From 1943 to 1945, the Allies fought an attritional campaign in Italy against a resolute and skilful enemy. Far from being the ‘soft underbelly of Europe’, Italy became one of the Second World War’s most exhausting campaigns.
Today, the UK government makes financial provision for the spouses and partners of soldiers who have died in the line of duty. But this has not always been the case, and there have been a number of changes along the way.
In April 1982, British soldiers joined a naval task force sent to re-take the Falkland Islands after their surprise capture by the Argentine military. They went on to play a key part in the land campaign that helped secure victory in the war.
Field Marshal William Slim led the Fourteenth Army in Burma during the Second World War. Despite inheriting a disastrous situation, he restored his men's morale and led them to victory against the Japanese.
Between December 1941 and August 1945, British Commonwealth troops and their allies fought a bitter war across the vast expanses of Asia and the Pacific Ocean against a tenacious and often brutal enemy.
As the Second World War entered its final phase, the British Army and its allies were poised to make significant advances in Italy, Germany and Burma. Yet the complex challenges of the peace now came ever more sharply into focus.
In November 1945, British soldiers were still engaged in fierce fighting across parts of Asia. Meanwhile, the complex legacies of the Second World War came to the fore in two historic series of trials.
Since 2018, all British Army combat roles have been open to female soldiers. However, the history of women's service in the Army stretches much further back in time.
Frontier clashes between British India and the Burmese Empire escalated into a full-blown war that lasted from 1824 to 1826. This conflict resulted in parts of Burma coming under the control of the East India Company.
In the third instalment, we explore the exploits of the 3rd County of London Yeomanry in 1941 as they travel around Africa en route to the desert war in Egypt and Libya.
The previously unseen personal photographs of a Welsh soldier who served in Egypt during the First World War are being published online by the National Army Museum.
