Author : Les Taylor
Publisher :
Page : 152 pages
File Size : 44,22 MB
Release : 2010-10
Category : Banff (Scotland)
ISBN : 9780857040725
This title is a photographic history of RAF Banff Strike Wing, 1944-1945, comprising 175 photographs, together with rare documents and other artefacts.
Author : Andrew D. Bird
Publisher : Grub Street Publishing
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 46,84 MB
Release : 2008
Category : History
ISBN : 9781906502133
During WWII, young British Commonwealth and Norwegian airmen flew to target German U-boats, merchant men and freighters in the fjords and leads of southwest Norway. By recording their crucial contribution to winning the world war, in a compelling, accurate and fascinating way, this book ensures their memory will not be overlooked.
Author : Andrew D. Bird
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 380 pages
File Size : 37,78 MB
Release : 2019-09-30
Category : History
ISBN : 1526710714
Real-life, action-packed, personal stories of valor from the history of the RAF’s maritime arm during World War II. It took thirty minutes for one Coastal Command crew to sink two U-boats. The crew of Flying Officer Kenneth “Kayo” Moore in their 224 Squadron Liberator carried out this remarkable achievement on the evening of 7/8 June 1944. While patrolling the western end of the English Channel, Moore’s crew first dispatched U-629, followed just under thirty minutes later by U-373. The story of this remarkable engagement is just one of many recounted by the author in Heroes of Coastal Command. Established in 1936, Coastal Command was the RAF’s only maritime arm. Throughout the war, its crews worked tirelessly alongside the Royal Navy to keep Britain’s vital sea lanes open. Together, they fought and won the Battle of the Atlantic, with RAF aircraft destroying 212 German U-Boats and sinking a significant tonnage of enemy warships and merchant vessels. Often working alone and unsupported, undertaking long patrols out over opens seas, Coastal Command bred a special kind of airman. Alongside individuals such as Kenneth Moore, there were Allan Trigg, Kenneth Campbell and John Cruickshank, all of whom were awarded the Victoria Cross; Norman Jackson-Smith, a Blenheim pilot who flew in the Battle of Britain; Jack Davenport, who flew his Hampden to Russia; John Watson, the sole survivor of a Short Sunderland which was lost during a rescue mission; and Ken Gatward, who flew a unique daylight mission over Paris to drop a Tricolore on the Arc de Triomphe. Theirs are just some of the many exciting stories revealed by the author.
Author : Andrew D. Bird
Publisher : Grub Street Publishing
Page : 229 pages
File Size : 27,48 MB
Release : 2012-10-24
Category : History
ISBN : 1909808989
From the author of A Separate Little War, a detailed history of the British World War II aircraft and their brave crew. In 1940, the defense of Great Britain rested with a handful of volunteer aircrew, Churchill’s “few.” Overshadowed in later folklore by the more famous Spitfire and Hurricane pilots, there were other pilots, observers and air gunners—just as courageous—flying the Bristol Blenheim MKIV-F. The future of the country and arguably that of the free world depended also on their skill, morale, and sacrifice. Remarkably little has been chronicled of these men and their aircraft—the “Trade Protection” squadrons formed by Hugh Dowding—allotted to 11 Group in October, 1939. The aircraft’s range and endurance made it suitable for defense of coastal shipping against attack on the southern and eastern shores of Britain, and for operations further afield. Indeed, during bitter fighting casualties among Numbers 235, 236, 248, and 254 Squadron Blenheims were high on operations over Norway, Holland, France, Dunkirk, and then the Battle of Britain where the Blenheims were completely outclassed by Messerschmitt 109 and 110 fighters, and fell easy victims, scythed from the sky. But the record of the aircraft and their crew was an immensely proud one. Drawing on contemporary diaries, periodicals, letters, logbooks, memoirs, and interviews with survivors, lauded historian Andy Bird reassesses the vital role they played and repositions it in history. In doing so, he justifiably embraces the heroes we have left behind.
Author : Andrew Bird
Publisher :
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 49,44 MB
Release : 2003-09-19
Category : History
ISBN : 1909166707
Every day for nine months from September 1944 to the end of the war, young British, Commonwealth and Norwegian airmen flew from Banff aerodrome in northern Scotland in their Mosquitoes and Beaufighters to target the German U-Boats, merchantmen and freighters plying along the coast and in the fjords and leads of southwest Norway, encountering the Luftwaffe and flakships every step of the way. This Scottish strike wing fought in some of the bitterest and bloodiest attacks of the war, all at very low level and at close quarters. Their contribution to winning the war was crucial and while the cost in precious lives and equipment was in the same proportion as Bomber Command, they inflicted far greater damage to the enemy in relation to their losses. With Group Captain The Hon. Max Aitken, DSO DFC as station commander, Banff was eventually to become the base for a total of six Mosquito squadrons (including 235, 248 and 143), together with B Flight of the elite 333 Norwegian Squadron, and would team up on missions with the nearby Dallachy Beaufighter strike wing (404 RCAF, 455 RAAF, 489 RNZAF and 144 Squadrons). A Separate Little War, then, is a well researched and detailed history of a microcosm of Coastal Command. Supported by many photographs, maps and charts, the vast majority never published before, the author has drawn on the personal accounts of, amongst others, British and Norwegian pilots, ground crew and civilians which augment the official sources, to give a compelling, accurate and fascinating depiction of an aerodrome at war. It is a subject which will be of great interest and value to the general reader and to those students of the Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, RAF and former Commonwealth Air Forces, the Polish Air Force and of maritime air operations during World War Two.
Author : Gary Eason
Publisher :
Page : pages
File Size : 25,62 MB
Release : 2015-09-18
Category :
ISBN : 9781320369176
Collected in book form for the first time – and also available as an ebook – are some of Gary Eason's acclaimed Flight Artworks: carefully researched and crafted photorealistic pictures of historical air combat. This first volume presents images of WWII scenes, selected from artworks created since 2011."From my point of view as a pilot for the last 43 years and an RAF fighter pilot for 30 years, the realism he captures is uncanny ...". - Squadron Leader Clive Rowley MBE RAF (Retd)Third edition, September 2015
Author : David Smith
Publisher : After the Battle
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 35,70 MB
Release : 2016-02-28
Category : History
ISBN : 1399076590
Coastal Command, created in 1936 alongside Fighter and Bomber Commands in the reorganization of the RAF in its preparations for the coming war, was Britain’s mainstay in the battle against the German submarine. As more and more Allied merchantmen were sunk during the long voyage from North America, the Mediterranean, and points south, tracking down the U-Boats became a constant struggle against harsh weather on long-distance patrols out over the Atlantic and Bay of Biscay. To counter the threat, Coastal Command established a ring of bases stretching from Scotland and Northern Ireland to Iceland, and from south Wales and south-western Britain to Gibraltar and the Azores, all 53 of these stations are covered in this book.
Author : Kenneth G. Wynn
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 3288 pages
File Size : 13,60 MB
Release : 2015-07-07
Category : History
ISBN : 1473847680
Since it was first published in 1989, Men of the Battle of Britain has become a standard reference book for academics and researchers interested in the Battle of Britain. Copies are also owned by many with purely an armchair interest in the events of 1940.The book records the service details of the airmen who took part in the Battle of Britain in considerable detail. Where known, postings and their dates are included, as well as promotions, decorations and successes claimed flying against the enemy. There is also much personal detail, often including dates and places of birth, civilian occupations, dates of death and place of burial or, for those with no known grave, place of commemoration. There are many wartime head-and-shoulders photographs. Inevitably the high achievers who survived tend to have the longest entries, but those who were killed very quickly, sometimes even on their first sortie, are given equal status.The 2015 third edition will include new names and corrected spellings, as well as many new photographs. Plenty of the entries have been extended with freshly acquired information. The stated nationalities of some of the airmen have been re-examined and, for example, one man always considered to be Australian is now known to have been Irish.
Author : Alvin Finkel
Publisher : Athabasca University Press
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 22,71 MB
Release : 2012
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1926836588
A political and economic analysis of the history of working people in Alberta.
Author : Roy Conyers Nesbit
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
Page : 380 pages
File Size : 18,96 MB
Release : 2014-08-19
Category : History
ISBN : 1783378603
In November 1942, the RAF formed special Strike Wings to attack the heavily defended and seemingly invulnerable convoys that brought Germanys vital supplies of iron ore from Scandinavia down the coast of Europe to feed its war machine. The outcome was a series sea/air battles at close quarters, fought with increasing ferocity until the last days of the war. The Germans tried everything against the Beaufighters and Mosquitos of the Strike Wings fighters, intense flak, parachute mines and even flame-throwers and the casualties were appallingly heavy on both sides. In this classic account of one of the neglected, yet crucial theaters of the air war Roy Nesbit, himself a survivor of strike aircraft of Coastal Command, describes these complex battles from British and German records, assisted by first-hand accounts from some of the brave airmen who took part. He also analyzes the effects of the tactics employed on the German war economy, with some startling conclusions. The result is a fascinating, clearly written and vivid history of events that were little publicized during the war for reasons of security. His book includes detailed diagrams of some of the key attacks and features some astonishing photographs taken in action.
