Military forces and sectors

On the morning of the 16th December 1914, elements of the Imperial German Navy's High Sea Fleet shelled three east coast towns.

The Port of Southampton saw many changes in the 1960s and 1970s.

'Port of Southampton' is the story of the Hampshire port from Roman times to the present day, illustrated by a colelction of images showing everything from seaman's strikes to shipwrecks, the Titanic and Queen Mary, as well as the other famous ocean liners that have called at the port since the 1840s.

For well over a hundred years all around the coast of Britain there were located a series of nautical training ships.

Built in 1949 in Southampton for the Southampton, Isle of Wight & South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Co.

Introduced into RAF service in December 1959, the English Electric Lightning was and still is one of the most iconic of British fighter aircraft.

On 26 June 1954 a small private venture development aircraft built by Hunting Percival Ltd made the first of three proving flights at Luton.

The personal story of a British tank sergeant's war, from the fall of France in 1940, through the bloody campaigns against Rommel's forces in North Africa, the hard-fought drive up Italy, D-Day and the battles for France and the low countries, and the invasion of the German heartland itself.

The first ex-military jet flew in Britain in the late 1960s, restored by Jet Heritage of Bournemouth.

2008 was a magical year for Cunard.

Espionage is one of the world's oldest professions, and it played an integral role in Allied successes and failures during the Second World War.

The final year of the Second World War was very quiet in terms of naval operations, as European leaders turned their minds towards peace with the promise of unconditional German surrender.

The sixth year of the Second World War began positively for the Allies, with the successful landings at Anzio, codenamed Operation Shingle.

At the beginning of the year, the Battle of Guadalcanal was still raging on, but the Americans had secured their first complete victory in the Pacific by the end of February, although the war in this theatre was far from over, with several further engagements taking place throughout the year.

On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland.

The year 1918 was dominated by the Armistice and the end of the fighting in the War to End All Wars.

As 1942, the fourth year of the war, began, victory for the Allies was still a long way off.

1943 saw the tide of war change fully in the Allies' favour.

The year 1917 was dominated by the Russian Revolution and America entering the war.

On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland.

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

For the navies of Britain and Germany, 1916 would be the defining year of the First World War.

On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland.

January 1940 saw the escalation of the sea war between Britain and Germany.

Submarines and blockades dominated the war at sea in 1915.

What Manfred von Richthofen was to Germany, Albert Ball was to Great Britain: each, at the time, was the star turn of his country and Richthofen would describe Ball as 'by far the best English flying man'.

In the first of a series of books, naval expert Phil Carradice takes us through the war at sea in 1939, using previously unpublished and rare images of the battles, the ships and the people involved.

On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland.

The arms race that led to the First World War started in 1897 at the Spithead Naval Review, when Kaiser Wilhelm saw the might of Britain's Navy.

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.

Charles I's authoritative and intolerant rule as monarch, and the unpopular Ship Money tax which he initiated, were instrumental in creating the most splendid and controversial warship in English history.

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.