The History Network

Just ten years after the Wright brothers successfully flew the world's first powered airplane, the First World War erupted across Europe and with it came the first air war. Airplanes of wood, metal, and canvas took to the skies to act as observers and engage in combat with enemy planes. The best pilots became known as "aces" and were celebrated by both sides.

It is a cliche that wars seldom go according to plan, but perhaps none has gone astray as dramatically as the First World War. The vast German sweep through the Low Countries succeeded only in branding the Kaiser's Reich a nation of butchers and bringing the United Kingdom into the war. Field commanders were unable to achieve the clock-work precision required by the Schlieffen Plan and the German advance was stopped at the Marne in early September

If one were to travel through the modern day US state Louisiana, you would quickly be transported to what seems like another world. French language signs adorn the streets as the sounds of Zydeco or Louisiana French folk music fills the air. Most would cite the menagerie of foods combining french peasant recipes with African and native additions cooked into the various creatures inhabiting the bayou or swamps as the most intriguing sight of all.

The French invasion of Egypt in the summer of 1798 was the first great seaborne invasion of the modern era. With 335 ships and almost 40,000 men, it was the largest seaborne force ever launched in the Western world – at least since Xerxes' vast fleet attacked Athens at the Battle of Salamis in 480BC. It remained the largest ever seaborne invasion throughout the nineteenth century, only to be superseded in size by the Gallipoli landings in 1915.

On the morning of 16 December 1914, at around 8am, the German battlecruisers SMS Von der Tann and Derfflinger opened fire on the British coastal resort of Scarborough. For the town's inhabitants the shelling seemed indiscriminate, the prominent Grand Hotel was hit a number of times, as was the medieval castle overlooking the bay and residential parts of the town.

In 1753, the Governor of the colony of Virginia sent George Washington, who was a twenty one year old major in the Virginia militia, to the French Fort LeBoeuf near Lake Erie in the Ohio Valley, to demand the French leave the area. This ultimatum was rejected and Washington returned to deliver the message.

A battle at Dorking, that never happened, and German spies that never existed were a cause of great anguish to the British in the early part of the twentieth century. The result would be the creation a secret service, the rounding up of foreign nationals and an explosion in the popularity of the spy genre; which would manifest itself with classics such as John Buchan's 'The Thirty-Nine Steps'

A more successful attack was made in 1667 by the Dutch, they sailed up the river Medway, which flows into the Thames estuary, attacking British ships whilst they were in dock. It proved to be a crushing defeat for the Royal Navy

The Duke of Wellington, late in life, was asked what was his most difficult battle during all his years of soldiering, after a short pause he replied with just one word, Assaye; his great victory against the Marathas in 1803. A hard fought battle, he would lose a third of his men, the Indian Marathas troops were well equipped and drilled in modern tactics by mercenary European officers.