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…commissioning, he was shocked to find he was only a Pilot Officer (Probationary) – but he was soon in charge of offensive radio navigation aids in RAF No 60 Group. Based at Oxendon, a Victorian pile near Leighton Buzzard, and staffed by former BBC technicians alongside regular officers, No 60…
…withdraw back to Siwa and Kufra when Rommel mounted a counter-offensive and pushed the 8th Army back to the Gazala Line, 30 miles west of Tobruk. Copyright: IWM-HU16454 Lloyd Owen took command of the LRDG in the winter of 1943, when it was operating in the Aegean. The troops he…
…by setting the scene at night and including a solitary owl in flight.” (The Tate Gallery) Three of his victims went down in successive nights on May 6-7 1941, when the Luftwaffe embarked on a major offensive against the Clydesdale ports and Glasgow. On June 8, Dalton-Morgan achieved a remarkable…
…hand and neck; CASEVAC out by DAKOTA from RANVILLE back to RAF Hospital WROUGHTON; rejoined CDO for patrols alongside AMERICANS (98th) early Jan45 to counter the ARDENNES OFFENSIVE, by then a DEMOLLTIONS SGT; on via the RHINE CROSSING at WESEL, once almost out of ammunition, had to carry out a…
…lady” when she appeared to delay the inquest into the death in Moscow of a British banker. In the same year he declared the film Scum, a vivid portrayal of the violence and savagery of life in a British borstal, to be “gratuitously offensive and revolting” and strongly rebuked IBA…
…here. Dilip Sarkar’s website. Preorder your copy of Johnnie Johnson’s Great Adventure here. Johnson climbs out of the cockpit before waiting media, RAF Kings Cliffe, 1941 “In 1940 Johnson had an operation to reset his collarbone, and began flying regularly. He took part in the offensive sweeps over German-occupied Europe…
…two men shared a variety of hazardous sorties during the German Spring Offensive which began on 21st March. On the 23rd April, they reached their objective and made an accurate bombing run, but as they reached the front line, they were hit by groundfire, and West managed to get them…
…those whose service was in the ROYAL NAVY’s COASTAL FORCES and specifically the role of their MOTOR GUN and TORPEDO BOATS, in both their DEFENSIVE and OFFENSIVE ROLES, protecting British Home Waters. Their small interdependent crews were involved in a heady mixture of, at times, most dramatic and dangerous work….
…in his GUNNERY & MINESWEEPING service the EAST INDIES FLEET ESCORT FORCE inc.37th MS FLOTILLA for CONVOYS & DEFENCE then BURMA OFFENSIVE. Operations in ARAKAN, the RAMREE ASSAULT 21Jan45, AKYAB, LETPAN & 2nd & 5th WEST AFRICAN Brigades, later RANGOON; 50 warships in EAST INDIES and PACIFIC FLEETS from ROYAL…
…the Ardennes region. Ms Lacey said: “When he landed, no-one believed him. He later shot down another in the afternoon – three in his first combat of World War Two.” For his bravery during the Battle of France, he was awarded the French Croix de Guerre medal, but was not…
…and then MONTPINCON, the later relief of the AIRBORNE FORCES at ARNHEM and after the Anglo-American GEILENKIRCHEN Offensive, the ROER SALIENT, GOCH. XANTEN, the RHINE BRIDGEHEAD at REES, liberation of Eastern Holland and the drive east via CLOPPENBURG into BREMEN. The 43rd DIVISION also had 60 Officers seconded from the…
…the Spitfire Wing – in offensive sweeps over occupied Europe. Subsequently, he held staff appointments and station commands in Britain and in the Middle East. He was awarded a DFC in 1940 and a Bar to it in 1941. Sheen was released from the RAF in 1947, but in 1949,…
…Point in Cornwall, mainly for night training. Visiting Fighter Command, Braham urged the use of AI night fighters in support of the bomber offensive over occupied Europe, in which heavy losses were being incurred. Although his proposal was not accepted at this stage, he won approval for moonlight attacks on…
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Dudgeon played a key role in a little-known, but crucial, air campaign that prevented the Germans gaining access to the Iraqi oil fields and a possible offensive from the east against the undefended Suez Canal. When the rabidly anti-British and pro-Axis Rashid Ali el Ghailani seized power…
“Air Marshal Sir Patrick Dunn had an illustrious record flying Gladiator bi-planes and Hurricanes in the Western Desert during the Second World War. On August 8 1940, Squadron Leader “Paddy” Dunn led an offensive patrol of 14 Gladiators of No 80 Squadron against Italian CR 42s that had been operating…
…Constance Babington Smith studied it through her stereoscope, she identified a ramp holding a tiny cruciform shape on rails. Her discovery, together with the subsequent examination of many thousands of photographs of other possible launch sites and storage depots, indicated that a flying bomb offensive was being prepared on the…
…Hurricane I: British (MOD 597) model (1950, wood and plastic, maker Cyril McCann) © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30018327 As the German offensive pushed forward and became the Battle of Britain, 92 Squadron was reassigned to South Wales leaving Tuck itching for combat duty and involved only in seeing off the…
…one pilot killed. On 10 May 1940, the great German offensive in the west (which rapidly became known as the blitzkrieg, or ‘lightning war’) began. Wehrmacht airborne troops landed in Holland and Belgium, as German tank columns and infantry crossed the frontiers into these neutral countries. At once elements of…
…and determination in attacking superior numbers of enemy aircraft have instilled the greatest confidence in the other pilots of his squadron. He himself wrote of this time and the Polish fighters under his command: “We fought together through the great offensive of 1940 and I then knew that the pilots…
…death of this Somme Offensive and of Sir Hiram Maxim whose invention of the machine gun had so transformed the nature and scale of warfare. By late autumn more than one and a half million casualties were sustained by the forces of both sides, one of the largest losses in…
…the hangars and huts in a hostile aerodrome, several casualties being observed. He has at all times shown himself to be a leader of exceptional dash and ability, and offensive patrols led by him have constantly attacked enemy formations with marked gallantry and determination”. During the Second World War, the…
…Squadron, flying Spitfires in offensive sweeps over northern France. The next year, he received his first two squadron commands, Nos 152 and 66 Squadrons. These gave air cover to convoys and escorted day bombers over France. F/O Harold AC “Birdie” Bird-Wilson of No 17 Squadron RAF sits in the officers…
…Driver EVANS. 502 Company RASC of 30 ARMOURED BRIGADE manned the trenches at GEILENKIRCHEN to allow the infantry, 43rd (WESSEX) DIVISION to rest before a new offensive. Mule trains, pack horses, the Army’s fleet of vessels, trains & railway rolling stock, canal barges and every type of motor transport, large…
…SOUTH EAST ASIA COMMAND SEAC Newspaper, which was such an important foundation of the revitalisation of “The Forgotten Army, Navy and Air Force” and sustaining their self-confidence and morale moving from the defensive to the offensive – when the changing conveniences of post war politics found power swinging to the…