The charge of the light, battle illustration

Military history

Oppenheimer: “destroyer of worlds”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The city of Hiroshima, Japan, a few days after the first atom bomb is dropped in August 1945. This clearly demonstrated the apocalyptic potential of the new weapon (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

Second World War

The Manhattan Project: your guide to the building of the first atomic bomb

Napoleon Bonaparte depicted as emperor of France in c1804. By now he had his sights set on establishing a dynasty (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

How Napoleon (almost) destroyed the French Revolution. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Margaret of Anjou, seated besides King Henry VI of England, is presented a book in a contemporary illumination (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty)

Margaret of Anjou: the 'she-wolf' queen who wouldn’t go quietly. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Franco-Prussian war: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration of Spartacus, the escaped gladiator who became a leader in the Third Servile War, and his comrades using vines to abseil down the slopes of Mount Vesuvius in preparation of a surprise attack.

The Servile Wars: Spartacus & the rebellions that threatened the Roman Republic

Japanese soldiers and sailors disembark at Vladivostok, 22 August 1918. Of all the foreign interventions into the Russian civil war, the one from Japan was by far the largest, growing to 70,000 troops. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Britain’s Russian fiasco: Allied intervention in the Russian civil war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Mathematician and Bletchley Park codebreaker Alan Turing played a key role in deciphering the Enigma code (Photo by Science History Images / Alamy Stock Photo)

What if...The Enigma code had not been cracked by Alan Turing and Bletchley Park?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Picture depicting the Battle of Worcester

The battle of Worcester: Cromwell’s last battle. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Roundheads and Cavaliers: where did the Civil War nicknames come from?

Painting depicting the Battle of Naseby

The battle of Naseby: what happened?

A 19th-century painting of Queen Henrietta Maria fleeing England as the Civil Wars turn against Charles I (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

From the home front to the front line: what were the roles of women in the Civil War?

In a 19th-century painting by Charles Landseer, Oliver Cromwell reads Charles I’s explosive correspondence captured at Naseby. It revealed the king was conspiring to gain Catholic support for his cause (Photo by ART Collection/Alamy Stock Photo)

10 key battles of the Civil War

A painting of the battle of Naseby

The New Model Army: how Oliver Cromwell’s radical fighting force won the Civil War

Fight like a man? Masculinity in WW2. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Members of the Sealed Knot stage a re-enactment of the battle of Nantwich, fought during the Civil Wars in 1644 (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)

Crown v Parliament: your guide to the Civil War of the 17th century. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, fleeing from battle after attempting to unseat his Catholic uncle, King James II and VII, from the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland (Photo by De Luan/Alamy Stock Photo)

The Monmouth Rebellion of 1685: your guide to the a duke's failed bid to overthrow his uncle, James II and VI

Allied troops hide from enemy shelling during the battle of Caen. The town was finally captured after several weeks of intensive fighting. The white markings on their shoulders were later added to the photograph by a censor to hide the name of the battalion. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch/Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images)

The battle for Normandy: what happened after D-Day?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Volunteers in the recently established SAS jump from a gantry during parachute training in Kabrit, Egypt, November 1941

The original rogue heroes of the SAS. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British Army tanks are unloaded on to Gold Beach on D-Day

D-Day quizTest your knowledge of the Normandy Landings. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A joint British-Jewish patrol in Palestine during the 1936–39 Arab Revolt (Photo by Bridgeman Images)

How Britain stirred the cauldron of conflict in Palestine. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Paris became a charnel house during the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre, as shown in this painting by François Dubois (Photo By DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini via Getty Images)

General Early Modern

Catholics vs HuguenotsYour guide to the French Wars of Religion

A uniformed US soldier plants American flags at gravesites on Memorial Day

Memorial DayA brief history

Illustration by Laurie Avon

Medieval warfare: five deceptive ways to win a battle. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A formal portrait of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig on horseback at Poperinghe. Haig was Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front, 1915 - 1918, 12 September 1917.

First World War

10 WW1 generals you should know about

Illustration of King Richard I, on horseback, in the Holy Land, by Henry Justice Ford (Photo by The History Emporium / Alamy Stock Photo)

What if...Richard the Lionheart had recaptured Jerusalem?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Picture of Throrolf slaying Earl Hring

The battle of Brunanburh: the forgotten fight that changed British history

WW2 the big questions: the early years of the conflict. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Life in the trenches: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Nuclear apocalypse in Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.