This mission was so secret that few published records exist. Now, best-selling author Damien Lewis has unearthed the full incredible story from long-hidden files, family archives and untold personal accounts

Leading historians share their thoughts on what book or film you should delve into next

SOUTHEASTERN IRAQ 26-27 FEBRUARY 1991

On a beautiful summer’s morning almost 110 years ago, men of the British Army stepped out into no-man’s land at 7.30am. It was 1 July 1916, and the start of what was then called ‘The Big Push’. With h

Glasgow, 1942. The Carl Rosa Opera Company was in town to perform Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Tickets had been snapped up by local people – including many who didn’t really know what an opera was. The

Five minutes before the Wehrmacht crossed the eastern borders of the neutral Benelux states on the morning of 10 May 1940 to signal the start of the Blitzkrieg in the West, German Fallschirmjäger (par