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The Battle of Britain and Radar

Introduction The Battle of Britain was one of the most important Allied victories of the Second World War. The German air force (Luftwaffe) had been at the front of every military attack the Nazis had made on their neighbouring countries, starting with the attack on Poland in September 1930. The...

The Origins of the RAF

1914 At the start of the First World War in 1914, people had only been successfully flying aeroplanes for ten years. Aircraft were basic machines, made of wood, canvas and wires, which were not able to travel very far or very fast. The planes were biplanes, as the technology of...

Britain and the Berlin Airlift 1948-49

As the relationship between the four occupying powers in Germany deteriorated during the early months of 1948, the British and Americans made some contingency plans for supplying their garrisons in Berlin by airlifting supplies. In April the British Army of the Rhine and Royal Air Force Transport Command had drawn...

The Creation of the Royal Air Force

Background The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was formed in 1912 and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) in 1914, in response to the growing awareness of the role that aircraft could play in military operations. This role was believed to be primarily for reconnaissance. Over the course of the First...

NATO

Background and history The countries that fought Nazi Germany and the Axis powers during the Second World War formed the Allies. For some of the leading Allies, such as the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain, the union was based on opposition to the Axis rather than common ideals...

The United Nations

The United Nations was created in 1945 with a membership of 51 countries. Its basis was the United Nations Charter, which was based on a series of concepts created by the UK, the USA, the Soviet Union and China, as the leading Allies fighting the Axis powers.   The purposes...

Codebreakers

Introduction For centuries some people, organisations and governments have wanted to send information secretly. Different ways of sending a secret message have been developed over time but the most common practice has been to hide information by using a code or a cipher (see box below). Just as people want...

Long Range Missions

The 1982 Falklands War is often taught and discussed from the position of its political rights and wrongs and the wider ramifications it had for the British and Argentinian leaderships at the time. In this material, the main focus is on the basic narrative of the military war and, in particular, the...

Diversity in the RAF of the First World War - the Jewish contribution

The size of the Jewish community in 1914 was approximately 300,000 in a total British population of over 41 million. Antisemitism in 1914 was a common occurrence across Europe, including in the UK. Newspapers and officials would frequently generalise and be disparaging about Jewish groups and individuals. The Jewish community...