The Queen’s long association with the Royal Air Force began during the Second World War. Our second post celebrating her 70th Jubilee concerns Runnymede in 1953. The Runnymede Memorial commemorates all members of the Air Forces of Britain, the Dominions… Read More ›
THE RAF
Hit by Incendiaries over the Target: the true story of Brock Robertson’s DFC
Brock Robertson won his Distinguished Flying Cross for an operation to Hamburg on 24/25 July 1943, just over a month before his death. What the official citation for the award deliberately omitted to say was that Brock’s aircraft had been… Read More ›
Brock Robertson & His Crew
Oliver Brock Robertson was an outstanding Canadian pilot who flew with 97 Squadron. He won the Distinguished Flying Cross in unusual circumstances in July 1943, just over a month before his death in action. There is an interesting family background,… Read More ›
H2S and The Pathfinders
H2S was a critical part of the electronics war waged by the Pathfinders. The radar equipment transmitted a directional beam of high-energy impulses outwards and downwards towards the ground. Reflections of its own impulses received from the ground were accepted… Read More ›
Crash site of Kenneth Brown crew
Following on from the interesting and detailed German eyewitness reports of The Loss of the Robertson Crew, published at the end of January 2022, we have more German eyewitness reports of another 97 Squadron crew, lost in the same month… Read More ›
Winston Johnson, navigator, Special Duties
Winston Johnson’s wartime service was as a navigator/specialist wireless operator. He was involved in top-secret work, some of it with 109 Squadron, a founding Mosquito squadron of the Pathfinders. On 31 January 1945, Winston was posted overseas to the BLA,… Read More ›
Frederick Jones, 635 Squadron, & Heaton Park
Jonah Jones, centre, second row up. Thought to be from the end of war photograph for 635 Squadron. Frederick S “Jonah” Jones, a pilot of 635 Squadron, wrote a poem when he was in training in 1942 at Heaton Park…. Read More ›
The Loss of the Robertson Crew
We have just added some interesting and unusually detailed German eyewitness reports of the loss of the Robertson crew after the Nuremburg raid of 27/28 August 1943. Lancaster JA958K crashed at Bubenreuth, near Erlangen, around 16 miles (25.5 kilometres) north… Read More ›
“AN AUSTRALIAN PATHFINDER OVER GERMANY”
Today we are adding to the Library an article by Tim Willasey-Wilsey, Visiting Professor of War Studies at King’s College London. It concerns Hall Mettam, a member of the RAAF, whom Tim met in Beirut in 1974 just before the… Read More ›
Geoff Baker, RAAF, 97 Squadron.
A further addition to the library today … A personal account by Stan Hurd of a friend, Geoff Baker, “an ordinary person who went to war that changed his life. It tells the story of his experiences flying a Lancaster… Read More ›
Wound Stripes
Another item about uniform ensignia which has been transferred from the old site.
The Goldfish Club
We are continuing to migrate pages from the old website (amending them when necessary along the way) and here is a particular favourite:
Wartime Opposition to Bombing
During the war, public opinion in Britain and the Dominions was firmly on the side of Bomber Command. However, there was also some determined criticism of Bomber Command’s campaigns, not least by George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, who argued the… Read More ›
Den Burg, Texel, Xmas Eve
The annual lighting of candles on the 167 graves at the War Cemetery at Den Burg, Texel, took place yesterday evening, Christmas Eve. This is a very simple but extremely moving and quietly spectacular ceremony, and for the last three… Read More ›
16/17 December 1943: FIDO & Landing Aids
One of the reasons why 16/17 December 1943 was so disastrous was the extreme limitations of landing aids. The only facilities available for such severe bad weather conditions were FIDO and a system known as SBA … 16/17 December 1943 – FIDO &… Read More ›