Download or read book Ben Bennions DFC written by Nick Thomas and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2012-02-29 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ben Bennion enlisted in the pre-war RAF, serving first as an 'erk' (ground crew) before being selected for pilot training. His first posting led to service in the Middle-East and Bennion's passport and other travel documents had to be rushed through. A clerical error led to his name being recorded as 'Bennions'.Ben served in 41 Squadron and following their overseas tour he returned to the UK and Catterick. Patrols and scrambles were common throughout the early months of the war, but it was in May 1940, that 41 Squadron first saw the enemy in any number, providing air cover for the retreating BEF. The Dunkirk operations saw Bennions record his first combat victory—he was to damage or destroy 20 plus enemy aircraft during the following months, earning the DFC and becoming one of the RAF's top scorers. The squadron alternated between Catterick and Hornchurch, and although Bennions was afforded some rest between operational periods, the front-line the sorties came thick and fast, particularly during the latter phases of the Battle of Britain when Bennions was flying several patrols and scramble every day. His tally grew steadily. His much deserved DFC was promulgated on 1 October 1940, the day he was due to begin a short period of leave. However he decided to have one last crack at the enemy and during this engagement, adding another Messerschmitt BF 109 to his total, he was hit and forced to bale out. Badly wounded in the head, Bennions lost an eye and became a member of Sir Archibald McIndoe's famous Guinea Pig Club.
Download or read book Captured Memories 1930 1945 written by Peter Liddle and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2011-12-13 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this sequel to his successful first volume Peter Liddle brings his years of Oral History experience to the Thirties and the Second World War. He was the founder/Director of a new archive in 1999 specifically dedicated to the rescue of evidence of the Second World War which now documents the lives of more than nine thousand people in that war. Many of the most vivid recollections he has recorded covering this period appear in this book.For the Thirties poverty is movingly exemplified in recall of orphanage upbringing, labor in an East Lancashire mill and Glasgow childhood. Privileged public schools and university education is here too, with political convictions expressed by Barbara Castle and quite exceptionally by Oswald Mosley.For the War, there is a section on the sea which includes graphic detail of battle, lifeboat command, the St Nazaire Raid, and of Pearl Harbor. A George Medallist and an Admiral of the Fleet add special distinction here.For the air, a Battle of Britain Spitfire Pilot, Britains most successful night-fighter pilot, a Lancaster Bomber Pilot VC, an American pilot shot down over Belgium, surviving to fight with the Resistance, and a German Pilot retaining his national Socialist convictions present outstanding material.For the land, Dunkirk, North Africa, Italy, Singapore, D-Day, Arnhem, the Rhine Crossing, are all there but so Commando raids, SOE operations, capture, escapes, severe wounding, and a VC earned in Somaliland. A German describes the hand to hand fighting at Cassino, a Field Marshal, his service in North Africa, and Joachim Ronneberg his part in the Telemark Raid in Norway.In the Home Front section, women feature prominently was WAAF, Wrens, ATS, Bletchley Park, the Land Army, war work in factories, dance band singing, Blitz experience in several towns, war widowhood, and overseas evacuation, all feature. There is an account of bomb disposal, of the stance of a Conscientious Objector, and then four people quite exceptional for the significance of their material. Two are from Poland, a jewess who survived against all odds, and a woman who became involved in the Warsaw Uprising; the others are Sir Basil Blackwell working on the development of weaponry for the Admiralty and finally Sir Bernard Lovell on radar.This book does much to dissolve the intervening years. The essence of what is was to be young and to be there lies within these pages.
Download or read book The Battle of Britain in the Modern Age 1965 2020 written by Garry Campion and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-09-26 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Battle of Britain has held an enchanted place in British popular history and memory throughout the modern era. Its transition from history to heritage since 1965 confirms that the 1940 narrative shaped by the State has been sustained by historians, the media, popular culture, and through non-governmental heritage sites, often with financing from the National Lottery Heritage Lottery Fund. Garry Campion evaluates the Battle’s revered place in British society and its influence on national identity, considering its historiography and revisionism; the postwar lives of the Few, their leaders and memorialization; its depictions on screen and in commercial products; the RAF Museum’s Battle of Britain Hall; third-sector heritage attractions; and finally, fighter airfields, including RAF Hawkinge as a case study. A follow-up to Campion’s The Battle of Britain, 1945–1965 (Palgrave, 2015), this book offers an engaging, accessible study of the Battle’s afterlives in scholarship, memorialization, and popular culture.
Download or read book Battle for the Channel written by Brian Cull and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2017-08-19 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 10 July, the official first day of the Battle of Britain, witnessed increased aerial activity over the English Channel and along the eastern and southern seaboards of the British coastline. The main assaults by ever-increasing formations of Luftwaffe bombers, escorted by Bf 109 and Bf 110 fighters, were initially aimed at British merchant shipping convoys plying their trade of coal and other materials from the north of England to the southern ports. These attacks often met with increasing success although RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes endeavoured to repel the Heinkel He 111s, Dornier Do 17s and Junkers Ju 88s, frequently with ill-afforded loss in pilots and aircraft. Within a month, the English Channel was effectively closed to British shipping. Only a change in the Luftwaffe’s tactics in mid-August, when the main attack changed to the attempted destruction of the RAF’s southern airfields, allowed convoys to resume sneaking through without too greater hindrance.
Download or read book Tally Ho written by Patrick G. Eriksson and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2023-02-15 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have the squadron leaders over southern England in that long autumn of 1940, and their supporting flight commanders who led the squadrons into battle, had been neglected in the history books? Patrick Eriksson thinks so.
Download or read book One of The Few written by John Shipman and published by Pen and Sword Aviation. This book was released on 2008-07-15 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is based on the copious notes that Ted ‘Shippy’ Shipman wrote in the 1970s and brings a firsthand insight into the life of an RAF Spitfire pilot during the early war years and then his remaining wartime and postwar service until 1959.
Download or read book Battle Over Britain written by Francis K. Mason and published by Motorbooks International. This book was released on 1990 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Stapme written by David A Ross and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2008-09-08 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biography of the WWII flying ace recounts his legendary career in the RAF, his time as a POW and his postwar life as a beloved public figure. One of the most famous fighter pilots of the Second World War, Basil Gerald “Stapme” Stapleton achieved flying ace status in the Battle of Britain and was immortalized in Richard Hillary’s classic wartime memoir The Last Enemy. Born in Durban, South Africa, Stapleton joined the Royal Air Force in 1939 and flew Spitfires with 603 Squadron. His legendary escapades during the Battle of Britain account for nearly twenty enemy aircraft destroyed, probably destroyed or damaged. Stapleton later became flight commander of 257 Squadron and a gunnery instructor at RAF Kenley and Central Gunnery School, Catfoss. He returned to combat in 1944, flying Typhoons as commander of 247 Squadron. For his courageous combat during the Battle of Arnhem, he received the Dutch Flying Cross. In December of 1944, he was forced to land inside German lines and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner in Stalag Luft I on the Baltic coast. Nicknamed 'Stapme' after a phrase used in his favorite cartoon 'Just Jake', Stapleton was a larger-than-life character who became a beloved public figure in his postwar life. With his handlebar mustache and good-humored bravado, he became for many the quintessential ace fighter pilot. In this authoritative and intimate volume, Stapleton tells his full story to historian David Ross, author of the acclaimed biography Richard Hillary.
Download or read book Flypast written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 676 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Richard Hillary written by David A Ross and published by Grub Street Publishing. This book was released on 2008-09-22 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authoritative biography of the WWII ace fighter pilot, hero of the Battle of Britain and author of the classic wartime memoir The Last Enemy. As both a legendary flying ace and an accomplished author, Richard Hillary achieved a unique kind of immortality during his tragically short life. Born in Australia and raised in England, he attended Oxford University before joining the Royal Air Force at the outbreak of World War II. Flying Spitfires in the 603 Squadron, he became an ace in the Battle of Britain. Though he managed to survive being shot down in September 1940, he suffered severe burns to his face and hands. It was during his long and painful recovery that Hillary wrote his masterpiece, The Last Enemy. Then, anxious to return to flying, he died when his Bristol Blenheim bomber crashed in ‘mysterious’ circumstances in 1943. Cutting through myth and misinformation, biographer David Ross draws on extensive archival research, including from the Richard Hillary Trust Archive in Oxford, as well as interviews with Hillary’s contemporaries. This complete biography also features many previously unseen photographs.
Download or read book MESSERSCHMITT Bf 109 written by Chris Goss and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A retired RAF Wing Commander examines the history of Germany’s favored fighter plane during the latter years of World War II. The most iconic German aircraft of the Second World War, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 was the Luftwaffe’s principal fighter from 1939 until 1942 when the superior Focke-Wulf Fw 190 came into greater prominence. The Bf 109 served in every theatre of the war, though in this book the author examines the Tip and Run era, D-Day, and the Eastern Front. In the later years of the war, the Bf 109 fought with some success in the defense of Germany against Allied bombers. The Bf 109 was the most produced fighter aircraft in history and more aerial kills were made with this fighter than any other aircraft. Indeed, A total of 105 Bf 109 pilots were each credited with the destruction of 100 or more enemy aircraft; thirteen of these men scored more than 200 kills, while two scored more than 300. The Bf 109 was flown by the three top-scoring fighter aces of the war: Erich Hartmann, Gerhard Barkhorn, and Günther Rall. All of them flew with JG 52, a unit which exclusively flew the Bf 109 and was credited with over 10,000 victories, chiefly on the Eastern Front. The Bf 109 was also supplied to several of Germany’s allies, including Finland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Slovakia. In this selection of unrivalled images collected over many years, the operations of this famous aircraft in the latter part of the Second World War are portrayed and brought to life
Download or read book Battle of Britain Airfields Under Attack written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Air World. This book was released on 2024-11-30 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this unprecedented series exploring the big story of the Battle of Britain, renowned historian Dilip Sarkar investigates the wider context and intimate details of the epic aerial conflict in the summer of 1940 from all sides. In so doing, he gives due acknowledgement to the roles of Bomber and Coastal Commands in addition to the fabled Few of Fighter Command. This unique narrative draws upon a lifetime of research, the author having enjoyed a long relationship with survivors and the relatives of casualties; his innumerable interviews and first-hand accounts collated, in addition to privileged access to personal papers, providing essential human interest to this inspirational story. In this the fourth volume, Battle of Britain: Airfields Under Attack, Dilip continues to examine the fighting on a day-by-day, combat-by-combat basis from 19 August until 6 September 1940. It is a period in which we saw the Luftwaffe’s bombing of the all-important 11 Group airfields intensify, culminating in ‘The Hardest Day’ of 18 August 1940, which saw both sides lose more aircraft than any other day throughout the whole Battle of Britain. The tensions and problems between Fighter Command’s 11 and 12 Groups also intensified. It was a situation that eventually led to Squadron Leader Douglas Bader criticising Fighter Command tactics, proposing the use of ‘Big Wings’, contrary to the System of Air defense and strategy involved, gaining the support of his 12 Group commander, Air Vice-Marshal Leigh-Mallory. Given its later significance, this is investigated in depth. Through diligent research, combined with crucial official primary sources and personal papers, Dilip unravels many myths, often challenging the accepted narrative. This is not simply another dull record of combat losses and claims – far from it. Drawing upon unique first-hand accounts from a wide-range of combatants and eyewitnesses, along with Daily Home Intelligence Reports and numerous other primary sources, this book forms part of what is likely to be the first and last such comprehensively woven account of this epic air battle.
Download or read book The Breaking Storm written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Air World. This book was released on 2023-10-31 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Breaking Storm, the first of Dilip Sarkar’s unprecedented seven-volume series exploring the Battle of Britain, the events that led up to the outbreak of war in 1939, and which set the scene for the epic aerial conflict of summer 1940, are fully explored. Continuing his examination of the events of the Spitfire Summer, in The Breaking Storm Dilip provides a day-by-day chronicle of the Battle of Britain’s first phase – the so-called Kanalkampf – which was fought over the Channel-bound convoys between 10 July and 12 August 1940. This account, though, does not simply concern RAF Fighter Command, as the author recognizes the operations and efforts of the RAF’s Bomber and Coastal commands, the Royal Navy and mercantile marine – making this book part of what he calls ‘the Big story’. Hitler’s actual policies and intentions towards the ongoing war with Britain are also explored. If the Battle of Britain was fought to deny Germany the aerial superiority required to launch a seaborne invasion of southern England, then, the author argues, the conflict could surely only have begun when the Germans committed to Operation Seelöwe – which was not, in fact, until 21 July 1940. It has previously been accepted that Hitler’s War Directive of 16 July 1940 signaled the intention to invade, but the author proves that this was no more than another example of the ‘brinkmanship’ that Hitler was renowned for, and the air attacks at that time little more than ‘Air Fleet Diplomacy’, all of which was intended to frighten Britain into accepting the Führer’s ‘last appeal to reason’ of 19 July 1940. In his broadcast of 22 July 1940, Lord Halifax made the nation’s unbowed position quite clear. He called Hitler’s bluff: previously reluctant to fight Britain, Hitler’s preferred policy in the ongoing war had been blockade and diplomacy – but now he had no choice but to unleash the Luftwaffe against Britain. All of this is investigated in detail, aligning these wider events and high decisions with action in the air. Through diligent research, combined with crucial official primary sources and personal papers, Dilip unravels many myths, often challenging the accepted narrative. This is not simply another dull record of combat losses and claims – far from it. Drawing upon unique first-hand accounts from a wide-range of combatants and eyewitnesses, along with Daily Home Intelligence Reports and numerous other primary sources, this book forms part of what is likely to be the first and last such comprehensively woven account of this epic air battle.
Download or read book Flyer written by Andrew White and published by Fighting High Publishing. This book was released on 2024-07-31 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Donald Osborne Finlay, a sporting name familiar to households in the 1930s, was Britain’s greatest athlete of the time; a hurdler whose triumphant exploits graced the sports pages and newsreels week after week. From a humble family background, he became a double Olympic medalist, European Champion, and Empire (Commonwealth) Champion; he also won the AAA 120 yards hurdles an unprecedented seven times in succession. Reporters ran out of superlatives to describe him. At the three Olympic Games in which he ran, he captained the British team twice, including the Berlin Games of 1936 in front of Adolf Hitler. An all-round sportsman, both track and field events came naturally to him as did football. He played for the country’s top amateur sides and turned out for Tottenham Hotspur in wartime matches. All the more remarkable is that Finlay competed at the very highest levels of international athletics at the same time as pursuing his demanding career as a Royal Air Force fighter pilot. Joining up as a boy apprentice in the mid-1920s, he qualified as a pilot before the start of the Second World War and found himself in the cockpit of a Supermarine Spitfire, commanding a squadron, during the Battle of Britain. Shot down and wounded in the Battle, he was soon back in the air and rose through the ranks to command a fighter wing in Burma, ending the war with several ‘kills’ to his name, as well as a Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Force Cross to add to the medals won under less lethal circumstances on the running track. As a commander, his insistence on strict discipline often led to conflict with his subordinates, but there is no doubt that his methods got results. After the war, still serving in the RAF, Don returned to competitive athletics and was as fast and successful, if not more so, than ever. By then he was in his 40s, but age was no barrier and several of his greatest hurdling victories came when others would have been long retired from the track, against athletes often twenty years his junior. Don Finlay’s life was to end prematurely, and under tragic circumstances, but his legacy lives on as one of the finest athletes ever to wear the vest of Great Britain, as well as one of ‘The Few’.
Download or read book The Battle of Britain written by Christer Bergström and published by Casemate / Vaktel Forlag. This book was released on 2015-09-19 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thorough look at this turning-point WWII aerial battle, with eyewitness accounts, maps, and rare photos: “incredibly well-researched” (Aircrew Book Review). By late summer 1940, Nazi Germany had conquered all its opponents on the continent, including the British Army itself, which was forced to scramble back aboard small boats to its shores. A non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union in hand, Hitler had only one remaining object that season—the British Isles themselves. However, before he could invade, his Luftwaffe needed to wipe the Royal Air Force from the skies. History’s first strategic military campaign conducted in the air alone was about to take place. This book contains a large number of dramatic eyewitness accounts, even as it reveals new facts that will alter common perceptions of the battle. For example, the twin-engined Messerschmitt Bf 110 was actually a good day fighter, and it performed at least as well in this role as the Bf 109 during the battle. The Luftwaffe’s commander, Hermann Göring, performed far better than has been believed. The British night bombers played a more decisive role than previously thought; in addition, this book disproves that the German 109 pilots were in any way superior to their Hurricane or Spitfire counterparts. The author has examined records from both sides and provides surprising statistics that shatter much conventional wisdom—laying out the Battle of Britain as seldom seen before. Includes color photos of the relevant aircraft.
Download or read book Battle of Britain written by Patrick Bishop and published by Quercus. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Battle of Britain is the epic story of the fight for control of the skies over England in the bitterly long summer of 1940. Bestselling author Patrick Bishopâ??s compelling day-to-day chronicle is enhanced with eye-witness accounts, diary extracts and pilot profiles, as the horrific reality of air combat is vividly portrayed in this account of the life and death struggle between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe. This is the story Britainâ??s "finest hour," a fight for national survival that had a profound impact on servicemen and civilians alike, and ultimately proved to be a key a turning point in the course of the war.
Download or read book British Imperial Calendar Or General Register of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Its Colonies written by and published by . This book was released on 1948 with total page 720 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes: The British or imperial almanac, A Companion to the British imperial calendar, and An Alphabetical index to the imperial calendar (title varies),
