Stories

Second World War Stories

Discover stories of how Britain and America’s relationship during the Second World War affected millions of people around the world.

A B-17 Flying Fortress (serial number 44-9728) of the 452nd Bomb Group drops food parcels over the Netherlands. IWM (FRE 13232)
STORY

Operation Manna-Chowhound: The world's first airborne humanitarian mission

Just days after the end of its combined bombing offensive, the RAF and US Army Air Forces embarked on a new campaign. In response to the plight of the starving Dutch people, the same Allied bombers that had dropped bombs on Germany would be used to deliver food parcels to civilians across the Nazi-occupied Netherlands.
Chartiy Adams inspecting her troops US Public Domain (National Archives and Records Administration)
STORY

The Real History of the Six Triple Eight

The 6888th's Central Directory Postal Battalion was the only unit of mostly-Black American women to be sent overseas during the Second World War. Led by Major Charity Adams, the 'Six Triple Eight' deployed to Birmingham in early 1945, where they undertook the mammoth task of sorting millions of letters for delivery to U.S. soldiers in the European Theatre.
© IWM

All stories are written by IWM staff and copyright of Imperial War Museums (© IWM). The copyright in the images they contain belongs to IWM as well as other third parties. Neither the stories nor the images contained may be reproduced or licenced without IWM’s permission. 

IWM Licensing

Aircraft stories

Find out how American airpower has played a key part in conflict throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

F-16 in front of HAS US Public Domain (US Air Force)
STORY

The Aggressors: Britain's Top Gun School

It’s 1980 and in a darkened operations room located deep in the Norfolk countryside, Fighter Controllers monitoring a bank of radar scopes issue precise instructions into the ears of four US F-5 Tiger pilots. Their mission is to intercept hostile fighters that have intruded into friendly airspace. Or so it appears...

F-15 Eagle in flight US Public Domain
STORY

The F-15 Eagle: the greatest of all time?

The F-15 Eagle first flew in 1972 and has dominated the skies ever since. Find out more about this formidable aircraft that the US has operated in every major conflict over the last forty years.
A PBY Catalina in flight Image by Sergey Vladimirov
STORY

PBY Catalina: endlessly versatile

The PBY Catalina was arguably the most versatile aircraft of the Second World War. It was involved from start to finish, in every theatre, in a variety of roles.
© IWM

All stories are written by IWM staff and copyright of Imperial War Museums (© IWM). The copyright in the images they contain belongs to IWM as well as other third parties. Neither the stories nor the images contained may be reproduced or licenced without IWM’s permission. 

IWM Licensing

Human stories

Discover the stories of the people whose lives have shaped, and been shaped by Anglo-American collaboration since the First World War.

A B-17 Flying Fortress (serial number 44-9728) of the 452nd Bomb Group drops food parcels over the Netherlands. IWM (FRE 13232)
STORY

Operation Manna-Chowhound: The world's first airborne humanitarian mission

Just days after the end of its combined bombing offensive, the RAF and US Army Air Forces embarked on a new campaign. In response to the plight of the starving Dutch people, the same Allied bombers that had dropped bombs on Germany would be used to deliver food parcels to civilians across the Nazi-occupied Netherlands.
Chartiy Adams inspecting her troops US Public Domain (National Archives and Records Administration)
STORY

The Real History of the Six Triple Eight

The 6888th's Central Directory Postal Battalion was the only unit of mostly-Black American women to be sent overseas during the Second World War. Led by Major Charity Adams, the 'Six Triple Eight' deployed to Birmingham in early 1945, where they undertook the mammoth task of sorting millions of letters for delivery to U.S. soldiers in the European Theatre.
© IWM

All stories are written by IWM staff and copyright of Imperial War Museums (© IWM). The copyright in the images they contain belongs to IWM as well as other third parties. Neither the stories nor the images contained may be reproduced or licenced without IWM’s permission. 

IWM Licensing

Recent conflict stories

Find out how Britain and America’s relationship has endured and been challenged through the turbulence of global events in the 21st Century.

F-15 Eagle in flight US Public Domain
STORY

The F-15 Eagle: the greatest of all time?

The F-15 Eagle first flew in 1972 and has dominated the skies ever since. Find out more about this formidable aircraft that the US has operated in every major conflict over the last forty years.
Rescue workers World Trade Center, New York 19 Sept 2001 US Public Domain
STORY

What were the September 11 attacks?

On the morning of 11 September 2001, 19 Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger planes in the United States.
British soldiers in a camp in Kuwait during Operation 'TELIC', the invasion of Iraq, 2003. ©Crown IWM (OP-TELIC 03-010-18-192)
STORY

The 2003 War in Iraq explained

Explore the events that led from the 11 September attacks to US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair invading Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
© IWM

All stories are written by IWM staff and copyright of Imperial War Museums (© IWM). The copyright in the images they contain belongs to IWM as well as other third parties. Neither the stories nor the images contained may be reproduced or licenced without IWM’s permission. 

IWM Licensing

Cold War stories

Find out how global tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States and its allies effected the latter half of the 20th Century.

F-16 in front of HAS US Public Domain (US Air Force)
STORY

The Aggressors: Britain's Top Gun School

It’s 1980 and in a darkened operations room located deep in the Norfolk countryside, Fighter Controllers monitoring a bank of radar scopes issue precise instructions into the ears of four US F-5 Tiger pilots. Their mission is to intercept hostile fighters that have intruded into friendly airspace. Or so it appears...

McDonnel Douglas Phantom FGR.2, XV499, of No. 41 Squadron based at Coningsby, in flight and displaying a weapons load of cluster bombs, Sparrow and Sidewinder AAMs. © IWM (CT 75)
STORY

The F-4 Phantom II: America's most prolific jet fighter

In 1958, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation delivered a prototype, twin-engine, supersonic, all-weather, long-range fighter -  a design the US Navy could not ignore: the F-4 Phantom II. It would go on to become the most-produced American supersonic jet fighter in history and an icon of the Cold War. 
Ground personnel clears an F-111 for take-off on 14th April 1986 US Public Domain (National Archives and Records Administration)
STORY

Operation El Dorado Canyon: Raid on Libya

In retaliation for the deadly bombing of a West Berlin nightclub in April 1986, US President Ronald Reagan ordered an attack at the heart of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime. Ten days later, F-111s took off from RAF Lakenheath for what would become the longest combat fighter mission in history.
© IWM

All stories are written by IWM staff and copyright of Imperial War Museums (© IWM). The copyright in the images they contain belongs to IWM as well as other third parties. Neither the stories nor the images contained may be reproduced or licenced without IWM’s permission. 

IWM Licensing

© IWM

All stories are written by IWM staff and copyright of Imperial War Museums (© IWM). The copyright in the images they contain belongs to IWM as well as other third parties. Neither the stories nor the images contained may be reproduced or licenced without IWM’s permission. 

IWM Licensing