For a more exact match when searching for multiple words, please put the search term in quoatation marks. For example: use "Battle of Britain" instead of Battle of Britain.
A few of The Few: Just three hours after this photograph of eight Hurricane pilots from 43 Squadron, ‘relaxing’ outside the Officer’s Mess at RAF Tangmere, was taken, on 7 September 1940 – seven days before Battle of Britain Day – two of them, the Australian Richard Reynell and the…
…Mould; relations with NCO pilots; move to Le Harve area, 9/1939; memories of French liaison officer Jean ‘Moses’ Demozay; accommodation during winter, 1939-1940; lack of ground control; move to Vassincourt; shooting down of Messerschmitt Me 109, 19/4/1940 Recollections of operations as pilot with 1Sqdn, RAF during Battle of France, 5/1940:…
…operations over France including the Rhubarb ground attack missions which Johnson hated—he considered it a waste of pilots. Several successful fighter pilots had been lost this way. Flight Lieutenant Eric Lock and Wing Commander Paddy Finucane were killed on Rhubarb operations in August 1941 and July 1942 respectively. Squadron leader…
…transport aircraft of the US 1st Air Commando took off in the evening, each one towing two Waco gliders. 37 of these arrived at Broadway. 30 men were killed and 33 injured as the gliders bumped and swerved in the jungle clearing that first night. Almost all the gliders were…
…IWM Art.IWM PST 0123 Alan Deere: remembered by a new generation “Jacob The Pilot” is on Twitter @Jacob_The_Pilot In August 2020, A British youngster’s about to retrace the escape route of New Zealand’s most famous World War II pilot. Alan Deere’s Spitfire was shot down during the Battle of France…
…force-landed, three pilots killed, and two wounded. By the end of June 1940, ten Distinguished Flying Crosses (DFCs) had been awarded to officers of the squadron, and three Distinguished Flying Medals (DFMs) had been received by NCO pilots. The pilots of 1 Squadron The pilots of 1 Squadron Pilots of…
Miss Lettice CURTIS ATA “arguably the most remarkable woman pilot of the Second World War” (Telegraph) One of the first women pilots to join the British Air Transport Auxiliary, she flew continuously throughout the war, later flight test engineer & air racing pilot: her book The Forgotten Pilots illustrates country’s…
…to fly the Supermarine Spitfire after Vickers Aviation’s chief test pilot, Joseph “Mutt” Summers. After succeeding Summers as Vickers’ chief test pilot, Quill test-flew every mark of Spitfire. Quill’s work on the aircraft aided its development from a promising but untried prototype to become, with the Hawker Hurricane, an instrument…
…© IWM TR 815 The 229 pilots were attached to 73 and 274 Squadrons in the Western Desert for operations. On 1st September 1941 229 began functioning again as a squadron, its ground personnel having at last arrived in Egypt. It began night defence operations. Rosier was posted away in…
…September 17 1944, the first day of Operation Market Garden, Dauncey, then a lieutenant serving with the Glider Pilot Regiment (GPR), flew a Horsa glider to Arnhem. It carried a jeep, an ammunition trailer and six gunners of the Airlanding Light Regiment RA. The Glider Pilot Regiment, Mike Dauncey is…
…Britain fighter pilots; he later achieved considerable success during the German night attacks on Glasgow before playing a prominent role in co-ordinating fighter operations for the D-Day landings. Dalton-Morgan had virtually no experience as a fighter pilot when he was appointed a flight commander of No 43 Squadron – “The…
…1971. He passed away in May of 2001, but is still fondly remembered as a legendary figure within the RAF Regiment, embodying the RAF’s ethos of Respect, Integrity, Service before Self and Excellence. [Credit: RAF Regiment Heritage Centre] THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN, JULY-OCTOBER 1940 Pilot of No. 64 Squadron RAF…
…4/10/1940-16/10/1940: motivation of fighter pilots; attitude towards Germans; need for fighter pilots to have good eyesight; training with 54 Sqdn prior to posting to 72 Sqdn at RAF Biggin Hill, 4/10/1940. Recollections of operations as pilot with 603 Sqdn, No 11 Group, Fighter Command, RAF in GB, 10/1940-12/1940 including Battle…
…Vraciu had earned a private pilot’s license through the federal government’s Civilian PilotTraining Program. Relaxing at the home of his uncle in the Chicago suburbs that fateful Sunday in December, Vraciu remembered being as shocked as millions of other Americans were when they heard the news over the radio about…
…life in London; importance of leadership by example; training up new squadron personnel at RAF Digby, 9/1940-10/1940. Recollections of operations as pilot and commanding 151 Sqdn, No 12 Group, Fighter Command, RAF in GB, 11/1941-3/1943: reaction to issue of Lack of Moral Fibre regulations; shooting down of Heinkel He 111…
…Royal Regiment in 1938. He began his military service in Palestine during the Arab rebellion. When the Italians moved towards Mersah Matruh, his regiment was sent to Egypt and in December 1940 he took part in Wavell’s offensive, which reached Benghazi. In March 1941 he was posted to the Middle…
…1 Recollections of operations as pilot with 616 Sqdn, No 12 Group, Fighter Command, RAF in GB, 9/1939-7/1940: qualities required by fighter pilots; impressions of first Supermarine Spitfires Mk Is; success against Junkers Ju 88s over Driffield; operations over Dunkirk, France, 5/1940-6/1940; squadron pilot who had psychological breakdown; threat of…
…Aircraft as an experimental test pilot. Moving to de Havilland as a demonstration pilot, he joined English Electric as chief test pilot in 1947 to lead the B3/45 jet bomber programme from which the Canberra emerged. From May 1949, Beamont managed all prototype tests and also established two Atlantic speed…
…Wellington pilot in the film Target for Tonight and later killed on the daring low-level raid against the Amiens jail. Pickard had just taken over No 161, one of two squadrons supporting SOE operations from Tempsford, Bedfordshire, and he selected Hodges as one of his two flight commanders piloting Halifax…
…Air Squadron; allocation to Bomber Command. Aspects of operations as pilot with 102 Sqdn, No 4 Group, Bomber Command, RAF in GB, 6/1940-1/1941: posting to squadron at RAF Driffield, 6/1940; flying Armstrong Whitworth Whitley; problems faced by Bomber Command during Battle of France, 5/1940-6/1940; German Air Force attack on RAF…
…was appointed to RAF Waddington as the base operations officer. Although the post did not require him to fly on operations, in the first six weeks he flew nine with the junior crews of two Australian Lancaster squadrons. In May he returned to operations and was appointed a master bomber…
“His night-fighter status in the war was unrivalled and comparable to the best of the best daytime fighter pilots” ‘Group Captain John ‘Cat’s Eyes’ Cunningham, who has died aged 84, was a night fighter ace and later a consummate test pilot whose name guaranteed the reputation of British aviation. After…
…Welch Regiment on 17 May 1941. He was given the service number 187088. He was posted to the regiment’s 1st/5th Battalion, a Territorial Army (TA) unit. The battalion was one of three (the others being the 4th Welch Regiment and the 2nd Monmouthshire Regiment) which formed part of the 160th…
…operations staff of Fighter Command’s No 11 Group and also at Fighter Command headquarters. After his exploits flying into France, he became an SOE air operations manager organising drops and agent landings in Western Europe and Scandinavia. In the autumn of 1944 Verity supervised clandestine air operations in South East…