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A Royal Air Force Hawker Hurricane Mark IIC (s/n BE500, ‘LK-A’, “United Provinces Cawnpore”) being flown by Squadron Leader Dennis Smallwood, the Commanding Officer of No. 87 Squadron RAF based at RAF Charmy Down, Somerset (UK). No. 87 Squadron was one of the first RAF night fighter squadrons. Sqn Ldr Smallwood led the squadron in […]

ROYAL NAVAL AIR SERVICE RNAS 1914-1918 (Q 67581) Curtiss H.12 Fairey designed the Campania floatplane in response to the Royal Navy’s specification for a purpose-built, two-seat patrol and reconnaissance aircraft. The initial prototype first flew on 16 February 1917. This was the first of two prototypes, designated F.16 which was powered by a 250 hp […]

Airspeed Horsa taking off.A British Horsa glider could carry more than twice the number of troops as a Waco. Hamilcar Glider: Besides airborne troops and tanks these huge gliders had carried 75-mm howitzers, 3-in mortars, bridging material and assault boats. Prewar Great Britain, like its future ally, the United States, had not considered using transport […]

In January 1942, the War Office formed the 1st Airborne Division and appointed General Browning its commander. The division consisted of an airlanding brigade that would be transported and landed in combat by gliders or aircraft, a parachute brigade and a number of divisional support units. According to this type of organization and the requirement […]

Early operations in the daylight reconnaissance role were uneventful, but on September 29 1940 the Hampden’s shortcomings were highlighted vividly when five out of eleven aircraft in two formations were destroyed by German fighters when within sight of the German coast. Not long after this it was decided to operate in future under cover of […]

Max Immelmann’s chance to test the Fokker Eindecker in action came on 1 August 1915, when he took off with Boelcke to attack some BE.2cs, which were bombing the German airfield at Douai. The subsequent official report tells the story: At 6 am on 1 August Leutnant Immelmann took off in a Fokker fighting monoplane […]

The Albatros Scout cruised high over the front line, its young pilot eagerly scanning the drab, churned-up earth beneath, searching for the tell-tale flicker of movement that would betray the presence of an Allied reconnaissance aircraft. It had been several weeks since he had joined the famous Jagdstaffel 2 ‘Boelcke’, and he had yet to […]

At the outbreak of war in September 1939, Bomber Command had an average daily availability of 500 aircraft (total aircraft establishment was 920 aircraft) organised in fifty-five squadrons controlled by five operational Groups. No. 1 and No. 2 Groups were equipped with light bombers – Fairey Battles and Bristol Blenheims respectively – and the other […]

Hurricane IId, HW719, seen while serving with the Specialised Low Attack Instructors School, a training unit for ground-attack pilots, at RAF Milfield, in early 1943. It is armed with a pair of Vickers ‘S’ 40mm cannon under its wings and despite the streamlined fairings, this weapons fit had a noticeable drag-inducing effect on the aircraft’s […]

Bristol Blenheim Malta On 24 June, led by Wing Commander Atkinson, crews on 82 Squadron delivered the first low-level attack on Tripoli harbour, where they bombed the remainder of the convoy that they had attacked two days earlier. That day, it was said, the Squadron really went to town -Tripoli town – at anything from […]