David Heffernan

There are many amazing survival stories associated with the Second World War. For instance, in 1942 a Japanese fighter pilot called Saburo Sakai was shot through the head. He was blinded in his right eye and the damage of other bullet wounds which he sustained left him paralyzed in the entire left-hand side of his […]

Operation Chastise (May 16th – 17th, 1943) By 1943 it had become clear that Germany and its allies were almost certainly set to lose the Second World War in Europe, as the Russians continued to push the Wehrmacht back westwards and the Allies contemplated opening new fronts in the south and west of the continent. […]

Operation Frankton (December 7th – 12th, 1942) Many raids were carried out by British commandos against Nazi-occupied Europe during the course of the Second World War. From western France all the way north to the fjords of Norway these took in a vast swathe of territory and were carried out in many different ways. Some […]

Opening a Southern Front: Operation Husky and the Allied Invasion of Sicily (9 July – 17 August 1943) Generally speaking if we hear mention of the Allies invading Nazi-occupied Europe during the Second World War we conjure up images in our heads of the June 6th, 1944 when several hundred thousand Allied troops landed on […]

When looking back at the Second World War perhaps one of the most unusual aspects of the entire conflict is the speed and seeming ease with which Nazi Germany overran and conquered the Low Countries and France in just a six week period in the summer of 1940. After all the Allied forces of Britain […]

The Norway Heavy Water Raids, 1940–1944 What would have happened if the Nazis had acquired the capacity to develop a nuclear bomb during the Second World War? It is a troubling thought. Perhaps they might have shown some restraint in utilizing it in the early stages of the war. After all, even the Nazis would […]