In this talk, Rachel Pistol will share insights from her book, Internment During the Second World War: A Comparative Study of Great Britain and the USA. She will explore how wartime fears led to the internment of civilians, many of them refugees in Britain and people of Japanese ancestry in the United States.
The Battles of Narvik unfolded between 9 April and 8 June 1940 during World War Two’s Norwegian Campaign. Germany swiftly captured Narvik using ten destroyers and mountain troops to secure its valuable ice-free iron-ore port. The Allies struck back with two naval engagements: on 10 April, five British destroyers launched a surprise dawn attack, sinking German destroyers but suffering losses themselves and claiming the first Victoria Cross of the war. Three days later, a larger British force including the battleship HMS Warspite destroyed the remaining German ships. A multinational Allied land force then recaptured Narvik by 28 May, marking Hitler’s first strategic defeat, though the campaign ended with Allied evacuation in early June.
Richard’s talk will focus on just a few of them: some failures, some successes — though not for Germany. How Britain’s MI5 ran all Germany’s WW2 spying operations in Britain for Britain’s benefit.
Following on from his excellent talk on “Instant Thunder” – The Operation Desert Storm Air Campaign back in November 2024, Chris Finn has kindly offered to give BMMHS a talk on “Buccaneer and Tornado Operations during Op Granby”. Expect exciting video footage taken during the conflict!
Arnhem and the Cambridge Spies reveals the hidden role of the Cambridge Spies in the Allied defeat during World War II. Robert’s talk tells the story of Operation Market Garden, a bold Allied operation that ultimately failed due to betrayal by spies working for the Russians. The traitors, one a supposed hero of the resistance and the other an English gentleman, caused the catastrophic defeat that led to the deaths of thousands of soldiers. Drawing from newly released archives, the book sheds light on the spies responsible for the failure of the operation and how their actions changed the course of the war and set the stage for the Cold War.
In the 1930s, amid an impending crisis in Europe, Winston Churchill found himself out of government and with little power. During the time, Chartwell, his country home in Kent, became the headquarters of Churchill’s campaign against Nazi Germany. He invited trusted advisors and informants, such as Albert Einstein and T. E. Lawrence, to help strengthen his hand as he worked tirelessly to sound the alarm at the prospect of war.
Katherine Carter uncovers the history of these closed-door meetings that helped Churchill gather intelligence about Germany’s preparations for war, and put himself in a position to change the course of history.
The “tank phase” of the Battle of Cambrai lasted until about 2pm on the first day – 8 hours in all. Tanks may have grabbed the headlines gaining nearly 5 miles on that first day, but it was technical innovations in artillery that enabled General Byng to reintroduce the strategic principle of surprise back in to the battlefield. Tanks alone could not do that. The battle lasted a further 18 days and was remarkably similar to the other attritional battles of 1917: A poorly managed slow slog in difficult conditions against a well-entrenched enemy. Then the German’s counter-attacked with their solution to the problem of how to reintroduce surprise. The lecture is centred on the management of innovation in the First World War and just why the key discovery was made by a man sitting behind the lines on a latrine…
The Schlieffen Plan was a German military strategy for attacking France and Russia in World War I. The plan was developed by Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen and put into action in 1914 by his successor, Helmuth von Moltke.
On May 5, 1980, the Special Air Service (SAS) made their public debut under the direct command of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Their mission was to rescue hostages held captive within the Iranian Embassy at Princes Gate, London, by six armed terrorists.
After a brief summary of the disastrous Malayan Campaign and the fall of Fortress Singapore, the talk covers the urgent need for the railway by the Japanese, its construction, operation, and the partial post-war revival of train services.
Actual events are then contrasted with the fiction of the 1957 acclaimed film ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’, a production both award-winning but also controversial in several respects.
After a brief summary of the disastrous Malayan Campaign and the fall of Fortress Singapore, the talk covers the urgent need for the railway by the Japanese, its construction, operation, and the partial post-war revival of train services.
Actual events are then contrasted with the fiction of the 1957 acclaimed film ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’, a production both award-winning but also controversial in several respects.
