Download or read book Moonlight over England the Story of One Nightfighter Pilot written by Eric P. Donald and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2013-04-18 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I came across an old photo recently and pondered the people in it. The person in the centre was my late brother, Norman G. Donald of the RAF. The other figures in the photo I do not know, though I suspect they were his flight instructors at North Battleford, Canada. The photo bears my brothers script KING-PINS ALL!N. BATTLEFORD. After qualifying as a pilot, he sailed back to England and was posted to RAF Hunsdon just north of London in 1942. He was soon flying Douglas Havocs and Bristol Beaufighters. Night fighters were a new school of defence, but it was hopeless finding enemy aircraft in the dark. The Turbinlite device was fitted to the Beaufighters and Havocs, and the idea was to find the enemy somehow, guided by ground control using heavy ground radar units (too heavy to carry in aircraft), turn on the Turbinlite searchlight, and illuminate the enemy aircraft. A single-engined Hurricane fighter flying alongside then shot down the enemy aircraft. It did help to see the target as this same sky was full of thousands of Allied aircraft, all trying to avoid each other.
Download or read book Lone Wolf written by Andy Saunders and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2020-01-19 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thrilling WWII biography tells the incredible true story of one of the Royal Air Force’s greatest flying aces. During the Second World War, Flight lieutenant Richard Playne Stevens had an extraordinary career as a Royal Air Force nightfighter. His contemporaries called him Cat’s Eyes for his rare ability to see in the dark, but after achieving a record-breaking fourteen victories in the skies—all without the aid of radar or another crew member—he earned the moniker Lone Wolf. He was also awarded a distinguished Service Order and a Distinguished Flying Cross & Bar for his service. Flt. Lt. Stevens achieved his legendary status through skill, instinct and innate marksmanship. Sir Archibald Sinclair, the Secretary of State for Air during the war, called him “one of the greatest nightfighter pilots who ever fought in Fighter Command.” Now his incredible story is told in full thanks to decades of research by military aviation historian Terry Thompson.
Download or read book RAF Fighter Pilots in WWII written by Martin Bowman and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2015-08-31 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a pulsating account of the young RAF fighter boys who flew Spitfires, Hurricanes and Defiants in England against the Luftwaffe and from Malta 1940-45 against the Regia Aeronautica. Their story is told using combat reports and first person accounts from RAF, German and Commonwealth pilots who fought in the skies in France in 1940, in England during the Battle of Britain, and in the great air offensives over Occupied Europe from 1942 onwards. Chapters include the stories of Wing Commander D. R. S. Bader, Wing Commander Adolph Gysbert 'Sailor' Malan, Oberleutnant Ulrich Steinhilper, Flight Lieutenant H. M. Stephen, Squadron Leader Robert Stanford Tuck, 'Johnny' Johnson, Squadron Leader M. N. Crossley, Squadron Leader A. McKellar, 'Cowboy' Blatchford and Squadron Leader D. H. Smith, an Australian veteran of the Battle of Malta and many others whose names have now become legendary.
Download or read book Flying Blind written by Elizabeth Halls and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2017-05-17 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Flying Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1944-10 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Naval Aviation News written by and published by . This book was released on 1990-07 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Enemy In The Dark written by Peter Spoden and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2014-06-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book tells the story of a German night fighter pilot during World War II. The autobiography of Peter Spoden provides insight into his childhood and upbringing, as well as detailing his wartime and post- war career, and the part he played in the short but remarkable history of the Nachtjagd. The shortcomings in the Luftwaffe's night time defences became all too apparent when Bomber Command, having sustained appalling losses during the day, switched to night attacks. Over the next five years, in the night skies of Europe, there followed a life and death struggle between the aircrews of the Nachtjagd and Bomber Command.
Download or read book Night fighter written by Cecil Frederick Rawnsley and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Nuremberg Raid written by Martin Middlebrook and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2009-06-25 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thorough history of the RAF Bomber Command attack on the German city during World War II, by the author of The First Day on the Somme. This book describes one twenty-four-hour period in the Allied Strategic Bomber Offensive in the greatest possible detail. Author Martin Middlebrook sets the scene by outlining the course of the bombing war from 1939 to the night of the Nuremberg raid, the characters and aims of the British bombing leaders, and the composition of the opposing Bomber Command and German night fighter forces. The aim of the Nuremberg raid was not unlike many hundreds of other Royal Air Force missions but, due to the difficulties and dangers of the enemy defenses and weather plus bad luck, it went horribly wrong. The result was so notorious that it became a turning point in the campaign. The target, the symbolic Nazi rally city of Nuremberg, was only lightly damaged, and 96 out of 779 bombers went missing. Middlebrook recreates the events of the fateful night in astonishing detail. The result is a meticulous, dramatic, and often controversial account. It is also a moving tribute to the bravery of the RAF bomber crews and their adversaries. Praise for The Nuremberg Raid “Employing hundreds of eyewitness accounts, he shows the raid from the point of view of the German defenses and the civilians on the ground. Factual and analytical, this is a portrait of mechanized warfare at the level of personal experience.” —Simon Mawer, Wall Street Journal
Download or read book Night Fighter Navigator written by Dennis Gosling and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2010-02-28 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A British Royal Air Force navigator shares his experiences during World War II in this compelling memoir. Yorkshireman Dennis Gosling joined the RAF on 24 May 1940. Having completed his training, he was posted to 219 Squadron flying the night-fighter version of the Beaufighter from Tangmere in 1941. As a navigator, he became part of a two-man team that would endure throughout his first operational tour. In those infant days of radar interception, he honed his skills in the night skies above southern England and the English Channel but without a firm kill. On 12 February 1942, he and his pilot were instructed to pick up a brand-new aircraft and deliver it to North Africa, flying via Gibraltar, a hazardous flight at extreme range. In March the crew were posted to 1435 Flight of 89 Squadron with the task of defending the besieged island of Malta. The flight’s four Beaufighters flew into incessant bombing raids by the Luftwaffe and Italian Air Force. Because of these raids the damage to aircraft on the ground was devastating and the flight was often reduced to a single serviceable aircraft. Gosling’s first success came in April 1942 with a confirmed kill, and then shortly after his twenty-first birthday on 13 May, a triumphant night on the seventeenth brought three certain kills and one damaged enemy aircraft. After being the squadron’s virgins, they shot into the record books—Gosling’s pilot being awarded the DFC. Flight Sergeant Gosling, however, received no award. At this stage he became somewhat embittered by the class system he felt was operated by the RAF. Having endured the torment of constant bombardment, serious stomach complaints (even flying with a bucket in the aircraft) and near starvation, he completed his tour and was repatriated to the UK via Brazil and Canada in the Queen Mary. After a spell instructing new night navigators, he joined 604 Squadron and in December 1943 he was promoted to Warrant Officer. February 1944 saw the squadron reequipped with the Mosquito and assignment to 2 Tactical Air Force in preparation for D-Day. Now once again he was flying initially over southern England and the Channel. The squadron became mobile after the landings and were based in various captured airfields in France, but the conditions were so inadequate for operations that the squadron returned to English bases, from where they operated over and beyond the advancing Allied troops. Eventually, after having been awarded a much-deserved DFC, he accepted the King’s Commission. This autobiography is written as stated by the author, “I want my readers to relive my experiences as they happened to me—to take their hands and have them walk beside me. I want them to feel the joy and the pain, share the laughs and the heartache, take pleasure in the triumphs, agonise with me when things went wrong and understand why my Service years influenced so much of my life.” He has succeeded magnificently
Download or read book The History of Air Intercept Radar the British Nightfighter 1935 1959 written by Ian White and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2007-05-30 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This detailed history of Air Intercept radar traces the development of this vital military technology with the Royal Air Force during WWII. In the years after World War I, the United Kingdom was desperate to develop some form of protection from an enemy air strike. As early as 1923, the British Army had devised “sound mirrors” that could detect aircraft up to twelve miles away. This technical history traces the development of military radar technology from this early, experimental phase to the creation of the first air-to-air radar systems and their uses in battle. Historian Ian White sets this fascinating narrative within the larger political, military, economic and technological context of the era. Through World War II, Air Intercept radar was a vital asset in protecting RAF bomber forces as well as the country itself. But developing the technology required the tireless work of physicists and engineers in the Air Ministry Research Establishment, particularly members of the Establishment’s Airborne Group working under Dr. Edward Bowen. Their Airborne Interception radars, such as the AI Mk. IV, were used in Blenheim night-fighters during the winter Blitz and by Mosquito during the Baedeker Raids. This in-depth history covers the introduction of centimetric technology at the Telecommunications Research Establishment, the creation of centimetric AI, and their installation in the Beaufighter and later marks of the Mosquito. It describes the creation of the Radiation Laboratory at MIT and concludes with a section on further developments during the Cold War.
Download or read book London Calling written by and published by . This book was released on 1944 with total page 1076 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book RAF Bomber Command in Fact Film and Fiction written by Jonathan Falconer and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: RAF Bomber Command in Fact, Film and Fiction is a bibliographical and media guide to the exploits of the command between 1939-1945 setting on record much of what has been written, filmed or sound recorded in the English language
Download or read book Three in Thirteen written by Roger Dunsford and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2017-04-19 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “incredibly engaging and deeply personal” story of World War II pilot Joe Singleton “draws the reader into the dangerous world of night fighting” (Manhattan Book Review). Joe Singleton was an unlikely hero. A junior manager at a paints and varnish company at the outbreak of war, he was surprised to discover he had a hidden talent for flying. Despite RAF Fighter Squadrons crying out for replacements after the carnage of the Battle of Britain, Joe was posted to the rapidly developing world of night fighting. He flew first Defiants, then Beaufighters, finding himself in the thick of the very earliest stages of ground-controlled interception and airborne radar engagements. His skills finally began to bear fruit when piloting a Mosquito, and he took part in several successful missions. But the pinnacle came on the night of March 19, 1944: scrambling to intercept a big German raid on Hull, he located and shot down a Junkers 188, then went on to shoot down two more, all in the space of thirteen dramatic minutes. He and his navigator survived the crash-landing that ensued, and he went on to be feted as a national hero. Three in Thirteen is a unique sortie-by-sortie account of his journey from bewildered recruit to celebrated expert, illustrated with extracts from Joe’s RAF logbook and unpublished photographs and illustrations. Roger Dunsford’s extensive experience as an RAF pilot brings a vivid immediacy to Joe’s experiences, combined with astute analysis of the planes, the tactics, and the events of that fateful night. “Inspirational and thoroughly engaging—a true hero’s story.” —Books Monthly
Download or read book Night Fighter written by Wing Cmdr. J. R. D. Braham and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2017-06-28 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ONE OF BRITAIN’S MOST DECORATED FIGHTER PILOTS TELLS HIS RIVETING TRUE STORY OF AERIAL COMBAT... Fast-paced, hard-hitting and personal, Wing Commander J. R. D. “Bob” Braham recounts his brilliant career as a World War II fighter pilot. Beginning with his pre-war training, he takes us battle-by-battle through that fateful afternoon in June, 1944, when he was shot down over occupied Denmark and taken prisoner. From the desperate night-time sorties against the Luftwaffe’s air strikes during the Battle of Britain to the daring daylight intruder raids against Hitler’s crumbling Reich, his story reveals the skill, courage and teamwork between pilot and navigator that made him one of the RAF’s most deadly fighter pilots. “HE’S 400 YARDS DEAD AHEAD!” Suddenly there he was as clear as could be—twin engines, twin tail, our opposite number, an Me110 night-fighter. He was turning gently to port. I climbed back to 16,000 feet, heading again towards Ameland. Before we had straightened out Jacko called urgently: “Hard starboard!” I hauled the Beau round in a tight turn when Jacko called, Look out, you’re closing too fast!” “I’ve got him,” I yelled. He was above me, in a tight turn, and at the speed we were travelling we looked as if we were going to ram him. I eased back the stick, put the sights on him and fired at the point-blank range of about fifty yards. There was a blinding flash as the Me exploded in my face.
Download or read book Nightfighter written by Mark A. Magruder and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2012-01-24 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A biography of the leader of the top scoring Nightfighter Squadron who risked their lives flying through darkness in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. During World War II, the job of a nightfighter was akin to a deadly game of hide-and-seek in a pitch-black sky. Each pilot’s life literally depended on his radio link to support personnel on the ground. Electrical failures could be catastrophic and engine trouble usually proved fatal. Unlike other fighter pilots, these men had zero visual perspective. Alone in a cockpit, it was easy for their minds to play tricks on them, but for nightfighters, a few moments of vertigo were a death sentence . . . No one knew this better than then-ranked Lt. Col. Marion Milton "Black Mac" Magruder. His highly classified training program required each of his "scrappers" to identify every part of the cockpit environment by sound, smell, and touch. Strict, innovative, and intense, this no-nonsense marine would lead his men to the Okinawa Campaign, in an emergency deployment after a year in combat, in the longest over-water flight of single-engined fighters in the Pacific Theatre, just to get into the fight. During their time on Okinawa and Engebi, VMF(N)533, also known as Black Mac’s Killers, experienced the worst typhoon season the island had seen in several hundred years. They also would become the target of the Giretsu, when the ruthless Japanese suicide warriors attacked Yontan Air Field, the only attack of its kind during the war. And even though the squadron arrived one month after battle commenced, the 533 held the record for all radar-intercept kills. Black Mac's Killers set many records and earned many distinctions during the war, including the Presidential Unit Citation. This biography follows Magruder through his military career, highlighting his accomplishments as leader of the top scoring Nightfighter Squadron in the Pacific Theatre.
Download or read book Canadian Air Cadet written by and published by . This book was released on 1942 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
