The Field Dispatch
Clear, accurate stories from history's greatest battles, how they were won, who commanded, and why they still shape the world. Most are battles you can play in the app.
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The Battle of Balaclava
The Crimean War clash of 25 October 1854 that gave history the Thin Red Line and the tragic Charge of the Light Brigade, immortalised by Tennyson.
The Battle of Passchendaele
Flanders, 1917. A bold plan to break out toward the Belgian coast collapsed into mud, drowning, and attrition. This is the Third Battle of Ypres, remembered as Passchendaele.
Operation Market Garden
The Allied airborne gamble of September 1944, a chain of Dutch bridges, and the bridge too far at Arnhem where the plan came apart.
The Attack on Pearl Harbor
How a surprise strike on 7 December 1941 pulled the United States into the Second World War.
The Battle of Antietam
Around 22,000 to 23,000 men fell in one day near Sharpsburg. How Antietam checked Lee's first invasion of the North and gave Lincoln the moment to act on emancipation.
The Battle of Saratoga
Autumn 1777 on the Hudson: Burgoyne marches south, Gates digs in, and two battles decide the fate of the American Revolution.
The Battle of the Bulge
December 1944: fog, snow and a desperate German gamble in the Ardennes forest. The siege of Bastogne, McAuliffe's Nuts, and Patton's race north.
Battle of Berlin
The ferocious final battle for Hitler's capital in 1945, told scene by scene.
Battle of Fort Sumter
The bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861 was almost bloodless, yet it began the bloodiest war in American history. The story of the opening shots.
The Gallipoli Campaign
How the Allied attempt to force the Dardanelles in 1915 turned into a grinding stalemate and gave birth to the ANZAC legend.
The Battle of Hattin
How thirst, heat and Saladin's patience shattered the Crusader army at Hattin in 1187 and doomed the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Battle of Kursk
Hitler's doomed 1943 gamble and the greatest tank battle of the war, told scene by scene.
Battle of Poltava
A summer dawn in Ukraine, a starving Swedish army, and the battle that broke Charles XII and made Peter the Great master of the north.
Battle of Rocroi
A young prince, a doomed square of veteran infantry, and the day France announced itself as the great power of Europe.
Siege of Tenochtitlan
In 1521 the island city of Tenochtitlan fell after a months-long siege led by Cortes and tens of thousands of Indigenous allies. The story of the Aztec capital's last stand.
The Greatest Battles of All Time
The most famous and important battles in history, from Marathon to Berlin, across the ages.
Battles That Changed the World
From Marathon to Normandy, 32 decisive days that shaped history, each told in full.
The Greatest Battles of Antiquity: a guide
The Greatest Battles of Antiquity, told in full, each a decisive day.
The Greatest Battles of the Middle Ages: a guide
The Greatest Battles of the Middle Ages, told in full, each a decisive day.
The Greatest Battles of the Early Modern Age: a guide
The Greatest Battles of the Early Modern Age, told in full, each a decisive day.
The Greatest Napoleonic Battles: a guide
The Greatest Napoleonic Battles, told in full, each a decisive day.
The Greatest Battles of the Industrial Age: a guide
The Greatest Battles of the Industrial Age, told in full, each a decisive day.
The Greatest Battles of the First World War: a guide
The Greatest Battles of the First World War, told in full, each a decisive day.
The Greatest Battles of the Second World War: a guide
The Greatest Battles of the Second World War, told in full, each a decisive day.
On This Day in Military History
A day-by-day calendar of the battles and turning points that shaped the world. See what happened today, then dive into the story.
The Battle of Tours, 732: the hammer of the Franks
Charles Martel halts the Umayyad advance into Western Europe.
The Battle of Actium, 31 BC: the birth of an empire
The sea battle that ended the Roman Republic and made an emperor.
The Battle of Zama, 202 BC: Hannibal's downfall
Scipio beats Hannibal and ends the Second Punic War.
Jena-Auerstedt, 1806: Prussia falls in a day
Napoleon destroys the Prussian army in twin battles in a day.
The Battle of Moscow, 1941: the tide freezes
The first great defeat of the Wehrmacht, in the snow.
The Somme, 1916: the bloodiest summer
A million casualties and the symbol of industrial war.
First Ypres, 1914: the trenches reach the sea
The battle that froze the Western Front to the sea.
The Battle of Crécy, 1346: the longbow's day
English longbows shatter the French chivalry.
The Battle of Lepanto, 1571: the last galley war
The largest galley battle in history, and the end of Ottoman naval dominance.
The Battle of Leipzig, 1813: the Battle of the Nations
Six hundred thousand men and the largest battle in Europe before 1914.
The First Marne, 1914: the miracle that saved Paris
The counterattack that saved Paris and turned the war into trenches.
The Battle of Borodino, 1812: the bloodiest day
The bloodiest single day of the Napoleonic Wars, before a ruinous Moscow.
El Alamein, 1942: the end of the beginning
Montgomery breaks Rommel and turns the tide in North Africa.
The Battle of Britain, 1940: the few
The RAF holds the sky over England and stops a German invasion.
The Battle of Verdun, 1916: they shall not pass
Ten months of grinding slaughter around a French fortress, the longest battle of the First World War.
The Battle of Midway, 1942: five minutes that turned the Pacific
Broken codes, an ambush, and five minutes of dive bombers that sank four Japanese carriers and turned the Pacific.
The Battle of Gaugamela, 331 BC: Alexander breaks an empire
Outnumbered on ground his enemy chose, Alexander aimed one cavalry charge at a king and broke an empire.
The Battle of Sekigahara, 1600: the battle that made a shogun
Two coalitions of samurai, a valley in the fog, and one betrayal that decided Japan for 250 years.
The Battle of Trafalgar, 1805: Nelson breaks two fleets
Nelson broke the enemy line in two, won the greatest naval victory of the age, and did not live to see it.
The Siege of Vienna, 1683: the charge that turned back the Ottomans
A starving city, then the winged hussars came down the mountain. The day the Ottoman advance into Europe turned.
D-Day, 1944: the longest day on the Normandy beaches
Five beaches, thousands of ships, and one morning that breached the Atlantic Wall and opened the Western Front.
The Battle of Salamis, 480 BC: the narrows that saved Greece
Athens was burning. A smaller Greek fleet lured Persia into a strait and shattered it, saving Greece.
The Battle of Gettysburg, 1863: the Confederacy's high-water mark
Three days in Pennsylvania, Pickett's doomed charge, and the high-water mark where the Confederacy's war crested and broke.
The Battle of Agincourt, 1415: the longbow's day
A sick, outnumbered English army, an arrow storm, and a sea of mud that swallowed the flower of French chivalry.
The Battle of Austerlitz, 1805: Napoleon's masterpiece
Napoleon feigned weakness, gave up the heights, and sprang the trap. The battle of three emperors, often called his masterpiece.
The Battle of Marathon, 490 BC: the day Athens saved itself
Outnumbered Athenians charged the Persian line at a run, and the upset that saved the city gave the world the marathon.
The Battle of Waterloo, 1815: the end of an empire
Napoleon's last gamble, undone by a defiant ridge, unbroken infantry squares, and the Prussians arriving out of the woods just in time.
The Battle of Stalingrad, 1942-1943: the tide turns
Five months of street fighting on the Volga, a surprise encirclement, and the surrender that turned the whole war in the East.
The Battle of Hastings, 1066: the day England changed hands
A shield wall on Senlac Hill, a feigned Norman flight, and the arrow that ended Anglo-Saxon England in a single afternoon.
The Battle of Grunwald, 1410: the day the Teutonic Order broke
One of medieval Europe's largest battles. How a Polish-Lithuanian alliance shattered the Teutonic Knights, and why the Grand Master lay dead by evening.
The Battle of Cannae, 216 BC: Hannibal's perfect trap
Outnumbered, Hannibal let his centre bend inward, then closed both wings. The double envelopment that generals have studied for 2,200 years.
The Battle of Thermopylae, 480 BC: the 300 and the Hot Gates
A handful of Greeks held the narrow pass for three days against a vast Persian army. What actually happened, beyond the legend of the 300.