WWII Stories

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 […]

Britain avoided a direct Nazi invasion in the course of the Second World War. The country was certainly dreadfully impacted upon. The Blitz saw an intensive aerial bombardment of the country by Germany between the autumn of 1940 and the summer of 1941, while intermittent bombings and rocket strikes continued through to 1945. Similarly the […]

During the course of the Second World War there were many attempts to assassinate both the head of the German Reich, Adolf Hitler, and several other leading members of the Nazi regime. For instance, at least three different assassination attempts were planned for when the German chancellor visited Poland in March 1943. Most famously, a […]

The Pacific War is remarkable as a theatre of the Second World War in which almost none of the fighting occurred on the sovereign territory of the two main actors, the Empire of Japan and the United States of America. Most of the fighting actually took place in regions such as Midway Island, Guam, the […]

Of all the fronts in the Second World War that in North Africa was the most evenly contested between the Allies and the Axis Powers in the early years of the Second World War. Where Germany had quickly overrun Poland in 1939 and then Denmark, Norway, the Low Countries and France in 1940, the war […]

Many people are familiar with the attempt which was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler by a cohort of German army officers led by Claus von Stauffenberg on the 20th of July 1944. The plan, if successful, would have led to a coup d’état, whereby the army would have seized power from the Nazis and endeavoured […]

A great many raids were carried out by British forces during the course of the Second World War, all across Europe and wider afield. However, one of these raids has a claim to being the most successful British commando raid ever undertaken during the whole war. This was Operation Claymore, struck against German naval and […]