Born on the 4th November 1910, Anna Zofia Marta Leska grew up with a love of flying. She learned to fly gliders and hot air balloons at the Warsaw Aeroclub. In the late 1930s, she and fellow pilot Stefania Wojtulanis had had their applications to the Polish Air Force...

Harry Hardy DFC photographed for Radio Canada in December 1944 In November 2010, F/L Harry Hardy DFC CD L.d’H. gave a talk about his experiences flying Hawker Typhoon ‘Bombphoons’ with 440 “City of Ottawa” Squadron RCAF in the Second World War to the Royal Canadian Legion in White Rock,...

In this video, Boney deep-dives into the trailer for Apple TV+’s ‘Masters of the Air’, slated for release in January. Analyzing various scenes, dialogues, and stylistic choices, we look at various elements of the show, from lead characters and their possible story arcs to the visual and emotional impacts...

For just about two years, I had the privilege of working with Alex Churchill, Zack White and the History Hack team making podcasts. During that time, I hosted 22 episodes of the Second World War aviation show Hedge Hopping. You can find them all here.

To see in the dark and to hit their target was the challenge Bomber Command faced in the Second World War. To see in the dark and stay hidden only complicated matters more. In Will Iredale latest book, The Pathfinders, he paints a vivid of the force set up to guide Bomber Command’s squadrons to their targets in Occupied Europe. The Pathfinders is a superior narrative history that pays the respect that is due and to the price that was paid.

The Strategic Bombing campaign of the Second World War is still one of the most controversial subjects of that conflict 80 years on. The destruction wrought upon hundreds of cities from Coventry to Tokyo brought the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, The Bomber Mafia, looks at the titular group of USAAF thinkers who believed that they had the tools at their disposal to bring high-altitude precision bombing to a realisation.

we live in a listicle dominated world that becomes more binary by the day. Nuance now feels like a dirty word and when we look at things, we seem to rank them by default. When this comes to the equipment of the Second World War, the fetishisation of the machinery has begun to override the basic truth that these incredible machines were designed to kill and that they were operated by men little more than boys.

The story of the Falklands War has quickly become a part of the British mythos. A hastily thrown together Task Force, with two small carriers and twenty even smaller fighters taking on the might of the Argentine Air Force and Navy. It was a close-run thing. In Rowland White’s latest book, Harrier 809, he returns to two of his previous subjects, the Falklands and 809 Naval Air Squadron, and shows us that things really were, at times, upon a wing and a prayer.

In September 1944, 10,000 airborne soldiers were dropped 64 miles behind the German lines and were required to hold the vital bridges at Arnhem. What would happen would go down in legend. Iain Ballantyne crafts a breathless look at the men on the ground and the civilians who found the war entering every room in their homes.

D-Day can tend to be remembered by the beaches, the bocage and the Tigers. In his new history of the Normandy campaign, James Holland looks at the myths of the campaign and reminds us that without the incredible logistics machine supporting the tip of the spear, the liberation would never have gotten very far inland at all.

Robert Radcliffe returns with the second part of his Airborne Trilogy, Freefall. Theo Trickey’s war takes his to North Africa and some of C Company, The Parachute Regiment’s fiercest battles. In Germany, Daniel Garland is experiencing the reality of total war on the civilian population and piecing more of Trickey’s life back together and his connections to the late Erwin Rommel. As Arnhem looms, the battle to get there will be just as brutal as what is to come.

Half a year late, but I finally get round to writing about Battle Scars. Which is odd as it is a podcast that pops to mind regularly. Thom Tran’s chats with veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are funny, moving and, more often than not, a little shocking. Battle Scars is a podcast of the highest quality that, I hope, these few (delayed) words will hopefully get you tuning (downloading/streaming/whatever) in and have these amazing experiences stay with you. In a good, uplifting, way.