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.
…to the Central Fighter Establishment as wing commander weapons, but he seized the opportunity to learn to fly jets. After two years he went to the Joint Services Staff College. From the spring of 1954, as wing commander flying at RAF Wahn, he was responsible for three Gloster Meteor jet…
…varied career, which spanned many aircraft types – after North West Frontier service pre-war and later in BLENHEIMS in the Desert War his book, “The War That Never Was”, records the rapid improvisation and fighting initiative which turned unarmed trainers into weapons of war, raising the SIEGE of No.4 FLYING…
“Captain Dickie Annand, who died on Christmas Eve aged 90, won the Army’s first Victoria Cross of the Second World War when serving with the 2nd Battalion, The Durham Light Infantry, in Belgium in May 1940. Dickie Annand VC On May 15, 2 DLI was in a defensive position on…
…weapons.14 Although in the hills around Shuri the enemy had superb observation of the Hagushi beaches and of the great American armada that stood off shore, he had been content for the time being to leave the burden of opposition to the Japanese air force. Some delaying actions were fought…
…after a distinguished weapons pass at SMALL ARMS SCHOOL, he was made a SGT and sailed on his 30th birthday, 14 Aug 1943, on the “Monarch of Bermuda”, after much training only with MATILDAS and VALENTINES 1940-42; arriving at TARANTO, they joined up with some from 2nd Bn KRRC and…
…tea and sugar and two dummy biscuits, one with PALMERS stamped on it. Specialised jungle equipment as carried by British forces during the Malayan Emergency: The weapons are a Lee Enfield Rifle No.5 Mk.I, Owen sub-machine gun and an M1 Carbine. Amongst the other equipment is a parang, first…
…landing, Adrian flung open the window at the back of the house. They were four storeys up. The nearest roof was six foot away, across a chasm. Adrian edged out on to the sill and jumped. Bolter recalled: “It was a wonderful leap, weighted down as he was by weapons….
…California, and attended the Naval Post-Graduate School at Monterey, California. Promoted to commander, Vraciu led his own fighter squadron, VF-51, for twenty-two months, from 1956 to 1958, and won the individual gunnery championship at the U.S. Navy’s Air Weapons Meet at El Centro, California, in 1957. Vraciu officially retired from…
…Lancasters were lost, nearly 12 per cent of the force. Rowland attacked more flying bomb sites and the huge secret weapons facility at Wizernes before the campaign against Germany was resumed. After completing his 50th operation – to Calais, the scene of his first war sortie – Rowland was rested….
…and engine development, serving throughout WW2 as well; Philip flew on patrol often at 1,200ft with his 2301b bomb and two pigeons and 100 feet of copper cable for communications – on the lookout for submarines and mines during the war and mines even after the Armistice, he would alight…
…radar development team. When the team was moved away from Bawdsey, the radar station became a part of the operational Chain Home (CH) network. The main display is a large CRT, partially masked off by a metal box so only the lower half of the CRT remains visible. In earlier…
…SIGNALS speciality, becoming Flag Lt 4th CRUISER SON and here is primarily to represent the Royal Navy’s participation in the PACIFIC WAR, the vital development of interoperable CODES and SIGNALS procedures and his close appreciation of the top US and British naval commanders in the Pacific War and, through his…
…duties as squadron leader; personnel of 610 Sqdn; comparison of auxiliary and servce squadrons; facilities at RAF Ludham; operation in support of Dieppe Raid, 19/8/1942; impact of arrival Focke Wulf Fw 190 and development of Supermarine Spitfire Mark IX; role escorting US Army Air Force bombers on operations over Europe…
…for the forward FIGHTING SPEARHEADS. The Commander’s naval career spanned steam and oil to the development of nuclear propulsion for the “Long Beach” cruiser project and he had two naval uncle brothers from West CORK before him, Patrick O’DRISCOLL in the ROYAL NAVY and Dennis DRISCOLL in the US NAVY….
…Italians in the development of the multi-role combat aircraft which later became known as the Tornado. After retiring in 1971 Grandy served, from 1973 to 1978, as the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Gibraltar, the first RAF officer to fill the post; he was then Constable and Governor of Windsor Castle…
…worked as a technician and flight test observer at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment before becoming the senior flight development engineer with Fairey Aviation in 1953. She also flew as a test observer in the Royal Navy’s Gannet anti-submarine aircraft and regularly flew Fairey’s communication aircraft. Her love of…
…when, as the war ended, he opted to pass up the opportunity of a glittering peacetime career in the RAF and return to civil aviation. Exchanging a group captain’s brass hat for a test pilot’s overalls, he took over flight development of the company’s Goblin turbojet engine. Within a year…
…Empire Test Pilots’ Course, and left the Navy to test Short’s flying boats under development in Belfast. On the outbreak of the Korean War he rejoined the Navy, helping to train new pilots and flying 75 missions over Korea from the carrier Ocean. He wrote pilots’ notes for a range…
…in support of the invasion of Normandy. Moving onto jets before the end of the war he received command in 1945 of No 1335, the RAF’s first jet conversion unit. This led in 1946 to command of the Central Flying Establishment’s air fighting development squadron. In 1948 he was posted…
…Reserve US Naval operations in the Pacific, in particular for the key raids on RABAUL which had become the biggest Japanese base in New Guinea. The Australians tried to restrict its development because of its closeness to the important Imperial Japanes Navy base taken and developed at Truk, where the…
…and excellent record on DESTROYERS, a CORVETTE and a FRIGATE, in gunnery and as a HIGHER SUBMARINE DETECTOR,’ he signs for these ships’ defensive and offensive roles, specifically .for the development/ training and OPERATIONS of all NAVAL ASDIC OPERATORS. An extract from the Admiralty Honours & Awards letter 145/43 to…
…various capacities as Chief Test Pilot, Director of Flight Operations, and Head of Flight Test and Evaluation, heavily involved in concept development of the F/A- 18 Hornet. A founder of the Tailhook Association, he received its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1964 and, during his lengthy and varied flying career, Bob…
…action. At this unexpected development, with Kurita turning away when only 45 miles from the US invasion force, Sprague, dumbfounded then, would later say this was due ‘to the divine partiality of God’,. Gambier Bay’s very presence thus, despite its loss as those of US destroyers too, played an important…
…Duperier and others, as also the wide service of Nos 340 Ile de France and 341 Alsace French Squadrons. For 18 years General Manager of the Paris Air Show, and saw much of Concorde’s development. His favourite aircraft was the Spitfire (his first kill was a Me-109, confirmed by 141…