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World War II

The Holocaust
An umbrella website covering all aspects of the Holocaust of World War II, including a chronology (1923 to present) and information on victims and survivors, war crimes trials and later controversies.

Douglas Bader
Loved and loathed, Bader became a national hero after losing his legs in an air crash only to rejoin the RAF and become the most famous of ‘the few’ in the Battle of Britain.

• The 1940s House
  Information on what life was like in a London suburb during World War II.
• Adolf Hitler
  The Nazi leader from his birth in Austria to his suicide in Berlin.
• Adolf Hitler
  A brief biography of the German dictator.
• The Airships
  The story of the largest and most romantic aircraft ever conceived – from the flight of the first Zeppelin in 1900 to the Hindenburg disaster of 1937 and beyond – and its role in intercontinental air travel, exploration and warfare.
• The Battle of Britain: A beginner's guide
  Sources of information that you can use to find out more about – and get some idea of the experience of – the battle won by 'the Few'.
• Battle for the Holocaust
  Jewish historians look at how understanding the Holocaust has changed since the end of World War II, and ask whose agenda is being served by the proliferation of museums, memorials and commemoration events.
• The Battle for Italy
  Resources for researching this campaign further.
• Battle Stations I
  The machines that played a crucial role during World War II.
• Battle Stations II
  The machines and structures that helped the world's superpowers achieve mastery of the battlefield – from World War II, the Korean, Cold and Vietnam wars and some from more recent conflicts.
• Battle Stations III
  Four magnificent examples of machines that won the day on the battlefield, all US aircraft.
• Benito Mussolini
  The Italian dictator who was executed by Italian partisans.
• Blitz: Bombing and total war
  An examination of the huge influence that aerial bombing campaigns have had on the conduct and aims of modern warfare – from World War II to 'shock and awe' in Iraq.
• Blitz: The diary of an air raid
  29/30 December 1941: when German bombers launched on London their most devastating attack yet. Accompanied by computer reconstructions.
• Charles de Gaulle
  A concise biography of the French wartime leader and president of France, whose contradictory nature – and championing of France against all comers – made him more enemies than friends.
• Children and war
  The history of child warriors is a long and bloody one that extends from the youths of Sparta in the 1st millennium BC to the young people engaged in military activity around the world in the early years of the 21st century.
• Classic Weapons of World War II
  This database catalogues nearly 100 machines and tools of war that shaped the outcome of the 20th century's defining conflict and laid the foundations for the world we know today.
• The Dambusters
  An extract from the book by military historian John Sweetman about the 1943 raid against German dams with 'bouncing bombs'.
• D-Day: A beginner's guide
  There is masses of information on the internet about 'the longest day'. We have sifted through hundreds of websites to come up with the best.
• Douglas Bader
  Loved and loathed, Bader became a national hero after losing his legs in an air crash only to rejoin the RAF and become the most famous of ‘the few’ in the Battle of Britain.
• Dwight D Eisenhower
  The World War II general who, as president, oversaw the post-war development of the US.
• Edward Teller: Father of the hydrogen bomb
  A major architect of the US nuclear arsenal and an unrelenting champion of American military dominance.
• Escape from Colditz
  You're a Colditz prisoner, in solitary confinement. Escape seems out of the question. But there is a way. Can you find it?
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt
  President who guided the US through the Depression and World War II.
• Great Escapes
  Thousands of prisoners of war escaped from Allied and Axis prison camps during World War II. Here is a selection of their stories.
• Hirohito
  Japanese emperor whose role in World War II is still debated.
• The Holocaust
  An umbrella website covering all aspects of the Holocaust of World War II, including a chronology (1923 to present) and information on victims and survivors, war crimes trials and later controversies.
• Hood and Bismarck
  An extract of the book by David Mearns and Rob White on the two famous battleships of World War II.
• Hunt for the Hood
  In July 2001, Channel 4 launched an expedition to find the wreck of HMS Hood, 3,000 metres under the sea. This is the story of that voyage into the past.
• Japan at War: A beginner's guide
  Books and websites – from the seizure of Manchuria in 1931 to the atomic bombs that ended the war in the Pacific in 1945 – reveal the conflict from a mainly Japanese perspective.
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
  While it caused a furore in wartime Britain, the 1943 film’s portrayal of a section of the European military caste was scrupulously accurate and it has grown in stature with each passing year.
• Magic at War
  The story of Jasper Maskelyne, a star magician, whose sleight-of-hand techniques came in useful during the World War II campaign to defeat Rommel in north Africa.
• Mao Tse Tung
  This C4 Learning website evaluates Mao’s role as a leading figure in China and the extent to which his work benefited or damaged the country.
• Mystery of the Missing U-Boat
  In 1991, 60 miles off the New Jersey coast, a team of American divers discovered the wreck of a German U-boat lost in 1945. The website tells the story of that discovery and gives details of submarines and the Battle of the Atlantic, including a timeline.
• Nazi Gold
  The desperate attempt of the Nazi leaders to hide their ill-gotten gains at the end of World War II.
• The Nazi Officer's Wife
  An extract from the autobiography of Edith Hahn, a Jew who married a Nazi during World War II and survived to tell the tale.
• Not Just Fade Away: Adolf Hitler
  Evidence and rumours about Hitler's death.
• The Nuremberg Trials
  Examines the origins of the Nuremberg trials and their counterparts in Tokyo, how they were carried out, the sentences they passed and their legacy.
• The Other Band of Brothers: Execution on the Home Front
  How the racism in the American and British armies impacted on the black and Asian soldiers who fought in them.
• Pink Triangle: The Nazi persecution of gays
  The events that led to the deaths of at least 15,000 gay men.
• The Real Charlotte Grays
  The story of the women who operated behind enemy lines as agents and couriers during World War II.
• The Real Mussolini
  Benito Mussolini is remembered as a fascist dictator whose ludicrous posing was dwarfed by the incalculably more sinister Adolf Hitler, but he was a much more complex character.
• The Real Rommel
  Rommel appears to have been an apolitical soldier and military genius, but a love affair almost ruined his career and he was more political than his fans would like to believe.
• Rumours of War
  Black propaganda, subversive rumours and pornography were all used, says historian Christy Campbell, by a secret Whitehall department to undermine the Nazis.
• Saving Private Ryan
  With only a few reservations, Matthew Reynolds gives the thumbs-up to this story of the D-Day landings and beyond.
• Secret History: Search for the Struma
  Brief account of the ill-fated ship torpedoed by the Soviets in 1941, killing almost 800 Jews, plus a chronology of anti-Semitism in Britain.
• Secret History: Wartime crime
  How looters, thieves and conmen took advantage of the chaos and upheaval of World War II Britain, their activities often ignored or simply hushed up.
• The Sinews of War
  The curator of the Bank of England Museum reflects on the Bank's role in funding Britain's wars and protecting its currency.
• Sink the Bismarck
  If you want an accessible version of the dramatic pursuit of the Bismarck in May 1941, this 1960 film is, according to Dr Eric Grove, as good a place to start as any.
• Soldier Poets
  Two poets – Alun Lewis and Keith Douglas, who served and died young in World War II – are rescued from oblivion.
• Spitfire Ace
  In this extract from their book, Martin Davidson and James Taylor delineate why the Spitfire achieved legendary status during World War II and has maintained it since.
• Stalin: A beginner's guide
  A selection of the best internet sites and books about probably the worst tyrant of the 20th century.
• A Tale of Science and Morals
  The story of Joseph Rotblat, one of the boffins mobilised in the US campaign to build the atom bomb, and his endeavours to be an ethical scientist.
• Talking of War
  Four intellectual heavyweights – historians Antony Beevor, Joanna Bourke, Niall Ferguson and Jorg Friedrich – discuss the legacy of World War II.
• Ten Days to D-Day
  In this edited extract from his book, David Stafford describes the few weeks before D-Day and introduces the personalities he will follow throughout this momentous period.
• Tit for tat
  Acts of vengeance and their consequences – including such ‘triggers’ as the murder of Genghis Khan’s envoys in 1218, the murder of the Israeli athletes in Munich in 1972 and the storming of the Golden Temple of Amritsar in 1984, as well as other examples of retribution from Japan, Czechoslovakia and Korea.
• The Triumphs and Disasters of Churchill's Secret Army
  Robin Cross asks whether the SOE was less successful than we have been led to believe.
• U-234: Hitler’s last submarine
  The astonishing contents of the submarine that the Nazis sent to Japan in the last days of the war.
• U-571
  It may be have the right period details, but this purely imaginary tale purporting to show that the Americans, and not the Brits, captured a vital Enigma codebook in 1942 fails to win over Daniel Lee.
• USS Indianapolis
  The terrible fate of the crew of the ship that transported the Hiroshima bomb across the Pacific.
• Warlords
  World War II was a series of private psychological battles waged between Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill. This website examines the lives of these four leaders and compares eight significant psychological traits.
• The War of the World
  According to historian Niall Ferguson, from the Russo-Japanese war of 1904/5 to the aftershocks of the Cold War, the 20th century was by far the bloodiest in history. In this website, Ferguson explains why this came about, and there is an extensive chronology of the events that made this the ‘age of hatred’.
• Weapons of War
  This C4 Learning website charts the development of weapons technology from World War I to the present.
• Winston Churchill: A beginner's guide
  A selection of the best sites about the 'Greatest Briton'.
• Women in the 20th Century
  This C4 Learning website examines the roles of women during the last century in terms of war, work and the family.
• World War II: A chronology
  Every aspect of the conflict, including all the major events and personalities and all theatres of war, accompanied by links to relevant websites.
• Yamashita’s gold
  Was a fortune in gold hidden in the Philippines by the Japanese imperial family at the end of the war?

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