Operation Typhoon: The German Drive on Moscow, 1941
In October 1941 two million Germans trapped half a million Soviet soldiers at Vyazma and pushed to within 30 km of the Kremlin. Mud, frost and a Siberian reserve stopped them.
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Mamerki: The Army High Command’s Secret Bunker City in the Masurian Forest
Twenty kilometres from the Wolf's Lair, the German army built a hidden town of more than 200 structures. The Germans never blew it up, so the concrete is still there.
The Wolf’s Lair: Hitler’s Forest Headquarters on the Eastern Front
A camouflaged bunker town in the Masurian woods, where Hitler spent more than 800 days, survived a bomb on 20 July 1944 and was blown up by his own army as the Red Army closed in.
Zofiówka Sanatorium: The Jewish Psychiatric Hospital Beneath the Otwock Pines
Founded in 1908 as a free hospital for poor Jewish patients, Zofiówka was emptied by the Germans on 19 August 1942 and has stood in ruins in the forests of Otwock ever since.
Sorpe Dam: The Wall the Dambusters Could Not Break
An earth dam with a concrete heart that survived the bouncing bombs in 1943, a Tallboy in 1944 and, in 1959, a live five-tonne bomb found at the bottom of its drained lake.
Eder Dam: The Second Wall the Dambusters Broke
A Kaiser-era dam in the hills of Hesse, three villages beneath its lake and a gap blasted open in the early hours of 17 May 1943.
Möhne Dam: The Wall the Dambusters Broke
A Kaiser-era wall of quarry stone that held back the Ruhr's water for 30 years, was breached in minutes on 17 May 1943 and was closed again within four months.
Operation Chastise: The Dambusters Raid on the Ruhr
Nineteen Lancasters, a bomb that bounced across the water and one night in May 1943: how 617 Squadron breached the Möhne and Eder dams, and what the raid really achieved.
Pripyat: The Atomic City Evacuated in an Afternoon
A model Soviet city of about 49,000 people, emptied in a single afternoon in April 1986 and never resettled.
The Chernobyl Disaster: The Night Reactor 4 Exploded
A safety test, a reactor with a fatal design flaw and a night shift that never had a chance: how Chernobyl happened, how it was hidden, and what it left behind.
Duga Radar: The Soviet Woodpecker Hidden in the Chernobyl Zone
A 150-metre steel wall in the Chernobyl Zone that tapped a mystery signal across the world's shortwave bands, and was never on a Soviet map.
Chernobyl: The Nuclear Plant at the Heart of the Exclusion Zone
Beside the abandoned city of Pripyat, about 100 kilometres north of Kyiv, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is still being decommissioned. Its story runs from the Soviet reactors that powered the region to the 1986 disaster, later accidents, and the 2022 invasion.
Operation Gunnerside: Six Skiers and the Heavy Water Raid
In February 1943, nine Norwegian saboteurs descended a frozen gorge, crept into the Vemork plant and destroyed its heavy water cells without firing a shot. Here is the full story of the raid, the escape to Sweden, and what really happened next.
Vemork: The Norwegian Power Station at the Heart of the Heavy Water War
Built in 1911 as the world's largest power station, Vemork later became the only industrial source of heavy water in occupied Europe. This guide follows its story from fertiliser works to wartime target to museum, with visiting details for today.