Air forces and warfare

On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland.

1945 was the meeting point of two eras.

1944 saw the largest seaborne invasion ever staged in Operation Overlord.

1943 saw the Allies on the offensive, with victories in North Africa followed by the invasion of Sicily and landings in Italy establishing a foothold on mainland Europe, while on the Eastern Front the Red Army was making gains, and in the Pacific the Japanese-held islands were falling.

1918 was the fifth and final year of the Great War.

1942 was the turning point of the war.

1917, the fourth year of the Great War, saw another year in the trenches for millions of troops mobilised in Europe.

1941 At the beginning of the year, Britain stood alone against Germany and Italy.

1940 As the period of the 'Phoney War' came to an end, the Nazis unleashed their Blitzkrieg tactics, which saw the rapid mobility of the ground forces closely supported by superior air power.

1915, the second year of the Great War, was to see the failure of the Dardanelles landings and the sinking of the Lusitania, shown below, with the loss of 1,198 people, as well as the first bombing of mainland Britain by Zeppelin and the entry of Italy into the war.

Alexander Korda's 1936 film The Shape of Things to Come predicted the nightmare of aerial bombing against London.

Seventy-five years ago, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland.

Though less iconic than the nimble Spitfire, the Hawker Hurricane was a vital stalwart in the British war effort.

During the First World War, Norfolk was very much on the front line.

He had one of the more unglamorous jobs in the Second World War, but self-taught violinist George Warner's letters home from the North African and Italian campaigns - in which he served as a dispatch rider for the Royal Army Service Corps - provide an enthralling, humane account of Europe's darkest years.

From day one of the Second World War to the last, fighter pilots from Derbyshire were active.

During the first four years of the Second World War, Churchill and his military advisers were constantly concerned with the defence and sustenance of Malta.

The Russian civil war was one of the major events of the last century, leading to the establishment of the Soviet Union.

At the dawn of the information age, the First World War produced blizzards of information, contained in countless official reports.

At the start of the First World War, little thought had been given to how aircraft would play a part in the conflict.

At 07:30 on 1 July 1916, the men of the 15th Battalion, The Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment), better known as the Leeds Pals, left their positions in a series of copses named after the Gospels and advanced towards the village of Serre, near Bapaume, in the Somme Valley, only to be met by heavy German machine gun fire, suffering over 500 casualties in a few minutes.

'One of the saddest and yet most thrilling sights to me was to see parties of those young fellows who had just volunteered being marched from the recruiting office - perhaps 30, 50 or 100 of them - in all sorts of dress - top hats, caps, soft hats, morning coats, jackets - shabby men and 'nuts', labourers, clerks, partners in great city businesses, hooligans - all mixed up, marching side by side, all having made the great decision, ready to lay down their lives for their country .

On 4 August 1914 the people of Preston received news that war had been declared.

Barnes Wallis was the most famous inventor and designer of the Second World War.

When war broke out against Germany in 1914, Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan was one of the most diverse and eclectic areas of W ales.

Guy Gibson's 617 Squadron was founded for one reason only - Operation Chastise - the raid on the Ruhr dams.

In 1939, at the age of nine Geoffrey Lee Williams and his twin brother Alan felt ready for the war but were not ready for its consequences.

Portobello grew from a settlement founded around 1750 on the Figgate Whins, a desolate area of scrubland 3 miles east of Edinburgh.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Guy Burgess, an officer in Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, convinced his superiors that a special school be opened to teach sabotage.

Molly's touching account of life in Guernsey during the German Occupation brings events of the Second World War to life through the eyes of a young child.

Here is the story of the part played in the final eleven months of the Second World War in Europe by the 'Poor Bloody Infantry', told in their own words.

Two weeks before Dunkirk, Anthony Eden, Minister of War, announced to the nation on BBC radio his concept of a Local Defence Volunteer force.

The story of Nazi Germany's most successful commerce raider of World War Two, sinking over 160,000 tons of Allied shipping.

IN DECEMBER 1940, as the coldest winter in living memory fastened its grip on war-torn France, the Nazi conquerors rounded up nearly 5,000 people, mostly women and children, and sent them to an internment camp.

Spitfire and Hurricane fighter pilots recount their experiences of combat during the Battle of Britain.

Used most famously in December 1942, when a small group of ten men in five canoes were dropped off by submarine 80 miles from the inland port of Bordeaux.

Designed by illusionist Jasper Maskelyne, RAF Tempsford was constructed to give overflying enemy aircraft the impression it was disused.

This is the definitive account of a mission thought to be an impossible one.

The inside story of one of the most famous of all the 'back rooms' of the Second World War - and of the men and women who worked for it.

This is the Battle of Britain memoir of Roger Hall, a 152 Squadron Spitfire pilot based in southern England, the heart of the fighting during the epic battle.

The Battle of Britain started on 10 July 1940, ending 16 weeks later on 31 October 1940.

Although there were many more Hawker Hurricanes than Supermarine Spitfires engaged in the epic conflict fought over southern England in the summer of 1940, the public's imagination was captured by the shapely and charismatic Spitfire.

The Imperial War Museum site at Duxford is rightly recognised as the premier aviation museum in Europe, hosting exciting air shows and where the evocative sight and sound of an airborne Spitfire can be experienced most days.

The remarkable Battle of Britain experiences of Spitfire pilot Brian Lane, DFC.

It was not long before midnight on 17 May 1943 when the inhabitants of Gunne, the German village close to the Mohne Dam, heard the airraid warnings.

The epic battle in Egypt between Britain's 'Desert Rats' and the Axis forces led by Rommel, the 'Desert Fox'.

Written by 43 Squadron's intelligence officer, Hector Bolitho, Finest of the Few is full of John's first-hand accounts of his combat missions against German Me 109s, Heinkel 111s and Dorniers.

Johnnie Johnson is a character literally straight out of the pages of ' Boys Own'.

This is the Second World War career of the longest serving double agent in the Double Cross system, Harry Williamson.

Asked why he was in Britain, a US serviceman, fighting the war in the skies over Germany with the US 8th Air Force quipped, 'We're here to win the war for you'.