Military history

A painting of Hannibal leading his men into Italy in 218 BC, seated on top a war elephant (Photo by Peter Horree / Alamy Stock Photo)

What if... Hannibal had taken Rome?

Sat in his Spitfire adorned with Figaro the Cat is decorated Second World War fighter pilot Ian Gleed, who had to hide his homosexuality (Photo by Royal Air Force Official Photographer/ Imperial War Museums via Getty Images)

Second World War

Hiding in plain sight The prejudice and tolerance of homosexuality in WW2 armed forces

A painting shows Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow in October 1812. Tens of thousands of his troops perished over the winter months that followed

What if… Napoleon had defeated Russia?

Mavia of Tanukh, illustration by Lynn Hatzius

General ancient history

Mavia Of Tanukh Warrior queen of Arabia

Premium

Pod Tobias Kelly WL

Second World War

Refusing to fight in WW2 . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The commandos head off in José Ferrer’s Cockleshell Heroes (1955)

Second World War

Cockleshell Heroes: the real story of WW2’s Operation Frankton

Alexander the Great dressed as a Byzantine emperor

The remarkable afterlife of Alexander the Great

Cover illustration from Le Petit Journal, 1908, showing Ferdinand I of Bulgaria declaring independence (centre) and Franz Joseph I of Austria Hungary seizing Bosnia and Herzegovina from a forlorn-looking Ottoman sultan, Abdülhamid II (Photo by Archives Charmet / Alamy Images)

Divided they fell: how war, revolution and sectarianism led to the end of the Ottoman empire

Men of the SAS returning from a three-month trip behind enemy lines during the war in North Africa. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

“They changed the way war is run”: Ben Macintyre on the early SAS

Colditz captives including (third left) the famous escapee Pat Reid.

Second World War

Ben McIntyre on Colditz: “The reality of Colditz is much more interesting than the black-and-white moral fable”

This statue of Alfred the Great stands in Winchester, the former 'capital' of his kingdom (Photo by TonyBaggett via Getty Images)

What if... Alfred the Great lost to the Vikings at the battle of Edington?

On Havana waterfront, Cuban soldiers wait by anti-aircraft artillery, after receiving warning of an invasion from the United States

Max Hastings "If the Americans had bombed Cuba in 1962, escalation would have been almost inevitable"

A member of a Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) patrol, May 1942

Second World War

Desert raiders: the Long Range Desert Group in the Second World War

A German soldier captured during the battle of Kursk, July–August 1943. Germany’s last major offensive on the eastern front ended in crushing defeat (Photo by STF/AFP/ GettyImages)

Second World War

Bitter end: Hitler’s downfall and the end of the war and the Third Reich

Grave of a fallen soldier in World War I

First World War

“Their name liveth for evermore”: the difficult task of locating, identifying and honouring the dead of WW1