DESPITE BEING largely derided by the US Army Air Corps and rejected as unsuitable by the RAF, the P-39 ended World War Two with the highest enemy kill tally of any US fighter. In February 1937, recogn

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

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

A cough. A splutter. A jet of flame for good measure and the Merlin is prised from its slumbers and into rambunctious life. Many of you, perhaps even most, will have heard one of these engines, at Goo

From rapidly evolving roles to new technologies, historian and airpower expert John Curatola discusses how fighter planes shaped the Second World War