The Kaiser’s secret weapons
From ‘Big Bertha’ to exploding motor boats, Germany’s military engineers were the source of much innovation during the First World War, as David Porter explains.
military innovation
Life blood: Britain’s war-winning medical innovation.
One of the greatest contributions to Britain’s WWII success was made not by frontline troops, but by the transfusion pioneers who supported them on the battlefield. John Beales reports.
Mitchell: Father of the Spitfire
REVIEW BY GRAHAM GOODLAD The Supermarine Spitfire has received more attention in print than almost any other aircraft in history, but relatively little has been written about the life of its designer, R J Mitchell. His son, the late Gordon…
Second World War catapult found in Oxfordshire
Work by MOLA in advance of the development of a Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire has uncovered the remains of an experimental catapult from the Second World War. Known from historical records, the catapult in question was called…
The Western Front
In this authoritative new history, WWI historian Nick Lloyd goes against the widespread myth of the war of 1914-1918 as one of stupidity and pointlessness. Amid the mud and mire of the trenches, he argues, there was extensive innovation and…
‘Vile guns’: how artillery ended the Hundred Years’ War
Fred Chiaventone analyses the role of artillery at the Battles of Formigny and Castillon – battles that turned the tables on the victors of Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt.