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.
…left, the Belgian pilot Albert Emmanuel Allx Dieudonne Jean Ghislain van den Hove d’Ertsenrijck would die a week later on Battle of Britain Day itself. Van den Hove at Beauvechain on 10th May (British troops have arrived to strengthen the airfield defences) Battle of Britain Memorial of London The Scotsman…
…Sea between the Japanese main force and Task Force 38, Surigao Strait, the biggest surface action since Jutland in 1916, history’s last battle-line action at sea between battleships, Cape Engano, the final sea action of Japanese aircraft carriers and their destruction by the US Third Fleet, and the BATTLE off…
…and here, in particular, those many WAAF ground control PLOTTERS and FIGHTER CONTROLLERS in and beyond the BATTLE of BRITAIN, often hearing through their headphones the savage cut and thrust of battle and too many final silences. “During the Battle of Britain the W.A.A.F.’s had undoubtedly proved themselves to be…
They Were There is a work in progress, and the fuller biographies will emerge in due course: please sign up to the Newsletter (bottom of the page) and we’ll let you know when we’ve done appropriate justice to the American heroes among our signatories. Battle of the Philippine Sea:…
…31,807 wounded and 239 missing in action. At sea and in the air, the Navy reported 36 US ships sunk, 368 damaged, 763 aircraft lost to all causes, 4,907 seamen killed or missing in action and 4,824 wounded. Despite the magnitude of these losses by the Americans, the Japanese sustained…
‘a classic example of how a first-class fighter pilot can attack an enemy while his engine is failing,shoot it down, force land on the sea, and get away with it’ ‘Group Captain Tom Dalton-Morgan, who has died in Australia aged 87, was one of the RAF’s most distinguished Battle of…
…were climbing away into the sky, all we had to do was keep our eyes open and the enemy could not touch us.’ Commander R ‘Mike’ Crosley DSC RN: They Gave me a Seafire (via ArmouredCarriers.com) An RAF Supermarine Sea Spitfire or Seafire flying over a British aircraft carrier. Seafire…
‘During the Battle of Britain, his mother watched him being shot down’ ‘Wing Commander Tim Elkington, who has died aged 98, was one of the last surviving pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain, and was one of only two survivors of the RAF Hurricane Wing that operated with…
…from 1941 to 1944, almost without rest. Johnson was involved in heavy aerial fighting during this period. His combat tour included participation in the Dieppe Raid, Combined Bomber Offensive, Battle of Normandy, Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge and the Western Allied invasion of Germany. Johnson progressed to…
…the leading pilots of the battle.” He added: “Not many survived the entire war, most were either killed, injured or taken prisoner, so for an aircrew member to have a record like that, it must have been pretty scarce.” After the Battle of Britain, Lacey was promoted to flight lieutenant…
…the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust. He regularly attended the annual Battle of Britain service held at Westminster Abbey. To mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain in 2015, he once again flew in a Spitfire, an aircraft he described as “like flying a Bugatti”. The memory of…
…110 and Messerschmitt Me 109; personal morale; his collision with Messerschmitt Me 109, 9/7/1940; shooting down of German Red Cross seaplane; treatment for burns at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead and opinion of Archibald McIndoe, 28/7/1940; importance of weather; frequency and duration of patrols; fatigue during battle; lack of sense…
…1998. His portrait was drawn by Cuthbert Orde in January 1941 (below).” Portrait of JI Kilmartin by Cuthbert Orde (January, 1941) Courtesy of wonderful The Battle of Britain London Monument’s ‘The Airmen’s Stories’ _________ RCAF No. 403 Squadron (via the ‘RCAF No. 403 Squadron’ site) Three ‘They Were There’ signatories…
…Ross, arriving there in late June 1944, a few weeks after the initial D-Day landings. The division participated in a number of engagements, such as the Second Battle of the Odon, and, in August, the Battle of the Falaise Pocket. By mid-August Watkins, commanding “B” Company in his battalion, which…
…worked as a test pilot for the RAF for several years before leaving and starting a mushroom farm in Kent. Wing Commander Tuck talking to his lifelong friend, German Ace Adolf Galland at an event in Madame Tussaud’s marking the release of the 1969 film “The Battle of Britain”. Battle…
…World War. In the Battle of Britain who had the privilege to command the legendary Polish 303 Squadron which shot down more German planes than any other RAF squadron – despite not joining the battle until August, two months after it had begun. The Battle Colours were sewn in secret…
…reporting to Vice-Adm Sir Bernard RAWLINGS at sea for the BRITISH PACIFIC FLEET Commander. Admiral Sir Bruce FRASER (previously C-in-C HOME FLEET then EASTERN FLEET), then in turn to the FIFTH FLEET COMMANDER USN Admiral SPRUANCE, victor of the critical BATTLES of MIDWAY & PHILIPPINES SEA, who reported to Fleet…
…they made photo-recce sorties over Italy. Sheen resumed with No 72 at the end of July 1940 and later, after the Battle of Britain and a second spell in hospital, took part in a night action over the North Sea which he described in a broadcast on the BBC. In…
…to a hospital, where he was informed by doctors that he would never fly again. After spending most of the summer under treatment he proved them wrong and was back in the air in time for the tail-end of the Battle of Britain. He also escaped serious disfigurement, although he…
…the UN Protection Force in Bosnia.” (Credit: The Battle of Britain London Monument) Imperial War Museums’ Oral History: Irving Smith “New Zealand officer served as pilot with and commanded 151 Sqdn, No 12 Group, Fighter Command, RAF in GB, 7/1940-3/1943 including Battle of Britain, 7/1940-10/1940; served as staff officer with…
…Bristol Blenheim, which had to search hopelessly for night raiders, Cunningham and his fellow pilots had little more to help them than training, eyesight and instinct. “We didn’t look on the so-called fighter version of the Blenheim as a very attractive aircraft,” he recalled. “As we went off to war…
…tactics employed. REEL 2 Continues: method of bailing out; opinion of German pilots; lack of collisions; opinion of Junkers Ju 88; method of gaining height from RAF Kenley; weather during battle; comparison between Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire; daily routine during battle; personal motivation; question of why battle was won;…
…January 1929 as an Aircraft Apprentice at Halton and passed out in December 1931 as a Metal Rigger. He applied for pilot training in 1934 and was selected. With training completed, he joined 43 Squadron at Tangmere in August 1936 as a Sergeant-Pilot. Rare original colour photograph. (Battle of Britain:…
…war. Col Henry Lafont, who has died aged 91, made a dramatic escape from Vichy-held Algeria and reached England to fly Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain; he was the last of the 13 French fighter pilots to fly in the Battle. When France capitulated in June 1940, Lafont was…