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Operation Squabble by eskiwoods Alfred ‘Ken’ Gatward, the daring RAF pilot who dropped the French Tri-Colour on occupied Paris as part of the WWII Operation Squabble during the spring of 1942. This was a special operation in the Paris area carried out in June 1942 which was intended to create a heartening effect among the […]

Oswald Boelcke, (right) who is regarded as the father of the German fighter air force, shot down Robert Wilson (left), of the 32 Squadron Royal Flying Corps, before inviting him to join him for coffee. As Hugh Trenchard had maintained from the first, the ‘flying aces’ system would always entail a degree of injustice, not […]

The three major airborne forces of WWII used chutes that were superficially similar in that they all had 28ft diameter canopies. In their detail operation they were quite different however. The US Airborne’s first attempt was the T4. A workmanlike job, the rig featured a reserve (emergency) ‘chute which was carried vertically on the trooper’s […]

The focus of action then shifted to Burma, where the Hell’s Angels were operating in defence of Rangoon. On 23 December a force of some 70 JAAF aircraft, Ki 21 bombers escorted by Nakajima Ki 27 Nate and Nakajima Ki 43 Oscar fighters, raided Rangoon from their bases in Thailand. The AVG P-40s scrambled with […]