The History Network

Marlborough, following his victory at Blenheim in August of 1704, attempted to exploit the situation even further by campaigning in the Moselle Valley. Due to the lack of political will of his Dutch Allies together with a shortage of supplies and the...

The bombing of and the battle for Caen was just part of the overall bombing of and battle for normandy. The bombing of Normandy devastated and flattened many Normandy towns and cities and resulted in thousands of ‘friendly civilian...

In March of 1943 the 79th Armoured Division was due to be disbanded. A manpower shortage called for the bulk of the force to be redeployed, to make up shortfalls in other units. But the disastrous raid on Dieppe the previous year had proved that any...

Angus Wallace (from the History Network) is joined by Josho, Lindsay and Mark McCaffery to look at . The Reluctant Warlord: The Wars of Marcus Aurelius. "With Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Empire was for the first time ruled by two emperors,...

D-Day the invasion of Europe was to take place at low tide, this minimised the risk of landing craft hitting mines and other submerged obstacles. But this created problems for the troops being landed. It was going to be a long dash over a sandy beach...

Column, Line or Square is a very simplistic way to view Napoleonic era tactics. Troops were either deployed in Column to march, Line to fight or in the case of the infantry Square to defend against Cavalry. Sounds simple. But these were tactics drawn...

The Battle of Arras was in fact a series of Battles in April/May 1917, including Vimy Ridge, which has gone down in history as being an allied victory, but which in reality saw little gain in terms of allied advance and huge casualty figures on both...

The clang of gongs hung in the heavy air of an August day, 1860. Waving their yellow flags, the rebels in their red turbans and colourful garb marched closer and closer to Shanghai – until artillery erupted from the city walls and sent them...

In looking back through history, it is kings, queens, politicians and generals who steal the limelight. Those people who actually "do" the bidding are often much less well known. How many people are familiar with Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban,...

It had been largely accepted that "Charles the Sufferer", the feeble and sickly King of Spain, would die without an heir. The nearest claimants to the Spanish Crown were the king's cousins; the Bourbon King of France, Louis XIV, and the Austrian...