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A multimedia resource on WW2 history brought to you by the award winning historian and filmmaker Laurence Rees. More about us

  • Interactive Timeline

    WW2 - as it happened
    Explore our multimedia content chronologically, set within four key subject areas.

  • Laurence Rees' Blog

    Vienna's dilemma is ours
    Should we rename streets and tear down statues when values change?

  • Expert interviews

    World class historians
    Many of the greatest WW2 experts in the world are interviewed at length, exclusively for WW2History.com.

  • Video

    PLAY
    5:50

    Western

    1942

    Desert War
    The Desert War is forever associated with Field Marshal Montgomery and the battle of El Alamein - but just how great a general was Monty?

  • Testimony

    LISTEN
    10:20

    Pacific

    1942

    Australian POW
    He was one of 60,000 allied troops who surrendered to the Japanese at Singapore. An Australian doctor, he vividly describes the horror of imprisonment at the hands of the Japanese.

  • Key Moment

    READ
     

    Pacific

    1944

    Imphal and Kohima
    The Japanese launched one of their last big offensives of the war, an attack on British and Empire forces on the eastern border of India. Their plan was to defeat the Allies at Kohima and Imphal and then move on to capture the supplies held at Dimapur.

More information on Laurence Rees

  • Laurence Rees

    Laurence Rees is an acclaimed historian and filmmaker who has specialised in writing books and making TV documentary series about the Second World War for twenty years. In 2006 he won the British Book Award for history book of the year for 'Auschwitz: the Nazis and the 'Final Solution''. His many television awards include a BAFTA, a Grierson Award, a Broadcasting Press Guild Award, a BANFF festival award, an International Documentary Award, a Broadcast Award and a George Foster Peabody Award.
    Read Laurence Rees’ full biography

  • "Rees knows a vast amount about the Second World War and his judgments can seldom be faulted."
    Sir Max Hastings, Sunday Times.

    "Scholars across the world owe a considerable debt of gratitude to Laurence Rees for his immense and unique contribution to historical understanding."
    From the citation awarding Laurence Rees an Honorary Doctorate, University of Sheffield

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