Photos - Second World War

Vera Elliott says good bye to her daughter Heather as she sets off from Sunderland railway station to begin her war work in May 1941.

A 6-pdr anti-tank gun portee, camouflaged to look like an ordinary lorry, North Africa, 27 October 1942.

Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery, commanding the British Eighth Army in North Africa, in the turret of his Grant command tank at El Alamein, 5 November 1942.

Supermarine Spitfire Mk XIVe RB140 in March 1944. This aircraft served operationally with Nos. 616 and 610 Squadrons, but was destroyed in a landing accident at Lympne on 30 October 1944.

Troops evacuated from Dunkirk enjoying tea and other refreshments at Addison Road station in London, 31 May 1940.

Mrs Edith Digby, an Air Raid Warden on duty in Bermondsey, London during the Second World War.

Winston Churchill giving his famous V-for-Victory sign while being driven past a line of troops in Tel-el-Kebir, 9 August 1942.

Winston Churchill with President Roosevelt and Marshal Stalin at a dinner party at the British Legation in Tehran on the occasion of Churchill's 69th birthday, 30 November 1943.

Grant tanks of 5th Royal Tank Regiment on the move in the Western Desert, 17 February 1942.

Winston Churchill with his daughter Sarah, on a visit to his old regiment, the 4th Queen's Own Hussars, in Egypt, 5 December 1943.

A British Army 15-cwt truck throws up a cloud of sand and dust while moving at speed along a desert track in North Africa, 1 November 1940.

Winston Churchill greets Joseph Stalin with President Roosevelt outside the Livadia Palace during the Yalta Conference, February 1945.

Lines of barbed-wire obstacles stretch across snow-covered fields near Menin in France, 21 January 1940.

Winston Churchill delivers an informal speech to men of his old regiment, the 4th Queen's Own Hussars, at Loreto aerodrome in Italy, 25 August 1944.

Winston Churchill uses a telescope to watch an assault against enemy positions north of Florence, from the observation post of a battery of the 66th (Lowland) Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery, 20 August 1944.

Winston Churchill and General Sir Harold Alexander watching an attack on a German-held ridge in Italy, 26 August 1944.

Spitfire pilots of No. 417 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, planning another operation from their airfield at Goubrine in Tunisia, April 1943.

Winston Churchill discussing the battle situation in Italy with the Commander of the Eighth Army, Lieutenant General Sir Oliver Leese (left) and the Supreme Allied Commander Mediterranean, General Sir Harold Alexander, 26 August 1944.

Portrait of Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery on his appointment as Colonel Commandant of the Parachute Regiment, 1944.

Winston Churchill with General de Gaulle during an inspection of French troops at Marrakesh in Morocco, January 1944.

A CMP truck and motorcycle of 11th Royal Horse Artillery (Honourable Artillery Company), 1st Armoured Division, Tunisia, 22 April 1943.

A message written on rice paper is put into a container and attached to a carrier pigeon by members of 61st Division Signals at Ballymena, Northern Ireland, 3 July 1941.

Winston Churchill makes a radio address from his desk at 10 Downing Street, wearing his 'siren suit', June 1942.

Winston Churchill at the microphone in the Cabinet Office, making his 'VE Day' broadcast to the nation, 8 May 1945.