A serious - if often very entertaining - attempt to get to grips with the reality of national service, an extraordinary institution which now seems as remote as the British Empire itself. With great sympathy and curiosity, Richard Vinen unpicks the myths of the two 'gap years', which all British men who came of age between 1945 and the early 1960s had to fill with national service.

One way or another the Communist guerrilla war kept a whole British army occupied from 1948-1952. A young virgin like Brigg had to grab his fun while and where he could - in the Liberty Club, in Juicy Lucy's flat or up in Phillipa's room.

'Death's Men' portrays the humble men who were called on to face the appalling fears and discomforts of the fighting zone. It shows the reality of the First World War through the voices of the men who fought.

This is an account of one American platoon's tour of duty in Baghdad. It is a searing and shattering portrait of the face of modern warfare.

You are Marius and looking for a life of adventure you join the Roman Army. Through a lifetime of campaigns and battles you come face to face with some pretty scary characters.

At the age of 23, Brian Wood was thrust into the front line in Iraq, in the infamous Battle of Danny Boy. Ambushed, he led a charge across open ground with insurgents firing at just five soldiers. On his return, he was awarded the Military Cross. But Brian's story had only just begun. Struggling to re-integrate into family life, he suffered from PTSD. Then, five years later, a letter arrived: it summoned him to testify at the Al-Sweady Inquiry into...

Winifred Phillips was born in Ilford, Essex, in 1926. Sent to a convent boarding school, she trained as a nursery nurse and met George Wheeler, a 19-year-old RAF trainee wireless operator. The pair fell in love and spent a happy year together, only to say goodbye in 1943. They kept in touch but he went missing in 1944 and nobody knew what happened to him. Determined to see something of the world, Winifred joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in...