Discover the remarkable history of Battle of Crete… In 1941, the island of Crete became a focal point for the Allies and Axis Powers in the Second World War. After taking Greece, capturing the mountainous island with its unforgiving, rocky terrain seemed like the next logical step for Hitler. Due to its position, Crete offered […]
Discover the remarkable history of Operation Mincemeat… Operation Mincemeat is the story of a handful of men who believed in using their imaginations to help the Allies defeat the Axis Powers during the Second World War. Their plan was to dupe the Germans into relocating troops away from Sicily, the Allies’ true target, as part
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Discover the remarkable life of Saladin… The Crusades were a pivotal period in world history, but while much has been said of the swashbuckling Crusaders who stormed into the Middle East, much less has been said about those who were on the other end of this conflict. Yet it was out of this historic drama
Discover the remarkable history of the Livonian War… The Livonian War broke out in 1558 after Livonia, which was ruled by the Livonian Order of the Teutonic Knights, refused to negotiate with Russian Tsar Ivan IV over control of its lands. The Livonian Confederation had never been particularly stable, and tensions between the knights and
Discover the remarkable history of the Battle of the Scheldt… In September 1944, the Allies seized Antwerp in Belgium, the largest deep-water port in northwestern Europe at the time. It should have been a great boon. The Scheldt River was wide enough and deep enough to bring ocean-going supply ships from the North Sea directly
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Discover the tragic history of the Partition of India… After World War II, the British Empire was weaker than it had ever been. Facing financial problems and shortages of manpower, Britain found it increasingly difficult to maintain control of the vast territories under its rule. Nowhere was this more evident than in the single most
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Discover the remarkable history of the Battle of the Wilderness… The year 1864 saw Abraham Lincoln facing an increasingly unpopular war with too few Union victories, and a presidential re-election campaign pitting him against the Democratic challenger and former Union commander General George McClellan. The outlook for both looked dire for Lincoln. But there was
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Discover the remarkable history of the Hungarian Revolution… The assassination of Austria-Hungary’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand didn’t just ignite the fuse to the tinderbox that was Europe in the early years of the twentieth century. When war was declared and the soldiers set off to fight the “war to end all wars,” World War I realigned
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Discover the remarkable life of George Armstrong Custer… George Armstrong Custer is remembered for his last stand—that fateful day at the Little Bighorn when he and his unit were caught in an ambush that would end their lives. But Custer’s story was much more than that single moment of catastrophe. From a mischievous farm boy
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Discover the remarkable history of the Christmas Truce… When World War I began in August 1914, the British confidently predicted that it would be “over by Christmas.” In Berlin, Kaiser Wilhelm II told his soldiers that they would be “home before the leaves fall.” But by late December, it was clear not only that the
