl Harbour attack

Second World War

The 11 most significant battles of WW2

Soldiers standing on the western front during WW2

Second World War

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Second World War

US soldiers in Vietnam

From the Napoleonic Wars to Vietnam and Iraq: a history of war trauma

US infantrymen in snowdrifts

Second World War

Q&A Why is Hitler’s Ardennes campaign called the battle of the Bulge?

Dornier 217 bombers of the Luftwaffe bomb London during the Battle of Britain.

9 of the most overrated battles in history (and one underrated one)

An illustration of the battle of Agincourt. By attacking over unsuitable ground, Charles d’Albret “doomed his army”, says Rupert Matthews. (Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The top 10 military blunders in history