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…the big retreat, stabilising at LC237, with 38 sorties mostly before ALAMEIN (first 18 all strategic inc.3 Benghazis 8,12 & 16 May 1942 then 19th to 38 all tactical except 37th, 6hr 10min sortie, 9 Sep 1942 against Tobruk); tourex to UK 24 Oct 1942 & back on WELLINGTON OTU;…
…MULBERRY HARBOURS project, allowing this “ENGINEERING MIRACLE” to provide that necessary STRATEGIC SURPRISE for the NORMANDY INVASION; 6,500 vehicles & 40,000 tons of stores would be landed a week; this project started with one of the war is famous, succinct official letters, from Prime Minister Winston CHURCHILL at 10 Downing…
…and important expansion of the UNITED STATES NAVY, which he joined on 13 Dec 1942, the US MERCHANT MARINE and the KAISER mass production of those vital strategic assets, the 2,770 prefabricated US cargo vessels, the LIBERTY SHIPS (his own was the SS George A CUSTER), in the total US…
…to air attack. During 1942 until after the turning point Battle of El Alamein the fear of Hitler’s overrunning Egypt had also been an added possibility of an extreme Axis strategic advantage. Nos 30, 258 and 261 were the three Hurricane Squadrons involved and the Fairey Fulmars of 273 Squadron….
…where he was captured but quickly, in turn, took his own captors’ captive as the Allied army advanced. Post war, among other postings, he would command No. 7 Squadron Valiants, followed later on by the strategic reconnaissance RAF station at Wyton and finally the big Cyprus base at RAF Akrotiri….
…MInstStE RE for the ROYAL ENGINEERS contribution to the air war worldwide and the key importance in WW2 building of the rapid provision of forward airstrips in NORMANDY and elsewhere for the universal requirement of air power. Normandy’s 100 miles distance from UK airfields, partly its strategic surprise to the…
…a ‘USS Gambier Bay’ presentation to President Ronald Reagan in The White House Fuller details of this event and Dr Loats’ role in arranging it can be found here. Dr Norman Loats with President Ronald Reagan The Battle of Leyte Gulf was triggered by the 20th October strategic landings on…
…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…
…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…
…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…
…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,…
…He then described the major offensive south-west of Bapaune later that month when tanks went into action. It was an incredible sight. We were going to win the war! All the infantry chaps were moving cheering the tanks. We saw no German aircraft. We dominated the skies – the infantry…
…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…
…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…
…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…
…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…
…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…
…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…
…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…
“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…
…Dunkirk; under German Air Force dive bombing attacks; condition of evacuated troops. Aspects of operations as officer aboard HMS Malcolm, Western Approaches Escort Force and 8th Escort Group in North Sea and Atlantic, 1940-1941: attacks on German coastal convoys, 1940; transfer to Atlantic convoy escort duties; discovery of wreckage from…
…altitudes, reducing the accuracy of their bombing and bringing them within range of anti-aircraft guns.” From 1972 he began to deliver Tridents, one by one, to Kwangchow. Part of the deal was that he had to do a test flight with a Chinese crew on each aircraft from Kwangchow to…
…RAF Tangmere. Southern England, 1944 Spitfires Attacking Flying Bombs by Walter Thomas Monnington (1943) © IWM LD 4589 Operations from Apuldram included dive-bombing attacks against ‘Noball’ V-1 flying bomb installations [originally identified by Constance Babington-Smith, Signatory #180], bomber escort duties, and ground attacks on rail and road targets. At the…
…Paul Nash (1941) On June 6 he was leading his squadron on a bombing attack over Bir Hacheim in support of the Free French. Spotting four Bf 109s, he dived on them; all four were shot down, one of them by Drake. The French commander signalled “Bravo! Merci pour le…