Historical Period - Second World War

A Gurkha soldier guards Japanese prisoners on their way to POW camps outside Bangkok, September 1945.

Winston Churchill addressing merchant ships' crews and dockers at Liverpool, April 1941.

Winston Churchill studies after action reports with Vice Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Flag Officer Comanding Dover, 28 August 1940.

Winston Churchill stops 'Blackie', ship's cat of HMS PRINCE OF WALES, crossing over to a US destroyer during the Atlantic Conference, August 1941.

The driver of a Bishop 25-pdr self-propelled gun of 142nd Field Regiment in Sicily, 27 July 1943.

Winston Churchill watches a female riveter at work on a Supermarine Spitfire at the Castle Bromwich factory in Birmingham, 28 September 1941.

Sherman DD tanks of 'B' Squadron, 13th/18th Royal Hussars support men of No. 4 Army Commando advancing towards Ouistreham on D-Day, 6 June 1944.

Eileen Dunne, aged three, sits in bed with her doll at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, after being injured during an air raid on London in September 1940.

Winston Churchill inspects air raid damage at Ramsgate in Kent, 28 August 1940.

Winston Churchill, cigar in mouth, gives his famous 'V' for victory sign during a visit to Bradford, 4 December 1942.

British paratroops inside a Dakota transport aircraft on their way to Holland during 1st Airborne Division's operation to Arnhem, 17 September 1944.

Cecil Beaton portrait of an Indian naval rating operating a signal lamp on the sloop SUTLEJ at the Royal Indian Naval Station at Calcutta, 1944.

Private W Stack of No. 9 Commando at Anzio, equipped for a patrol with a Browning pistol, 5 March 1944.

Buildings burning in Manchester after a German air raid on the night of 3 December 1940.

British soldiers smile at a 'Viva Il Duce' slogan on a wall in Reggio, Italy, September 1943.

Two members of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) check the accuracy of anti-aircraft fire from a gun battery during the Second World War.

Wing Commander Guy Gibson (centre), CO of No. 106 Squadron RAF, with his two Flight Commanders, Squadron Leader J H Searby (left) and Squadron Leader P Ward-Hunt, at Syerston, on the completion of Gibson's tour of operations, March 1943.

MEETING OF THE SUPREME COMMAND, ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, LONDON, 1 FEBRUARY 1944

King George VI listens as Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery outlines his future strategy at his mobile headquarters in Holland, 13 October 1944.

Flight Lieutenant Joe McCarthy (fourth from left) and his crew of No. 617 Squadron (The Dambusters) at RAF Scampton, 22 July 1943.

Winston Churchill inspecting men of the 4th Queen's Own Hussars at Loreto aerodrome, Italy, 25 August 1944.

The Western Desert 1942: Head and shoulders portrait of a bearded member of the Long Range Desert Group wearing a woolly cap at the wheel of his jeep.

A female member of Air Raid Precautions staff applies her lipstick between emergency calls.

North West Europe 1944 - 1945: Churchill on the east bank of the Rhine, south of Wesel.