Dr Sarah-Louise Miller is an historian of war, and is a full-time lecturer at the Defence Studies Department, King’s College London. Her research focuses on warfare in the twentieth century, particularly the Second World War. Sarah completed her MPhil at Anglia Ruskin University, followed by a PhD at King’s College London’s Department of War Studies, which she completed in July 2022. After a brief period as a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge, she is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford’s Faculty of History, and a member of Kellogg College, Oxford. Sarah is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and is an Associate of both the Laughton Naval History and Maritime Strategy Unit and the Freeman Air and Space Institute at King’s College London. Sarah is the author of several books and is currently working on a history of wartime Hawaii. She also appears regularly on British television, having featured on various history documentaries for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky History, National Geographic and PBS.

Research Interests

• War and Conflict
• Airpower and Aviation
• Maritime
• Intelligence
• WWII History

Sarah’s primary research area is the history of air and sea power and intelligence. Her first major research project examined the use of intelligence and technological innovation by the Royal Air Force in the Second World War, examining how both affected the RAF’s overall strategy and tactics throughout the conflict. This work was published in March 2023 as a book, entitled, The Women Behind the Few. Sarah’s second book, The Lancaster Story, was published in May 2024. This work examines the iconic Avro Lancaster in the context of the many people associated with it, from its’ inception as an idea right up to the use of one of the few surviving Lancasters in the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight today.

Sarah’s PhD thesis studied the use of intelligence and technology in the Second World War at Sea, focusing on British and American naval intelligence in the Battle of the Atlantic and in the Pacific Naval War. This research is due to be published as a book with Bloomsbury Academic in November 2024. 

Selected Publications 

Books

The Women Behind the Few: The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and British Intelligence during the Second World War (released in hardback in March 2023, and in paperback in February 2024) https://www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/the-women-behind-the-few

The Lancaster Story (published with Michael O’Mara Books, released 23 May 2024) https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Lancaster-Story-by-Sarah-Louise-Miller/9781789296396

Women in Allied Naval Intelligence in the Second World War: A Close Secret (My PhD thesis, under publication with Bloomsbury Academic, manuscript submitted, due for release in November 2024) https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/women-in-allied-naval-intelligence-in-the-second-world-war-9781350402249/

Hawaii’s Women at War (under publication with Pegasus, due for release in 2025) https://www.sarah-louisemiller.com/books

Academic Articles

‘The Women Who Watched the Waves: The Women’s Air Raid Defense Organisation in World War II Hawaii’ https://bjmh.gold.ac.uk/article/view/1652

‘The Women Behind the Few: The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and British Air Intelligence during the Second World War’, Aspects of History, Issue 15, April/May 2023

Review of Peter Kornicki’s Eavesdropping on the Emperor: Interrogators and Codebreakers in Britain’s War with Japan, review commissioned by H Sci-Med-Tech, based at Michigan State University https://www.hnet.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=57654

Review of Lewis F. McIntyre’s Take Charge and Move Out: The Founding Fathers of TACAMO, commissioned by the Journal of Military History https://www.proquest.com/docview/2727705265

Review of Peter Harmsen’s War in the Far East: Japan Runs Wild, 1942-1943, commissioned by War in History Journal, published in volume 30, issue 3: https://doi.org/10.1177/09683445231183773e

Publications and Media Coverage

Publications – 2 books

My second book, The Lancaster Story, was published with Michael O’Mara Books in May this year. The Lancaster Story uses archival documents, letters and first-hand accounts to delve into the history of Britain’s most successful WWII bomber, the Avro Lancaster. It examines the Lancaster as an aircraft, and discusses its role in Allied strategic bombing strategy in the Second World War. In doing so, it examines the lives of the many men and women who flew, designed, constructed and maintained it. https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Lancaster-Story-by-Sarah-Louise-Miller/9781789296396

My third book, Women in Allied Naval Intelligence in the Second World War: A Close Secret, is due to be published with Bloomsbury Academic in November this year. This book closely examines the work of women in the US and British naval services towards Allied naval intelligence during the Second World War, focusing on their contributions during the Battle of the Atlantic and Pacific Naval War in order to shed new light on arenas of war from which women's narratives are almost always absent. Including personal testimonies from those involved, and surveying a wide cross-section of different roles, Sarah-Louise Miller analyses the work of women at every level and rank in the US and British naval services, and offers a much wider picture of how they assisted the Allied forces behind closed doors. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/women-in-allied-naval-intelligence-in-the-second-world-war-9781350402218/

Media Coverage

As both an academic and a public historian, I am involved in a lot of television work. My recent media appearances are as follows:

• BBC News Channel, D-Day 80 coverage – I provided expert opinion/commentary on the anniversary commemorations in Portsmouth

• BBC London News – I appeared on the news live from the Battle of Britain Bunker in Uxbridge in an interview with Asad Ahmad, providing commentary on the intelligence and deception operations behind D-Day

• BBC Points of View – I appeared as an expert on D-Day for the episode covering D-Day: The Last Heroes

• Channel 5, Inside Windsor Castle – I appeared in this historical documentary as an expert covering Princess Elizabeth in the ATS in the Second World War

• BBC Saving Lives at Sea WWII Special – I appeared as an expert on the Second World War at Sea in this special episode, and was part of a panel with presenter Dermot O’Leary and historian James Holland, discussing this episode at the We Have Ways History Festival

• Channel 5, The Midlands Through Time with Jay Blades – I appeared as a historical expert in episode on the WWII bombing of Coventry, filming on site in Coventry Cathedral with presenter Jay Blades.

• Channel 4, Women on the Front Line – I appeared in all three episodes of this historical documentary as an expert on women and war

• BBC Who Do You Think You Are – I appeared as a historical expert in the episode concerning actor and comedian Ralf Little, filming in Orkney

• Channel 4, Fortress Britain – I appeared alongside Professor Alice Roberts as the WWII expert-presenter

• Channel 4, My Grandparents’ War – I appeared as a historical expert in Keira Knightley’s episode, explaining to Keira what her grandparents did in WWII Glasgow.

• I have also just filmed a new series for National Geographic, and another episode of Who Do You Think You Are, due to air next year.