In the summer of 1914, the Great Powers of Europe plunged into the first of two calamitous world wars. This year, as part of the efforts to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Great War, the National Archives of the United Kingdom, the Imperial War Museum and Zooniverse have teamed up for Operation War Diary. The goal of this online archival project is to open up greater access to records of the Great War for historians and the general public.
Launched earlier this year, Operation War Diary provides a unique opportunity for historians, archivists and
This week marks the 100th Anniversary of the First Battle of the Aisne, a pivotal battle which marked a major transformation in the nature of fighting on the Western Front during the First World War. Among the many German, French and British units that fought on the Aisne River was the 1st Battalion / Royal Highlanders.
After the outbreak of war, German armies swept through Belgium and across the French frontier in accordance with a plan commonly named for Field Marshall Alfred von Schlieffen, former Chief of the Imperial German Staff.
A slew of new pictures of the often forgotten dark side of the Dunkirk rescue operation, taken by a German soldier after the battle, provide chilling evidence of the scope of the disaster suffered by Allied forces following the German invasion of Western Europe in May, 1940.
Within ten day of the German invasion, tanks from the 2nd Panzer Division had crossed the Somme River and reached the English Channel at Abbeville, completing the encirclement of approximately 1.7 million British, French, Dutch, and Belgian soldiers in an enormous pocket 120 miles long and 72 miles wide.