From the conquering legions of Ancient Rome to the thunderous tank battles of World War II and beyond, History of War takes you deeper inside the minds of history’s fighting men, further under the bonnets of some of the world’s most devastating war machines, and higher above the battlefield to see the broad sweep of conflict as it happened.

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WAR IN FOCUS

MONGOL EMPIRE • Genghis Khan begins a bloodthirsty attempt at world domination in Asia and Europe with the expansion of the largest contiguous land empire in history

BATTLE OF MOHI • Unprepared to challenge a relentless and sophisticated nemesis, Hungary’s King Bela IV almost met his end at an ill-fated clash over a river crossing

A HORDE OF MANY NATIONS • They carved a path of destruction across Eurasia, but who were the dreaded Tatars? Making sense of the tangled identities that comprised the Mongol Empire is far from easy

CONQUERING KHANS • Three generations of Mongol emperors and commanders set out on a family quest to dominate the known world

WEAPONS & TACTICS • Instilling fear in an enemy was not merely the by-product of Mongol tactics, it was a keystone of their entire strategy

THIN RED LINE • Overshadowed by the Charge of the Light Brigade, the heroic stand of the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders at Balaclava nevertheless passed into legend

SIR COLIN CAMPBELL • A veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, Colin Campbell served with distinction in the Crimea and rallied the 93rd at Balaclava

ORIGINS OF THE ‘THIN RED LINE’ • This common phrase was first coined by a Victorian journalist

RACE TO THE SEA 17 SEPTEMBER – 30 NOVEMBER 1914 • A series of attempts to outflank the enemy’s forces, the race to the sea set the stage for years of trench warfare

BATTLE OF LEUTHEN • Prussian King Frederick II ‘The Great’ used his military strategies to ensure Prussia's control of Silesia during the Third Silesian War

5 DECEMBER 1757 • How the Prussians defeated the much larger Austrian force

FROM VIETNAM TO THE BLACK PANTHERS • Dedan Kimathi Ji Jaga recalls his experiences as a Marine during the Vietnam War and his subsequent time as a revolutionary activist

AMERICA’S NELSON MANDELA • Dedan Kimathi Ji Jaga was a close friend of the Black Panther Party activist and decorated Vietnam War veteran who spent 27 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of murder

NABVETS • The National Association for Black Veterans is an American nationwide organisation that helps ex-servicemen and women with benefits claims and community assistance

LACHHIMAN GURUNG • In 1945, after the Allies took Burma, 200 retreating Japanese soldiers ran into a one-man army – a Gurkha rifleman, who held his ground single-handed

SUPERMARINE WALRUS • The ubiquitous ‘Shagbat’, was the RAF’s flying boat workhorse of the Second World War

SUPERMARINE WALRUS

MUSEUMS & EVENTS • Discover IWM’s spotlight on modern aid workers, a museum dedicated to the Army Air Corps and a 1745 Jacobite Rising ruined barracks

NOVEMBER 1940 9 • To commemorate 80 years since the Second World War, History of War will be taking a look at some of the key events taking place during each month of the conflict

WALES’S WARTIME SECRETS • BBC presenter Will Millard discusses how the Welsh landscape was the perfect training ground for Allied forces during WWII

REVIEWS • Our pick of the latest military history books

History Of war

15TH CENTURY CROSSBOW • This decorative weapon is the oldest of its kind in existence and was owned by a German count