The 1945 election was the first general election to be held in Britain since November 1935. It was held on 5 July 1945 with the result announced three weeks later on 26 July 1945 to allow the votes of those serving overseas to be counted. From May 1940...
Collections in Context
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On the morning of 11 September 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger planes in the United States. Two planes were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing both towers to collapse. A third...
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For more than a hundred years, British soldiers, diplomats, and spies and their Russian counterparts competed for influence over Afghanistan in what became known as ‘the Great Game.’ Britain fought wars in Afghanistan between 1838 and 1842, 1878 and 1880...
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Aviation was one of the most romanticised elements of the First World War. 'Air aces' in particular achieved celebrity status both during and after the war. French newspapers first coined the term 'l'as' to describe the high-scoring fighter pilot Adolphe...
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During the late 1930s, the British government began to prepare the civilian population for war. As well as the widely expected and feared bombing raids, it was also thought that poison gas might be used against civilians. Gas masks were issued in 1938...
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During the First World War, Britain came under air attack for the first time in its history. Britain’s home defence strategy initially focused on patrolling at sea and defending the shore with artillery. The threat of aerial attack was thus...
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Europe in 1914 was an armed camp; its politics dominated by two rival alliances. The creation of a unified Germany in 1871 had disturbed the old 'balance of power' in Europe. Fear of Germany encouraged France and Russia to form an alliance. This pushed...
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A contemporary of William Orpen, Anna Airy trained at the Slade School of Art. She was one of the first women war artists, employed by the newly founded Imperial War Museum in 1918. Although a well-respected and successful female artist of her generation...
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The Nazis had made clear their hatred of Jews from as early as 1920. Their vision was of a German race cleansed of what they regarded as an alien species. After Hitler became chancellor in January 1933, the Nazis immediately began to enact laws which...
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The name given to Britain’s policy in the 1930s of allowing Hitler to expand German territory unchecked, appeasement was instituted in the hope of avoiding war. Most closely associated with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, it is now widely...
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After Germany invaded the Soviet Union (Russia) on 22 June 1941, the Soviet leader, Stalin, demanded help, and the western Allies provided supplies. The most direct route was by sea, around northern Norway to the Soviet ports of Murmansk and Archangel....
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In the autumn of 1918 the Central Powers were exhausted. Their armies were defeated and their hungry citizens were beginning to rebel. As early as 29 September Ludendorff decided that a cessation of hostilities must be sought. The need became more urgent...
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In August 1945 atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, hastening the end of the Second World War and heralding the birth of the atomic age. International attempts to control the development of nuclear technology...
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In 1942, in retaliation for an RAF bombing raid on the German town of Lübeck, the Luftwaffe launched a series of destructive raids against historic towns and cities in Britain. These attacks were termed the 'Baedeker' raids after the famous German travel...
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Victory in the Battle of the River Plate, the first major naval engagement of the war, was a great boost to British morale during the ‘Phoney War’. When war broke out, the German pocket battleship Graf Spee, commanded by Captain Hans Langsdorff, was...
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Blitzkrieg ('Lightning War') was the method of offensive warfare responsible for Nazi Germany’s military successes in the early years of the war. Combined forces of tanks, motorised infantry and artillery penetrated an opponent’s defences on a narrow...
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The war on the Western Front had become one of attrition as 1917 drew to a close. The French Army was exhausted, having borne the brunt of the Allied effort and the trauma of Verdun. The British were beginning to suffer manpower shortages by early 1918,...
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The Second World War brought many changes to the lives of children in Britain. For some, the war was a time of fear and confusion that meant separation from families, the destruction of a home or even the loss of a parent. However, for others, these...
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Six years of war brought many changes to familiar festive rituals. Christmas celebrations often had to be scaled down or adjusted as restrictions and shortages took hold. For many families, the most difficult part of a wartime Christmas would be spending...
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Clothes rationing came into effect in Britain from 1 June 1941. It lasted, albeit in a gradually reduced format, until March 1949. As with food rationing, the main aim of the scheme was to ensure fair shares. But it was also intended to reduce consumer...
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The first Nazi concentration camps were established to incarcerate political opponents. The first camp, Dachau, near Munich was opened in March 1933. During the Second World War the concentration camp system saw a massive expansion. From the four...
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The end of the Cold War did not bring an end to conflict. Issues such as nationalism, national self-determination, liberation and religion continued to trigger war and instability. In the Gulf War, 1990-1991, an international coalition was formed to...
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Britain depended on vital supplies of food, equipment and raw materials from overseas, notably from North America and the Empire. These goods were transported in thousands of merchant ships, which were vulnerable to attack by German submarines (U-boats...
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The daily routine of front line service varied from the mundane to the dramatic. A typical day would begin with 'stand to arms' at dawn, with all men manning the front line trench. Weapons would be cleaned, a tot of rum and breakfast consumed. Day...
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David Lloyd George was British Chancellor of the Exchequer during Asquith’s pre-war Liberal government. He oversaw a series of enlightened social welfare reforms underpinned by his 'People's Budget' of 1909. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914,...
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After the Second World War, the disintegration of Britain’s empire transformed global politics. Before the war, Britain maintained colonies all over the world, providing valuable raw materials, manpower and strategic bases. By 1945, however, colonies...
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The outbreak of war brought many new rules and regulations, the most notable being the Defence of the Realm Act, (DORA), passed on 8 August 1914 'for securing public safety'. It regulated virtually every aspect of the British home front. Though it was...
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On 10 May 1940, the German Army invaded France and the Low Countries, pushing the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), along with French and Belgian troops, back to the French port of Dunkirk. A huge rescue, Operation 'Dynamo', was organised by the Royal...
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The codename given to decrypts of German radio messages encoded on Enigma machines, ‘Ultra’ was the Allies’ most important source of intelligence for Britain about its enemies’ plans, strengths and movements. Churchill called them his ‘Golden Eggs’. The...
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Fear of German bombing caused the government to evacuate children, mothers with infants and the infirm from British towns and cities. Evacuation took place in several waves. The first came two days before the outbreak of war. Over the course of three...
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There were six extermination camps in Nazi-occupied Poland. Four of them - Belzec, Chelmno, Sobibor and Treblinka - a were given over solely to mass murder, while two - Auschwitz and Majdanek - were also concentration camps. Auschwitz-Birkenau was the...
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Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke is seen by many historians as one of the key architects of Allied victory. He was Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) from 1941 to 1946 and Winston Churchill’s principal military adviser. Alan Brooke served as a Royal...
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A specific assault within the larger Dardanelles strategy, the Gallipoli campaign began at dawn on 25 April 1915. The campaign was intended to allow the Allied ships to pass through the Dardanelles and capture Constantinople (now Istanbul). General...
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The trench warfare of the Western Front encouraged the development of new weaponry to break the stalemate; poison gas was one such development. The first significant gas attack occurred at Ypres in April 1915, when the Germans released clouds of...
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The first Second World War captives taken in Britain were German pilots or aircrew who had parachuted to safety and naval personnel brought ashore. In the first few years of the war, their numbers were small as they were generally sent further away to...
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On a damp misty morning, British and Allied troops were met with a huge concentration of German artillery, gas, smoke and infantry. That day, 21 March 1918, heralded the start of Operation 'Michael', the first of the German Spring Offensives. It was...
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After the Nazis occupied Poland, they revived the medieval practice of segregating Jews in ghettos, usually the most run-down area of a city. By mid 1941, nearly all the Jews of occupied Poland had been forced into these overcrowded districts. In the...
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Liberal politician and statesman, 'H H Asquith' was Prime Minister of Great Britain between 1908 and 1916. His pre-war liberal government laid the foundations of today's 'welfare state' introducing old age pensions and unemployment insurance. Social...
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HMS Belfast is a unique ship. She is the Royal Navy’s last surviving cruiser, the largest preserved warship in Europe, and the only surviving cruiser built in the 1930s. Belfast was launched in March 1938, at a time when navies were competing to build...
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The First World War changed the world forever. Empires were destroyed and new nations were created. The cost of the war undermined Britain’s ability to sustain her vast empire while the United States began to emerge as a dominant world power. The legacy...