War on Film – Number 24
Taylor Downing reviews the latest film releases.
invasion
D-Day: Before the storm
The decisive victory of World War II in Western Europe took place 80 years ago this summer. On 6 June 1944, after months of planning, around 150,000 men from five divisions – two American, two British, and one Canadian —…
Hitler’s Airborne Elite and the Battle for Crete
Neil Faulkner introduces an elite Nazi strike-force and sets the scene for the epic Battle of Crete in May 1941.
This week: Fortresses and invasions
Those with even a cursory knowledge of ancient history will recall that Julius Caesar made his first expedition to Britain in 55 BC. Others may also be aware that the process of Rome's permanent conquest of Britannia did not begin until 43 AD, during the reign of Emperor Claudius. What is more mysterious, however, is what happened to Rome's invasion plans in the almost 100 years between those two dates.
This week: Operation Barbarossa
Eighty years ago next month, on 22 June 1941, Adolf Hitler unleashed the largest military invasion force in history, when he ordered almost 3,700,000 Axis troops with 3,000 tanks, 7,000 guns and 2,300 aircraft to advance into the Soviet Union along a front that extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Less than six months later, following startling early successes, leading German units would reach almost to the gates of Moscow, before plummeting temperatures and the onset of the Russian winter finally brought their advance to a halt.
Fishguard, February 1797: the last French invasion of Britain
Patrick Mercer begins an occasional series looking at some of history’s less well-known battles.
Barbarossa and the Bloodiest War in History
On a fateful Sunday in late June 1941, millions of German soldiers poured into the Soviet Union, beginning Operation Barbarossa: the Nazis’ war of annihilation in the East. Stewart Binns here explores the struggle of the Russian army to defend…