1.
Blackburn Roc
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The Blackburn B-25 Roc was a British Second World War-era Fleet Air Arm fighter aircraft designed by Blackburn Aircraft Ltd. It took its name from the bird of the tales of the Arabian Nights. Derived from the Blackburn Skua and developed in parallel, the Roc differed in its adoption of a turret for its armament, operationally, the Roc came to be viewed as inferior to existing aircraft such as the Skua, and the type had only brief front line service. On 31 December 1935, the British Air Ministry issued specification O. 30/35 for a carrier-based turret-armed fighter, although the Sea Defiant was expected to be 85 mph faster, the Roc was chosen. It was powered by a Bristol Perseus radial engine driving a three-bladed propeller and it retained the wing-mounted dive brakes of the Skua, with bomb racks under each wing for two 250 lb bombs and eight practice bombs to be carried. On 28 April 1937, the Air Ministry placed an order for 136 Rocs, the first flight by a Roc was on 23 December 1938, handling was acceptable and better than that of the Skua but its performance was poor, with a maximum speed of only 223 mph. It had already been realised by some that this performance was inadequate, however production was allowed to continue as cancellation would cause too much disruption for Boulton Paul, instead beginning plans to adapt the aircraft for target towing. Delivery of the Roc began to the Skua-equipped 800 and 803 Naval Air Squadrons late in 1939, during the Allied campaign in Norway a small contingent of Rocs travelled with 800 and 801 Naval Air Squadrons on HMS Ark Royal. They were used to carry out air patrols over the fleet and again were of little use. Skuas and Rocs operated over the English Channel in the summer of 1940 and supported Operation Dynamo and Operation Ariel, flying underneath the Junkers while the Skuas attacked from above, Midshipman Days Roc destroyed one Ju 88 before returning safely to RAF Detling. - some as distant as Bermuda until the last two examples were withdrawn from service in June 1943, the last four Rocs stationed at HMS Daedalus in Gosport survived until late 1944, their turrets still being used for anti-aircraft defence. United Kingdom Royal Air Force No.2 Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit, RAF No.6 lb/ft² Power/mass,0.11 hp/lb Armament Guns,4 ×0. com, The Aircraft, Blackburn Roc
2.
Medium bomber
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The term was used prior to and during World War II, based on available parameters of engine and aeronautical technology for bomber aircraft designs at that time. After the war, medium bombers were replaced in world air forces by more advanced, in the early 1930s many air forces were looking to modernize their existing bomber aircraft fleets, which frequently consisted of older biplanes. The World War II-era medium bomber was considered to be any level bomber design that delivered about 4,000 pounds of ordnance over ranges of about 1,500 to 2,000 mi. Typical heavy bombers were those with a load of 8,000 pounds or more. These distinctions were beginning to disappear by the middle of World War II, advances in powerplants and designs eventually allowed light bombers, tactical bombers, and later jet fighter-bombers to take over the roles performed by mediums. Although a number of aircraft were designed in this performance and load-carrying range. Examples of post-war mediums include the English Electric Canberra and the Soviet Ilyushin Il-28 Beagle, subsequent to World War II, only the U. S. A-6 Intruder General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark — U. S. supersonic swing wing strike aircraft Dive bomber High level bombing Maritime patrol aircraft Strategic bomber Tactical bombing Torpedo bomber
3.
North American Aviation
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Through a series of mergers and sales, North American Aviation became part of North American Rockwell, which later became Rockwell International and is now part of Boeing. Clement Melville Keys founded North American on December 6,1928, as a company that bought and sold interests in various airlines. However, the Air Mail Act of 1934 forced the breakup of such holding companies, North American became a manufacturing company, run by James H. Dutch Kindelberger, who had been recruited from Douglas Aircraft Company. NAA did retain ownership of Eastern Air Lines until 1938, General Motors Corporation took a controlling interest in NAA and merged it with its general aviation division in 1933, but retained the name North American Aviation. Its first planes were the GA-15 observation plane and the GA-16 trainer, followed by the O-47 and BT-9, the BC-1 of 1937 was North Americans first combat aircraft, it was based on the GA-16. In 1940, like other manufacturers, North American started gearing up for war, opening factories in Columbus, Ohio, Dallas, Texas, North American ranked eleventh among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. North Americans follow-on to the BT-9 was the T-6 Texan trainer, of which 17,000 were built, the twin-engine B-25 Mitchell bomber achieved fame in the Doolittle Raid and was used in all combat theaters of operation. The P-51 Mustang was initially produced for Britain as an alternative to the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, the derivative A-36 Apache was developed as a ground attack aircraft and dive bomber. Post-war, North Americans employment dropped from a high of 91,000 to 5,000 in 1946, on V-J Day, North American had orders from the U. S. government for 8,000 aircraft. A few months later, that had dropped to 24, two years later in 1948, General Motors divested NAA as a public company. The Buckeyes name would be an acknowledgment to the tree of Ohio. The North American F-86 Sabre started out as a redesigned Fury and its successor, the North American F-100 Super Sabre, was also popular. Some 6,656 F-86s were produced in the United States, to accommodate its Sabre production, North American opened facilities in a former Curtiss-Wright plant in Columbus, Ohio. It also moved into a former Consolidated-Vultee Aircraft plant at Downey, California, by the end of 1952, North American sales topped $315 million. Employment at the Columbus plant grew from 1,600 in 1950 to 18,000 in 1952, Atomics International was a division of North American Aviation which began as the Atomic Energy Research Department at the Downey plant in 1948. In 1955, the department was renamed Atomics International and engaged principally in the development of nuclear technology. Atomics International was eventually merged with the Rocketdyne division in 1978, autonetics began in 1945 at North Americans Technical Research Laboratory, a small unit in the Los Angeles Divisions engineering department based in Downey, California. The division was involved in the development of systems for the Minuteman ballistic missile system
4.
United States Army Air Forces
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Each of these forces had a commanding general who reported directly to the Army Chief of Staff. S. Army to control its own installations and support personnel, the peak size of the AAF during the Second World War was over 2.4 million men and women in service and nearly 80,000 aircraft by 1944, and 783 domestic bases in December 1943. By V-E Day, the Army Air Forces had 1.25 million men stationed overseas, in its expansion and conduct of the war, the AAF became more than just an arm of the greater organization. By the end of World War II, the Army Air Forces had become virtually an independent service and this contrast between theory and fact is. fundamental to an understanding of the AAF. Gen. Billy Mitchell that led to his later court-martial, a strategy stressing precision bombing of industrial targets by heavily armed, long-range bombers emerged, formulated by the men who would become its leaders. Since 1920, control of units had resided with commanders of the corps areas. Both were created in 1933 when a conflict with Cuba seemed possible following a coup détat. Activation of GHQ Air Force represented a compromise between strategic airpower advocates and ground force commanders who demanded that the Air Corps mission remain tied to that of the land forces. GHQ Air Force organized combat groups administratively into a force of three wings deployed to the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts but was small in comparison to European air forces. Corps area commanders continued to control over airfields and administration of personnel. The expected activation of Army General Headquarters prompted Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall to request a study from Chief of the Air Corps Maj. Gen. Henry H. Arnold resulting on 5 October 1940 in a proposal for creation of an air staff, unification of the air arm under one commander, and equality with the ground and supply forces. Marshall implemented a compromise that the Air Corps found entirely inadequate, naming Arnold as acting Deputy Chief of Staff for Air but rejecting all organizational points of his proposal. GHQ Air Force instead was assigned to the control of Army General Headquarters, although the latter was a training and not an operational component, when it was activated in November 1940. A division of the GHQ Air Force into four air defense districts on 19 October 1940 was concurrent with the creation of air forces to defend Hawaii. The air districts were converted in March 1941 into numbered air forces with an organization of 54 groups. Marshall had come to the view that the air forces needed a simpler system, Arnold and Marshall agreed that the AAF would enjoy a general autonomy within the War Department until the end of the war, while its commanders would cease lobbying for independence. Marshall, a proponent of airpower, left understood that the Air Force would likely achieve its independence following the war
5.
Royal Air Force
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The Royal Air Force is the United Kingdoms aerial warfare force. Formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, following victory over the Central Powers in 1918 the RAF emerged as, at the time, the largest air force in the world. The RAF describe its mission statement as, an agile, adaptable and capable Air Force that, person for person, is second to none, and that makes a decisive air power contribution in support of the UK Defence Mission. The mission statement is supported by the RAFs definition of air power, Air power is defined as the ability to project power from the air and space to influence the behaviour of people or the course of events. Today the Royal Air Force maintains a fleet of various types of aircraft. The majority of the RAFs rotary-wing aircraft form part of the tri-service Joint Helicopter Command in support of ground forces, most of the RAFs aircraft and personnel are based in the UK, with many others serving on operations or at long-established overseas bases. It was founded on 1 April 1918, with headquarters located in the former Hotel Cecil, during the First World War, by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps, at that time it was the largest air force in the world. The RAFs naval aviation branch, the Fleet Air Arm, was founded in 1924, the RAF developed the doctrine of strategic bombing which led to the construction of long-range bombers and became its main bombing strategy in the Second World War. The RAF underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War, under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained and formed Article XV squadrons for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from countries, and exiles from occupied Europe. By the end of the war the Royal Canadian Air Force had contributed more than 30 squadrons to serve in RAF formations, additionally, the Royal Australian Air Force represented around nine percent of all RAF personnel who served in the European and Mediterranean theatres. In the Battle of Britain in 1940, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the numerically superior German Luftwaffe, the largest RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. Following victory in the Second World War, the RAF underwent significant re-organisation, during the early stages of the Cold War, one of the first major operations undertaken by the Royal Air Force was in 1948 and the Berlin Airlift, codenamed Operation Plainfire. Before Britain developed its own nuclear weapons the RAF was provided with American nuclear weapons under Project E and these were initially armed with nuclear gravity bombs, later being equipped with the Blue Steel missile. Following the development of the Royal Navys Polaris submarines, the nuclear deterrent passed to the navys submarines on 30 June 1969. With the introduction of Polaris, the RAFs strategic nuclear role was reduced to a tactical one and this tactical role was continued by the V bombers into the 1980s and until 1998 by Tornado GR1s. For much of the Cold War the primary role of the RAF was the defence of Western Europe against potential attack by the Soviet Union, with many squadrons based in West Germany. With the decline of the British Empire, global operations were scaled back, despite this, the RAF fought in many battles in the Cold War period
6.
Soviet Air Forces
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The Soviet Air Forces was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces, the Air Forces were formed from components of the Imperial Russian Air Service in 1917, and faced their greatest test during World War II. The groups were involved in the Korean War, and dissolved along with the Soviet Union itself in 1991–92. Former Soviet Air Forces assets were divided into several air forces of former Soviet republics. March of the Pilots was its anthem, the All-Russia Collegium for Direction of the Air Forces of the Old Army was formed on 20 December 1917. This was a Bolshevik aerial headquarters initially led by Konstantin Akashev and it became the Directorate of the USSR Air Forces on 28 March 1924, and then the Directorate of the Workers-Peasants Red Army Air Forces on 1 January 1925. Gradually its influence on aircraft design became greater, from its earliest days, the force mimicked ground forces organization especially in the 1930s, by which time it was made up of air armies, aviation corps, aviation divisions, and aviation regiments. At first, the I-16 proved superior to any Luftwaffe fighters, however, the Soviets refused to supply the plane in adequate numbers, and their aerial victories were soon squandered because of their limited use. Later, Bf-109s delivered to Francos Spanish Nationalist air forces secured air superiority for the Nationalists, on 19 November 1939, VVS headquarters was again titled the Main Directorate of the Red Army Air Forces under the WPRA HQ. Between 1933 and 1938, the Soviet government planned and funded missions to break numerous world aviation records, not only did aviation records and achievements become demonstrations of the USSRs technological progress, they also served as legitimization of the socialist system. With each new success, Soviet press trumpeted victories for socialism, furthermore, Soviet media idolized record-breaking pilots, exalting them not only as role models for Soviet society, but also as symbols of progress towards the socialist-utopian future. The early 1930s saw a shift in focus away from collectivist propaganda. In the case of aviation, the government began glorifying people who utilized aviation technology instead of glorifying the technology itself. Pilots such as Valery Chkalov, Georgy Baydukov, Alexander Belyakov, in May 1937, Stalin charged pilots Chkalov, Baydukov, and Belyakov with the mission to navigate the first transpolar flight in history. On 20 June 1937, the aviators landed their ANT-25 in Vancouver, a month later, Stalin ordered the departure of a second crew to push the boundaries of modern aviation technology even further. The public reaction to the flights was euphoric. The media called the pilots Bolshevik knights of culture and progress, Soviet citizens celebrated Aviation Day on 18 August with as much zeal as they celebrated the October Revolution anniversary. Literature including poems, short stories, and novels emerged celebrating the feats of the aviator-celebrities, feature films like Victory, Tales of Heroic Aviators, and Valery Chkalov reinforced the positive hero imagery, celebrating the aviators individuality within the context of a socialist government
7.
United States Marine Corps
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The U. S. Marine Corps is one of the four armed service branches in the U. S. Department of Defense and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military officer in the U. S. Armed Forces, is a Marine Corps general, the Marine Corps has been a component of the U. S. Department of the Navy since 30 June 1834, working closely with naval forces for training, transportation, and logistics. The USMC operates posts on land and aboard sea-going amphibious warfare ships around the world, two battalions of Continental Marines were formed on 10 November 1775 in Philadelphia as a service branch of infantry troops capable of fighting for independence both at sea and on shore. The role of the Corps has since grown and evolved, expanding to aerial warfare and earning popular titles such as, Americas third air force, and, second land army. By the mid-20th century, the U. S. Marine Corps had become a major theorist of and its ability to rapidly respond on short notice to expeditionary crises gives it a strong role in the implementation and execution of American foreign policy. As of 2016, the USMC has around 182,000 active duty members and it is the smallest of the U. S. The USMC serves as an expeditionary force-in-readiness and this last clause, while seemingly redundant given the Presidents position as Commander-in-chief, is a codification of the expeditionary responsibilities of the Marine Corps. It derives from similar language in the Congressional acts For the Better Organization of the Marine Corps of 1834, in 1951, the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee called the clause one of the most important statutory – and traditional – functions of the Marine Corps. In addition to its duties, the Marine Corps conducts Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure operations, as well as missions in direct support of the White House. The Marine Band, dubbed the Presidents Own by Thomas Jefferson, Marines from Ceremonial Companies A & B, quartered in Marine Barracks, Washington, D. C. The Executive Flight Detachment also provides transport to Cabinet members. The relationship between the Department of State and the U. S. Marine Corps is nearly as old as the corps itself, for over 200 years, Marines have served at the request of various Secretaries of State. After World War II, an alert, disciplined force was needed to protect American embassies, consulates, in 1947, a proposal was made that the Department of War furnish Marine Corps personnel for Foreign Service guard duty under the provisions of the Foreign Service Act of 1946. A formal Memorandum of Agreement was signed between the Department of State and the Secretary of the Navy on December 15,1948, during the first year of the MSG program,36 detachments were deployed worldwide. Continental Marines manned raiding parties, both at sea and ashore, the Advanced Base Doctrine of the early 20th century codified their combat duties ashore, outlining the use of Marines in the seizure of bases and other duties on land to support naval campaigns. Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, Marine detachments served aboard Navy cruisers, battleships, Marine detachments served in their traditional duties as a ships landing force, manning the ships weapons and providing shipboard security. Marines would develop tactics and techniques of amphibious assault on defended coastlines in time for use in World War II, during World War II, Marines continued to serve on capital ships
8.
North American XB-21
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North American Aviations first twin-engined military aircraft, the NA-21 prototype was constructed at North Americans factory in Inglewood, California, where work on the aircraft began in early 1936. Flown by a crew of six to eight men, the XB-21 featured a strong defensive armament for the time. These were planned to be fitted in hydraulically powered nose and dorsal turrets, in addition to manually operated weapons installed in waist and ventral positions. Up to 10,000 pounds of bombs could be carried in a bomb bay. Undertaking its maiden flight on 22 December 1936 at Mines Field, modifications resolving these resulted in the aircraft being re-designated NA-39, and, accepted by the U. S. Army Air Corps as the XB-21. During the course of the fly-off, the gun turrets proved troublesome, their drive motors proving to be underpowered, as a result of these problems, the XB-21s nose turret was faired over, while the dorsal turret was removed. The XB-21 proved to have superior performance over its competitor, but price became the primary factor distinguishing the Bolo, despite this, the Army Air Corps found the performance of the XB-21 to have been favorable enough to order five pre-production aircraft, to be designated YB-21. However, soon after this contract was awarded, it was cancelled, bombs, Up to 10,000 pounds in an internal bay
9.
North American XB-28 Dragon
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The North American XB-28 Dragon was an aircraft proposed by North American Aviation to fill a strong need in the United States Army Air Corps for a high-altitude medium bomber. It never entered production, with only two prototypes being built. The order for a medium bomber was put out on 13 February 1940. The XB-28 was based on North American Aviations highly successful B-25 Mitchell, the overall configuration of the B-25 and XB-28 were fairly similar, the most important distinction was that the twin tail of the B-25 was changed to a single tail on the XB-28. It was among the first combat aircraft with a pressurized cabin, the XB-28 proved an excellent design, with significantly better performance than that of the B-25, but it was never put into production. High-altitude bombing was hampered significantly by factors such as clouds and wind, at the same time, medium bombers were becoming much more able at lower altitudes. The gains in performance that came with high-altitude flight were not considered sufficient to justify switching from low-altitude bombing. Even though the Army Air Forces rejected the XB-28 as a bomber, designated XB-28A, it was meant to explore the possibility of use as a reconnaissance aircraft. The XB-28A crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Southern California after the crew bailed out on 4 August 1943
10.
Billy Mitchell
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William Billy Mitchell was a United States Army general who is regarded as the father of the United States Air Force. Mitchell served in France during World War I and, by the conflicts end, after the war, he was appointed deputy director of the Air Service and began advocating increased investment in air power, believing that this would prove vital in future wars. He argued particularly for the ability of bombers to sink battleships and he resigned from the service shortly afterward. Mitchell received many honors following his death, including a commission by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a major general and he is also the only individual for whom an American military aircraft design, the North American B-25 Mitchell, is named. Born in Nice, France, to John L. Mitchell, Mitchell grew up on an estate in what is now the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis, Wisconsin. His grandfather, Alexander Mitchell, a Scotsman, established what became the Milwaukee Road railroad, Mitchell Park and the shopping precinct of Mitchell Street were named in honor of Alexander. Mitchells sister Ruth fought with the Chetniks in Yugoslavia during World War II and later wrote a book about her brother, Billy Mitchell graduated from Columbian College of George Washington University, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. He then enlisted as a private at age 18 in Company M of the 1st Wisconsin Infantry Regiment on May 14,1898, quickly gaining a commission due to his fathers influence, he joined the U. S. Army Signal Corps. Following the cessation of hostilities, Mitchell remained in the Army and he predicted as early as 1906, while an instructor at the Armys Signal School in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, that future conflicts would take place in the air, not on the ground. A member of one of Milwaukees most prominent families, Billy Mitchell was probably the first person with ties to Wisconsin to see the Wright Brothers plane fly, in 1908, when a young Signal Corps officer, Mitchell observed Orville Wrights flying demonstration at Fort Myer, Virginia. Mitchell took flight lessons at the Curtiss Aviation School at Newport News, from 1900 to 1904, Mitchell was posted in the District of Alaska as a lieutenant in the Signal Corps. Brunnell, Lieutenant Mitchell oversaw the construction of what became known as the Washington-Alaska Military Cable, ironically, he appeared in August 1913 at legislative hearings considering a bill to make Army aviation a branch separate from the Signal Corps and testified against the bill. In June, he took flying lessons at the Glenn Curtiss Aviation School because he was proscribed by law from aviator training by age and rank. In July 1916, he was promoted to major and appointed Chief of the Air Service of the First Army, when the United States declared war on Germany on April 6,1917, Mitchell was in Spain en route to France as an observer. On April 24, he made the first flight by an American officer over German lines, before long, Mitchell had gained enough experience to begin preparations for American air operations. Mitchell rapidly earned a reputation as a daring, flamboyant, in May, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He was promoted to the rank of colonel on October 10,1917 to rank from August 5. In September 1918, he planned and led nearly 1,500 British, French and he was elevated to the rank of brigadier general on October 14,1918 and commanded all American air combat units in France
11.
Allies of World War II
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The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese, at the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France, Poland and the United Kingdom, and dependent states, such as the British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland was a minor factor after its defeat in 1939, France was a minor factor after its defeat in 1940. China had already been into a war with Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. The alliance was formalised by the Declaration by United Nations, from 1 January 1942, however, the name United Nations was rarely used to describe the Allies during the war. The leaders of the Big Three – the UK, the Soviet Union, in 1945, the Allied nations became the basis of the United Nations. The origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I, Germany resented signing Treaty of Versailles. The new Weimar republics legitimacy became shaken, by the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the dominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi regime demanded the cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims to German-populated Austria. The likelihood of war was high, and the question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement, in Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression against China. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933, after four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemned Japans actions and initiated sanctions on Japan, the United States, in particular, was angered at Japan and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement signed six months before, Britain and France decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country, also, the French had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Soviet Union sought an alliance with the powers. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, a Polish government-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, a model followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germany in April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini
12.
Maritime patrol aircraft
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France, Italy and Austria-Hungary used large numbers of smaller patrol aircraft for the Mediterranean, Adriatic and other coastal areas while the Germans and British fought over the North Sea. A number of specialized patrol balloons were built, particularly by the British, the success of long range patrol aircraft led to the development of fighters specifically designed to intercept them, such as the Hansa-Brandenburg W.29. Blimps were widely used by the U. S. Navy, especially in the warmer and calmer latitudes of the Caribbean Sea, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and later the Azores. In the Pacific, the Catalina was gradually superseded by the longer-ranged Martin PBM Mariner flying boat, in the decades following World War II, the patrol duties were partially taken over by aircraft derived from civilian airliners. These had range and performance factors better than most of the wartime bombers, the latest jet-powered bombers of the 1950s did not have the endurance needed for long, overwater patrolling, and they did not have the low loitering speeds necessary for antisubmarine operations. The RAF also flew a derivative of the Avro Lancaster bomber – the Avro Shackleton –, and then replaced it with the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod. The Canadian version is called the CP-140 Aurora, in addition to their ASW and SAR capabilities, most P-3Cs have been modified to carry Harpoon missiles and Maverick s for attacking surface ships if the need ever arose. American P-3s were formerly armed with the Lulu nuclear depth charge for ASW, the Soviet Union developed the Ilyushin Il-38 from a civilian airliner, and the Royal Canadian Air Force did likewise, deriving the Canadair CP-107 Argus from a British airliner. Then, as mentioned above, those were replaced by the CP-140 Aurora, the French Navy developed the Breguet Atlantic following a Request for Proposal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Some of these were produced for some other NATO members that were not flying the P-3 or the CP-140. Japan developed an aircraft as well, the Shin Meiwa PS-1 flying boat. The main threat to NATO maritime supremacy throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and these were countered by the NATO fleets, the NATO patrol planes mentioned above, and by sophisticated underwater listening systems. S. Navy and Canadian ones from Greenland, Iceland, and Newfoundland, British ones from Scotland and Northern Ireland, and Norwegian, Dutch, and German ones from their home countries. Since the end of the Cold War the threat of a submarine attack is a remote one. The earliest patrol aircraft carried bombs and machine guns, between the wars the British experimented with equipping their patrol aircraft with the COW37 mm gun. During World War II, depth charges that could be set to detonate at specific depths, equipping submarines with radar-warning devices and the snorkel made them harder to find. Then the small escort carriers of WW II became available to cover the oceans. Maritime patrol aircraft are fitted with a wide range of sensors
13.
Reconnaissance aircraft
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A reconnaissance aircraft is a manned or unmanned military aircraft designed, or adapted, to carry out aerial reconnaissance. Their roles are to collect intelligence, signals intelligence, and measurement. During the Napoleonic Wars and Franco-Prussian War, balloons were used for reconnaissance by the French. In World War I, aircraft were deployed during the phases in reconnaissance roles to aid ground forces. Aerial reconnaissance was carried out by versions of standard fighters and bombers equipped with cameras. Today, much of the role has passed over to satellites. This was proven by the use by Israel and by the Desert Storm operation by the United States. King Hawes, Lt Col, USAF Bonnier Corporation, army-Lockheed YO-3A Silent Airplane in Vietnam
14.
Wright R-2600 Twin Cyclone
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The Wright R-2600 Cyclone 14 was an American radial engine developed by Curtiss-Wright and widely used in aircraft in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1935, Curtiss-Wright began work on a powerful version of their successful R-1820 Cyclone 9. The result was the R-2600 Twin Cyclone, with 14 cylinders arranged in two rows, the Twin Cyclone went on to power several important American-designed World War II aircraft, including the A-20 Havoc, B-25 Mitchell, TBF Avenger, SB2C Helldiver, and PBM Mariner. Over 50,000 R-2600s were built at plants in Paterson, New Jersey, related development Wright Cyclone family Wright R-1300 Cyclone 7 Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9 Wright R-3350 Cyclone 18 Hispano-Suiza 14Aa Comparable engines BMW801 Bristol Hercules Fiat A. London
15.
Radial engine
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The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders radiate outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a star when viewed from the front, and is called a star engine in some languages. The radial configuration was very commonly used for aircraft engines before gas turbine engines became predominant, instead, the pistons are connected to the crankshaft with a master-and-articulating-rod assembly. One piston, the uppermost one in the animation, has a rod with a direct attachment to the crankshaft. The remaining pistons pin their connecting rods attachments to rings around the edge of the master rod, extra rows of radial cylinders can be added in order to increase the capacity of the engine without adding to its diameter. Four-stroke radials have an odd number of cylinders per row, so that a consistent every-other-piston firing order can be maintained, for example, on a five-cylinder engine the firing order is 1,3,5,2,4 and back to cylinder 1. Moreover, this leaves a one-piston gap between the piston on its combustion stroke and the piston on compression. The active stroke directly helps compress the next cylinder to fire, if an even number of cylinders were used, an equally timed firing cycle would not be feasible. The radial engine normally uses fewer cam lobes than other types, as with most four-strokes, the crankshaft takes two revolutions to complete the four strokes of each piston. The camshaft ring is geared to spin slower and in the direction to the crankshaft. The cam lobes are placed in two rows for the intake and exhaust, for the example, four cam lobes serve all five cylinders, whereas 10 would be required for a typical inline engine with the same number of cylinders and valves. C. M. Manly constructed a water-cooled five-cylinder radial engine in 1901, manlys engine produced 52 hp at 950 rpm. This was installed in his triplane and made a number of short free-flight hops, another early radial engine was the three-cylinder Anzani, originally built as a W3 fan configuration, one of which powered Louis Blériots Blériot XI across the English Channel. Georges Canton and Pierre Unné patented the engine design in 1909, offering it to the Salmson company. It was similar in concept to the radial, the main difference being that the propeller was bolted to the engine. The problem of the cooling of the cylinders, a factor with the early stationary radials, was alleviated by the engine generating its own cooling airflow. Most German aircraft of the time used water-cooled inline 6-cylinder engines, in the early 1920s Le Rhône converted a number of their rotary engines into stationary radial engines. By 1918 the potential advantages of air-cooled radials over the inline engine
16.
United States Army Air Corps
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The United States Army Air Corps was the military aviation arm of the United States of America between 1926 and 1941. The USAAC was renamed from the earlier United States Army Air Service on 2 July 1926, the Air Corps became the United States Army Air Forces on 20 June 1941, giving it greater autonomy from the Armys middle-level command structure. The separation of the Air Corps from control of its combat units caused problems of unity of command that became more acute as the Air Corps enlarged in preparation for World War II. This was resolved by the creation of the Army Air Forces, the U. S. Army Air Service had a brief but turbulent history. In early 1926 the Military Affairs Committee of the Congress rejected all bills set forth before it on both sides of the issue. They fashioned a compromise in which the findings of the Morrow Board were enacted as law, while providing the air arm a five-year plan for expansion and development. The legislation changed the name of the Air Service to the Air Corps, thereby strengthening the conception of military aviation as an offensive, the Air Corps Act became law on 2 July 1926. Two additional brigadier generals would serve as assistant chiefs of the Air Corps, previous provisions of the National Defense Act of 1920 that all flying units be commanded only by rated personnel and that flight pay be awarded were continued. The Air Corps also retained the Prop and Wings as its branch insignia through its disestablishment in 1947, patrick became Chief of the Air Corps and Brig. Gen. James E. Fechet continued as his first assistant chief. The Air Corps Act of 2 July 1926 effected no fundamental innovation, the change in designation meant no change in status, the Air Corps was still a combatant branch of the Army with less prestige than the Infantry. The Air Corps Act gave authorization to carry out an expansion program. However, a lack of appropriations caused the beginning of the program to be delayed until 1 July 1927. The act authorized expansion to 1,800 airplanes,1,650 officers, none of the goals were reached by July 1932. Organizationally the Air Corps doubled from seven to fifteen groups, but the expansion was meaningless because all were seriously understrength in aircraft and pilots. Air Corps groups added 1927–1937 ¹Inactivated on 20 May 1937 ²Redesignated 17th Attack Group, 17th Bomb Group As units of the Air Corps increased in number, so did higher command echelons. The 1st Bomb Wing was activated in 1931, followed by the 3rd Attack Wing in 1932 to protect the Mexican border, the three wings became the foundation of General Headquarters Air Force upon its activation in 1935. In 1927 the Air Corps adopted a new scheme for painting its aircraft. The wings and tails of aircraft were painted yellow, with the words U. S
17.
Martin Maryland
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The Martin Model 167 was an American-designed medium bomber that first flew in 1939. It saw action in World War II with France and the United Kingdom, in response to a United States Army Air Corps light bomber requirement issued in 1938, the Glenn L. Martin Company produced their Model 167, which was given the official designation XA-22. Martins design was a twin-engine all-metal monoplane, capable of around 310 mph with a crew of three, the prototype Model 167W was powered by twin-row Pratt & Whitney R-1830-37 Twin Wasp engines, which were replaced in French production aircraft by single-row 9-cylinder Wright R-1820 Cyclone engines. All versions of the Model 167 were armed with six guns, four fixed guns in the wings, one dorsal gun. In the prototype these guns were all 0.30 in Browning machine guns, the dorsal gun was mounted in a fully retractable turret. The French aircraft used license built Belgian Fabrique Nationale FN-Brownings, the weight saved helped to increase the top speed to 288 mph. The Model 167 was a fairly typical twin engined bomber of the period, the most unusual feature of the Model 167 was the very narrow fuselage although it was shared with a number of late pre-war contemporaries. Glenn L. Martin doubled the size of the Baltimore factory, and built all 115 aircraft in six months, despite this the French placed an order for an additional 100 aircraft. The embargo was lifted in October 1939, and the 115 aircraft from the first order were delivered by late November 1939, deliveries then slowed down, and only 25 of the second batch reached France before the Armistice of 22 June 1940. Facing a massive German arms buildup and desperate for modern aircraft, Martin received an order for more than 200167 Fs which incorporated French-specific equipment such as metric instruments. French officials expected deliveries to begin in January 1939 but the type, notably, because of the U. S. embargo on arms exports after the beginning of World War II, many aircraft were impounded for two months before being shipped to Europe. When the Germans invaded France there were only four Groupes de bombardement equipped, the Glenns were quickly sent to the front lines where they performed well with their adequate speed and excellent maneuverability for an aircraft in this class. In about 400 sorties, they suffered a 4% loss rate, immediately before the June 1940 Armistice, units flying the Glenn Martin 167 were evacuated to French North Africa to avoid capture by the Germans. One of them landed in Spain and was interned, being tested by the Spanish Air Force, some examples were transferred to the Aéronautique Navale. During Vichy rule of the French empire, French Martins bombed British Commonwealth forces, as French North Africa got back in the Allied camp in 1943, M. 167s were replaced with more modern Allied types, including the Martin B-26 Marauder. Approximately 215 Martin 167s were delivered to France, just before the Franco-German Armistice, the remaining 75 planes on the French order were signed over to the United Kingdom. Thirty-two aircraft had completed to French specifications and were converted to British requirements in the UK. Engines were changed from the Cyclone 9 to the Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp and various weapons, the last 43 of the order were completed as required by Glenn Martin
18.
Douglas Aircraft Company
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The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer based in Southern California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. Douglas Aircraft Company largely operated as a division of McDonnell Douglas after the merger. MD later merged with Boeing in 1997, the Douglas Aircraft Company was founded by Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. on July 22,1921 in Santa Monica, California, following dissolution of the Davis-Douglas Company. An early claim to fame was the first circumnavigation of the world by air in Douglas airplanes in 1924. In 1923, the U. S. Army Air Service was interested in carrying out a mission to circumnavigate the Earth for the first time by aircraft, Donald Douglas proposed a modified Douglas DT to meet the Armys needs. The two-place, open cockpit DT biplane torpedo bomber had previously produced for the U. S. Navy. The DTs were taken from the lines at the companys manufacturing plants in Rock Island, Illinois and Dayton. The modified aircraft known as the Douglas World Cruiser, also was the first major project for Jack Northrop who designed the system for the series. After the prototype was delivered in November 1923, upon the completion of tests on 19 November. Due to the expedition ahead, spare parts, including 15 extra Liberty L-12 engines,14 extra sets of pontoons. These were sent to airports along the route, the last of these aircraft was delivered to the U. S. Army on 11 March 1924. After the success of the World Cruiser, the Army Air Service ordered six similar aircraft as observation aircraft. The success of the DWC established the Douglas Aircraft Company among the aircraft companies of the world. Douglas adopted a logo that showed aircraft circling a globe, replacing the original winged heart logo, the logo evolved into an aircraft, a rocket, and a globe. It was later adopted by the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, and then became the basis of the current logo of the Boeing Company after their 1997 merger, many Douglas aircraft had long service lives. Douglas Aircraft designed and built a variety of aircraft for the U. S. military, including the Navy, Army Air Forces, Marine Corps, Air Force. The company initially built torpedo bombers for the U. S. Navy, within five years, the company was building about 100 aircraft annually. Among the early employees at Douglas were Ed Heinemann, Dutch Kindelberger, and Jack Northrop, the company retained its military market and expanded into amphibian airplanes in the late 1920s, also moving its facilities to Clover Field at Santa Monica, California
19.
Douglas A-20 Havoc
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The Douglas A-20 Havoc was an American attack, light bomber, and intruder aircraft of World War II. It served with several Allied air forces, principally the United States Army Air Forces, the Soviet Air Forces, Soviet Naval Aviation, Soviet units received more than one in three of the DB-7s ultimately built. It was also used by the air forces of Australia, South Africa, France, and the Netherlands during the war, and by Brazil afterwards. In British Commonwealth air forces, bomber/attack variants of the DB-7 were usually known by the service name Boston, an exception to this was the Royal Australian Air Force, which referred to all variants of the DB-7 by the name Boston. The USAAF referred to night fighter variants as P-70 and it was estimated that it could carry a 1,000 lb bomb load at 250 mph. Reports of aircraft performance from the Spanish Civil War indicated that this design would be seriously underpowered, in the autumn of the same year, the United States Army Air Corps issued its own specification for an attack aircraft. The Douglas team, now headed by Heinemann, took the Model 7A design, upgraded with 1,100 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp engines and it faced competition from the North American NA-40, Stearman X-100, and Martin 167F. The Model 7B was maneuverable and fast, but did not attract any US orders, the model did, however, attract the attention of a French Purchasing Commission visiting the United States. The French discreetly participated in the trials, so as not to attract criticism from American isolationists. The secret was revealed when the Model 7B crashed on 23 January while demonstrating single-engine performance, the French were still impressed enough to order 100 production aircraft, with the order increased to 270 when the war began. Sixteen of those had been ordered by Belgium for its Aviation Militaire, in a report to the British Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at RAF Boscombe Down, test pilots summed it up as, has no vices and is very easy to take off and land. The aeroplane represents a definite advantage in the design of flying controls, extremely pleasant to fly and manoeuvre. Ex-pilots often consider it their favorite aircraft of the war due to the ability to toss it around like a fighter, the Douglas bomber/night fighter was extremely adaptable and found a role in every combat theater of the war, and excelled as a true pilots aeroplane. When DB-7 series production ended on 20 September 1944, a total of 7,098 had been built by Douglas. Douglas redesigned its Santa Monica plant to create a production line to produce A-20 Havocs. The assembly line was over a long, but by looping back and forth. Man-hours were reduced by 50% for some operations, the French order called for substantial modifications, resulting in the DB-7 variant. It had a narrower, deeper fuselage,1,000 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830-SC3-G radials, French-built guns, midway through the delivery phase, engines were switched to 1,100 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830-S3C4-G
20.
Martin B-26 Marauder
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The Martin B-26 Marauder was a World War II twin-engined medium bomber built by the Glenn L. Martin Company from 1941 to 1945. First used in the Pacific Theater in early 1942, it was used in the Mediterranean Theater. After entering service with the US Army, the received the reputation of a Widowmaker due to the early models high accident rate during takeoffs. The Marauder had to be flown at exact airspeeds, particularly on final runway approach, the B-26 became a safer aircraft once crews were re-trained, and after aerodynamics modifications. After aerodynamic and design changes, the aircraft distinguished itself as the chief bombardment weapon on the Western Front according to a United States Army Air Forces dispatch from 1946, the Marauder ended World War II with the lowest loss rate of any USAAF bomber. A total of 5,288 were produced between February 1941 and March 1945,522 of these were flown by the Royal Air Force and the South African Air Force. By the time the United States Air Force was created as an independent service separate from the Army in 1947, the Douglas A-26 Invader then assumed the B-26 designation — before officially returning to the earlier A for Attack designation in May 1966. On 5 July 1939, the Glenn L. Martin Company submitted its design, produced by a led by Peyton M. Magruder, to meet the requirement. Martins design was evaluated as superior to the proposals and was awarded a contract for 201 aircraft. The B-26 went from concept to an operational bomber in approximately two years. Additional orders for a further 930 B-26s followed in September 1940, the B-26 was a shoulder-winged monoplane of all-metal construction, fitted with a tricycle landing gear. A gunner manned a turret armed with two.50 in machine guns, while an additional.30 in machine gun was fitted in the tail. The aircraft was powered by two Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engines in nacelles slung under the wing, driving four-bladed propellers, the engines were manufactured at the Ford Dearborn Engine plant in Dearborn, Michigan, USA. The first B-26, with Martin test pilot William K, ken Ebel at the controls, flew on 25 November 1940 and was effectively the prototype. Deliveries to the US Army Air Corps began in February 1941 with the second aircraft, in March 1941, the Army Air Corps started Accelerated Service Testing of the B-26 at Patterson Field, Ohio. At least two of the earliest B-26s suffered hard landings and damage to the landing gear, engine mounts, propellers. The type was grounded briefly in April 1941 to investigate the landing difficulties, two causes were found, insufficient landing speed and improper weight distribution. The latter was due to the lack of a dorsal turret, some of the very earliest B-26s suffered collapses of the nose landing gear
21.
Dihedral (aeronautics)
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Dihedral angle is the upward angle from horizontal of the wings or tailplane of a fixed-wing aircraft. Anhedral angle is the given to negative dihedral angle, that is. Dihedral angle has an influence on dihedral effect, which is named after it. Dihedral effect is the amount of roll moment produced per degree of sideslip, dihedral effect is a critical factor in the stability of an aircraft about the roll axis. It is also pertinent to the nature of an aircrafts Dutch roll oscillation, longitudinal dihedral is a comparatively obscure term related to the pitch axis of an airplane. It is the angle between the zero axis of the wing and horizontal tail. Longitudinal dihedral can influence the nature of controllability about the pitch axis, when the term dihedral is used by itself it is usually intended to mean dihedral angle. However, context may otherwise indicate that dihedral effect is the intended meaning, dihedral Angle is the upward angle from horizontal of the wings of a fixed-wing aircraft, or of any paired nominally-horizontal surfaces on any aircraft. The term can apply to the wings of a bird. Dihedral Angle is also used in some types of such as box kites. Wings with more than one Angle change along the span are said to be polyhedral. Dihedral Angle has important stabilizing effects on flying bodies because it has an influence on the dihedral effect. Dihedral effect of an aircraft is a rolling moment resulting from the vehicle having an angle of sideslip. Increasing the dihedral angle of an aircraft increases the effect on it. However, many other parameters also have a strong influence on dihedral effect. Some of these important factors are, wing sweep, vertical center of gravity, dihedral angle on an aircraft almost always implies the angle between two paired surfaces, one on each side of the aircraft. Even then, it is almost always between the left and right wings, however, mathematically dihedral means the angle between any two planes. Longitudinal dihedral can also mean the angle between the zero axis of the wing and tail instead of between the root chords of the two surfaces
22.
Gull wing
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The gull wing is an aircraft wing configuration with a prominent bend in the wing inner section towards the wing root. Its name is derived from the seabirds which it resembles and it has been incorporated in aircraft for many reasons. The gull wing was first seen on a glider when the Weltensegler flew in 1921 and its wings were externally braced and featured swept-back wingtips. After the aircraft broke up, killing its pilot, the design feature stayed out of popular use, the gull wing made a resurgence in 1930 with Alexander Lippischs record-breaking Fafnir. Lippisch used the configuration for its increased wingtip clearance and the belief it improved stability in turns. However, studies have shown that normal gull wing configurations have significantly less severe and more easily recoverable stalls, inverted gull wings show the opposite stall behaviour, but both normal and inverted gull wings impede lift/drag ratio and climb performance. The true success of the Fafnirs gull wing lay primarily in its aesthetic value, as engine power increased, so did the need for large propellers that could effectively convert power to thrust. The gull wing allowed designers to ensure adequate propeller tip clearance over the water by placing the engines on the highest point of the wing, the alternative was placing the engine on a pylon. Possibly the first flying boat to utilize the gull wing configuration was the Short Knuckleduster, the Dornier Do 26, a high-speed airliner and transport platform, of which 6 aircraft were built, flew in 1938. The configuration was used on the US Navys PBM Mariner. The arrangement he devised is occasionally known as the Pulawski Wing or the Polish wing and it was used in fighter aircraft like PZL P.11 and Polikarpov I-15. Examples, PZL P.11 Polikarpov I-153 The inverted gull wing was developed in the 1930s and was chiefly used on single engine military aircraft with increasing powerful engines. Before contra-rotating propellers came into use, such powers required larger diameter propellers, long landing gear legs are heavy, bulky, and weaker than their shorter counterparts. The inverted gull wing allowed the gear to be short and strong. An additional aerodynamic advantage was that the connection is perpendicular and has inherently lower drag than any other connection. Another reason for having an inverted gull wing is to permit clearance for an external bomb load
23.
Kansas City, Kansas
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Kansas City is the third-largest city in the state of Kansas, the county seat of Wyandotte County, and the third-largest city of the Kansas City metropolitan area. It is part of a consolidated city-county government known as the Unified Government, Wyandotte County also includes the independent cities of Bonner Springs and Edwardsville. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 145,786 residents and it is situated at Kaw Point, which is the junction of the Missouri and Kansas rivers. In October 1872, old Kansas City, Kansas, was incorporated, the first city election was held on October 22 of that year, by order of Judge Hiram Stevens of the Tenth Judicial District, and resulted in the election of Mayor James Boyle. The mayors of the city after its organization were James Boyle, C. A. Eidemiller, A. S. Orbison, Eli Teed, in June 1880, the Governor of Kansas proclaimed the city of Kansas City a city of the second class with Mayor McConnell present. In March 1886, new Kansas City, Kansas, was formed through the consolidation of five municipalities, old Kansas City, Armstrong, Armourdale, Riverview, the oldest city of the group was Wyandotte, which was formed in 1857 by Wyandot Native Americans and Methodist missionaries. In the 1890s, the city saw a growth in population as a streetcar suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, from which it takes its name. It was one of the nations 100 largest cities for many U. S. Census counts, from 1890 to 1960, including 1920, when it had a population of over 100,000 residents for the first time. As with adjacent Kansas City, Missouri, the percentage of the citys most populous ethnic group, in 1997, voters approved a proposition to unify the city and county governments creating the Unified Government of Wyandotte County. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 128.38 square miles. Neighborhoods of Kansas City, Kansas, include the following, Downtown Argentine − former home to the silver smelter for which it was named, Armourdale − formerly a city, it was consolidated with the city of Kansas City in 1886. Armstrong − a town absorbed by Wyandotte, bethel − a neighborhood located generally along Leavenworth Rd. between 72nd and 77th Streets. It was never incorporated as a municipality, Fairfax District − an industrial area along the Missouri River. Nearman Piper Pomeroy − a late-19th—early-20th-century Train Depot, Trading Post, Saw Mill, Riverview Rosedale − merged with Kansas City in 1922. Stony Point Strawberry Hill Turner − community around the Wyandotte-Johnson County border to the Kansas River north-south, unless otherwise stated, normal figures below are based on data from 1981 to 2010 at Downtown Airport. The warmest month of the year is July, with a 24-hour average temperature of 81.0 °F, the summer months are hot, but can get very hot and moderately humid, with moist air riding up from the Gulf of Mexico. High temperatures surpass 100 °F on 5.6 days of the year, the coldest month of the year is January, with an average temperature of 31.0 °F. Winters are cold, with 22 days where the high is at or below the mark and 2.5 nights with a low at or below 0 °F
24.
Fairfax Municipal Airport
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Fairfax Municipal Airport was a Kansas City, Kansas, airfield from 1921 that was used during 1935–1949 by the military. Federal land adjacent to the airfield included a WWII B-25 Mitchell plant and modification center, the airport site is on the Goose Island river bend. The airfield was used by Emory J. Sweeneys School of Aviation. Sweeney Airport was named in 1925, and the 403 Pursuit Squadron was assigned to Kansas City at the end of 1925, Sweeney Airport was mapped by the United States Department of Commerce on July 17,1928, as a trapezoid with 150 acres. Fairfax Airport was named in 1928 when Sweeney Airport was taken over by Wood Brothers Corporation--Charles Lindbergh, adjacent to Fairfax Airport was a 1935-42 naval reserve air base, which by 1940 was a Navy Elimination Air Base for screening aviation candidates. Survey work for an Air Force Plant began in December 1940, the United States Army Air Forces leased the citys Fairfax Airport by 1941, when the Works Projects Administration allotted $1,536,717 for improvements and expansion of the 240-acre airport. Groundbreaking for Air Force Plant NC, a government-owned, contractor-operated plant of North American Aviation was on March 8,1941, post-war military activations at Fairfax included the 4101st Army Air Force Base Unit on July 12,1946 and the 564th Bombardment Squadron on January 6,1947. On May 22,1950, Fairfaxs 2472d AF Reserve Training Center, in 1954 a Zantop DC-3A crashed on approach to Fairfax, killing 3. Fairfax was the 1955 landing site of a TWA DC-3 trainer that had just taken off from Fairfax before colliding with, the 1963 fatal journey for Patsy Clines Piper Comanche began at Fairfax, and the airport was added to the GNIS on October 13,1978. Fairfaxs longest runway was 7,301 ft long when the airports last flight departed on March 31,1985, and on April 1,1985, the land was added to the Fairfax District industrial area. The General Motors Fairfax Assembly Plant was completed in 1985 on the runways, and auto production at the WWII bomber plant building ceased in May 1987
25.
Birmingham, Alabama
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Birmingham is the most populous city in the U. S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Jefferson County. The citys population was 212,237 in the 2010 United States Census, the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of about 1,128,047 according to the 2010 Census, which is approximately one quarter of Alabamas population. Birmingham was founded in 1871, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period and it was named for Birmingham, England, one of the UKs major industrial cities. The Alabama city annexed smaller neighbors and developed as an industrial and railroad center, based on mining, the new iron and steel industry. Most of the settlers who founded Birmingham were of English ancestry. From its founding through the end of the 1960s, Birmingham was an industrial center of the southern United States. Its growth from 1881 through 1920 earned its nicknames as The Magic City and its major industries were iron and steel production, plus a major component of the railroading industry. Rails and railroad cars were manufactured in Birmingham. The two primary hubs of railroading in the Deep South have been nearby Atlanta and Birmingham, since the 1860s, the economy has diversified since industrial restructuring in the latter half of the 20th century. Banking, telecommunications, transportation, electrical transmission, medical care, college education. Except for coal mining, the industry has declined in the Birmingham area, Birmingham ranks as one of the most important business centers in the Southeastern United States and as one of the largest banking centers in the nation. In higher education, Birmingham has been the location of the University of Alabama School of Medicine, since that time it has also gained the University of Alabama at Birmingham, one of three main campuses of the University of Alabama System. It is also home to three institutions, Samford University, Birmingham-Southern College, and Miles College. In total, the Birmingham area has major colleges of medicine, dentistry, optometry, physical therapy, pharmacy, law, engineering, the city has three of the states five law schools, Cumberland School of Law, Birmingham School of Law, and Miles Law School. Birmingham is also the headquarters of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, and Southeastern Conference, Birmingham was founded on June 1,1871, by the Elyton Land Company, whose investors included cotton planters, bankers and railroad entrepreneurs. It sold lots near the crossing of the Alabama & Chattanooga and South & North Alabama railroads. The first business at that crossroads was the trading post and country store operated by Marre, the site of the railroad crossing was notable for its proximity to nearby deposits of iron ore, coal, and limestone – the three main raw materials used in making steel. Birmingham is the only place worldwide where significant amounts of all three minerals can be found in close proximity, from the start the new city was planned as a center of industry
26.
Doolittle Raid
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The raid was planned and led by Lieutenant Colonel James Jimmy Doolittle of the United States Army Air Forces. Sixteen B-25B Mitchell medium bombers were launched without fighter escort from the U. S. Navys aircraft carrier USS Hornet deep in the Western Pacific Ocean, each with a crew of five men. The plan called for them to military targets in Japan. Fifteen aircraft reached China, but all crashed, while the 16th landed at Vladivostok in the Soviet Union, all but three of the 80 crew members initially survived the mission. Eight airmen were captured by the Japanese Army in China, three of those were later executed, the B-25 that landed in the Soviet Union was confiscated and its crew interned for more than a year. Fourteen complete crews, except for one crewman who was killed in action, Doolittle, who initially believed that the loss of all his aircraft would lead to his court-martial, received the Medal of Honor and was promoted two steps to brigadier general. The raid had its start in a desire by President Franklin D, an attack on the Japanese homeland would cause confusion in the minds of the Japanese people and sow doubt about the reliability of their leaders. There was a second, and equally important, psychological reason for this attack, Americans badly needed a morale boost. The concept for the attack came from Navy Captain Francis Low, Assistant Chief of Staff for anti-submarine warfare, the attack was planned and led by Doolittle, a famous military test pilot, civilian aviator and aeronautical engineer before the war. Requirements that the aircraft have a range of 2,400 nautical miles with a 2. The range of the Mitchell at the time was only about 1,300 miles, the B-18, one of the final two types considered by Doolittle, was rejected for the same reason. The B-25 had yet to be tested in combat, but subsequent tests indicated it could fulfill the missions requirements. Doolittles first report on the plan suggested the bombers might land in Vladivostok, negotiations with the Soviet Union for permission to land were fruitless because it had signed a neutrality pact with Japan in April 1941. The raid was approved and the 17th Bomb Group was chosen to provide the pool of crews from which volunteers would be recruited. The 17th BG had been the first group to receive B-25s, the 17th not only was the first medium bomb group of the Army Air Corps, but in the spring of 1942 also had the most experienced B-25 crews. Its first assignment following the entry of the United States into the war was to the U. S, the group officially transferred effective 9 February to Columbia, where its combat crews were offered the opportunity to volunteer for an extremely hazardous, but unspecified mission. On 19 February, the group was detached from the Eighth Air Force, initial planning called for 20 aircraft to fly the mission, and 24 of the groups B-25B Mitchell bombers were diverted to the Mid-Continent Airlines modification center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. With support provided by two senior managers, Wold-Chamberlain Fields maintenance hangar was the first modification center to become operational
27.
Pacific War
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The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in the Pacific and East Asia. It was fought over a vast area that included the Pacific Ocean and islands, the South West Pacific, South-East Asia, and in China. The Pacific War saw the Allied powers pitted against the Empire of Japan, the formal and official surrender of Japan took place aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. In Allied countries during the war, The Pacific War was not usually distinguished from World War II in general, or was known simply as the War against Japan. Japan used the name Greater East Asia War, as chosen by a decision on 10 December 1941. Japanese officials integrated what they called the Japan–China Incident into the Greater East Asia War, in Japan, the Fifteen Years War is also used, referring to the period from the Mukden Incident of 1931 through 1945. The Phayap Army sent troops to invade and occupy northeastern Burma, also involved were the Japanese puppet states of Manchukuo and Mengjiang, and the collaborationist Wang Jingwei regime. The official policy of the U. S. Government is that Thailand was not an ally of the Axis, Japan conscripted many soldiers from its colonies of Korea and Formosa. To a small extent, some Vichy French, Indian National Army, Germany and Italy both had limited involvement in the Pacific War. The German and the Italian navies operated submarines and raiding ships in the Indian, the Italians had access to concession territory naval bases in China, while the Germans did not. After Japans attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declarations of war, mexico, Free France and many other countries also took part, especially forces from other British colonies. Between 1942 and 1945, there were four main areas of conflict in the Pacific War, China, the Central Pacific, South East Asia, U. S. sources refer to two theaters within the Pacific War, the Pacific theater and the China Burma India Theater. However these were not operational commands, in the Pacific, the Allies divided operational control of their forces between two supreme commands, known as Pacific Ocean Areas and Southwest Pacific Area. In 1945, for a period just before the Japanese surrender. By 1937, Japan controlled Manchuria and was ready to move deeper into China, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937 provoked full-scale war between China and Japan. In August 1937, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to fight about 300,000 Japanese troops in Shanghai, the Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937 and committed which was known as Nanking Massacre. In March 1938, Nationalist forces won their first victory at Taierzhuang, but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by Japanese in May. In June 1938, Japan deployed about 350,000 troops to invade Wuhan, the Japanese achieved major military victories, but world opinion—in particular in the United States—condemned Japan, especially after the Panay incident
28.
Aleutian Islands
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The Aleutian Islands are a chain of 14 large volcanic islands and 55 smaller ones belonging to both the United States and Russia. Crossing longitude 180°, at which point east and west longitude end, the westernmost U. S. island in real terms, however, is Attu Island, west of which runs the International Date Line. The islands, with their 57 volcanoes, are in the part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Physiographically, they are a section of the larger Pacific Border province. These Islands are most known for the battles and skirmishes occurred there during the Aleutian Islands Campaign of World War II. It was one of two attacks on the United States during that war. The largest islands in the Aleutians are Attu, and Unalaska, Umnak, and Unimak in the Fox Islands. The largest of those is Unimak Island, with an area of 1,571.41 mi², followed by Unalaska Island, the axis of the archipelago near the mainland of Alaska has a southwest trend, but near 179° its direction changes to the northwest. This change of direction corresponds to a curve in the line of fissures that have contributed their products to the building of the islands. Such curved chains are repeated about the Pacific Ocean in the Kuril Islands, the Japanese chain, and in the Philippines. All these island arcs are at the edge of the Pacific Plate and experience much seismic activity, but are still habitable, the general elevation is greatest in the eastern islands and least in the western. The island chain is a continuation of the Aleutian Range on the mainland. The coasts are rocky and surf-worn, and the approaches are exceedingly dangerous and these volcanic islands reach heights of 6,200 feet. Makushin Volcano located on Unalaska Island, is not quite visible from within the town of Unalaska, though the steam rising from its cone is visible on a clear day. Residents of Unalaska need only to one of the smaller hills in the area, such as Pyramid Peak or Mt. Newhall. The volcanic Bogoslof and Fire Islands, which rose from the sea in 1796 and 1883 respectively, in 1906 a new volcanic cone rose between the islets of Bogoslof and Grewingk, near Unalaska, followed by another in 1907. These cones were demolished by an explosive eruption on September 1,1907. Newly found information in 2017, the volcanic cone erupted sending ash, the Aleutians seen from space The climate of the islands is oceanic, with moderate and fairly uniform temperatures and heavy rainfall
29.
Papua New Guinea
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Its capital, located along its southeastern coast, is Port Moresby. The western half of New Guinea forms the Indonesian provinces of Papua, Papua New Guinea is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. There are 852 known languages in the country, of which 12 have no known living speakers, most of the population of more than 7 million people live in customary communities, which are as diverse as the languages. It is also one of the most rural, as only 18 percent of its live in urban centres. The country is one of the worlds least explored, culturally and geographically and it is known to have numerous groups of uncontacted peoples, and researchers believe there are many undiscovered species of plants and animals in the interior. Papua New Guinea is classified as an economy by the International Monetary Fund. Strong growth in Papua New Guineas mining and resource sector led to the becoming the sixth fastest-growing economy in the world in 2011. Growth was expected to slow once major resource projects came on line in 2015, mining remains a major economic factor, however. Local and national governments are discussing the potential of resuming mining operations in Panguna mine in Bougainville Province, nearly 40 percent of the population lives a self-sustainable natural lifestyle with no access to global capital. Most of the still live in strong traditional social groups based on farming. Their social lives combine traditional religion with modern practices, including primary education, at the national level, after being ruled by three external powers since 1884, Papua New Guinea established its sovereignty in 1975. This followed nearly 60 years of Australian administration, which started during the Great War and it became an independent Commonwealth realm with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state and became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations in its own right. Archaeological evidence indicates that humans first arrived in Papua New Guinea around 42,000 to 45,000 years ago and they were descendants of migrants out of Africa, in one of the early waves of human migration. Agriculture was independently developed in the New Guinea highlands around 7000 BC, a major migration of Austronesian-speaking peoples to coastal regions of New Guinea took place around 500 BC. This has been correlated with the introduction of pottery, pigs, in the 18th century, traders brought the sweet potato to New Guinea, where it was adopted and became part of the staples. Portuguese traders had obtained it from South America and introduced it to the Moluccas, the far higher crop yields from sweet potato gardens radically transformed traditional agriculture and societies. Sweet potato largely supplanted the previous staple, taro, and resulted in a significant increase in population in the highlands. In 1901, on Goaribari Island in the Gulf of Papua, missionary Harry Dauncey found 10,000 skulls in the islands Long Houses, traders from Southeast Asia had visited New Guinea beginning 5,000 years ago to collect bird of paradise plumes
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New Britain
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New Britain is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from the island of New Guinea by the Dampier and Vitiaz Straits, the main towns of New Britain are Rabaul/Kokopo and Kimbe. The island is roughly the size of Taiwan, while the island was part of German New Guinea, it was named Neupommern. New Britain extends from 148°1831 to 152°2357 E longitude and from 4°0825 to 6°1831 S latitude and it is crescent-shaped, approximately 520 km along its southeastern coastline, and from 29 to 146 km wide, not including a small central peninsula. The air-line distance from west to east is 477 km, the island is the 38th largest in the world, with an area of 36,520 km2. Steep cliffs form some sections of the coastline, in others the mountains are further inland, the highest point, at 2,438 m, is Mount Sinewit in the Baining range in the east. Most of the terrain is covered with tropical rainforest and several rivers are fed by the high rainfall. A major eruption of Tavurvur in 1994 destroyed the East New Britain provincial capital of Rabaul, most of the town still lies under metres of ash, and the capital has been moved to nearby Kokopo. New Britain forms part of the Islands Region, one of four regions of Papua New Guinea, New Britain became part of German New Guinea. In 1909, the population was estimated at about 190,000. The expatriate population was confined to the northeastern Gazelle Peninsula. At the time 5,448 hectares had been converted to plantations, primarily growing copra, cotton, coffee, westerners avoided exploring the interior initially, believing that the indigenous peoples were warlike and would fiercely resist intrusions. On 11 September 1914, New Britain became the site of one of the earliest battles of World War I when the Australian Naval and they quickly overwhelmed the German forces and occupied the island for the duration of the war. After World War I the Treaty of Versailles was signed in June 1919, in 1920 the League of Nations included New Britain along with the former German colony on New Guinea in the Territory of New Guinea, a mandated territory of Australia. During World War II the Japanese attacked New Britain soon after the outbreak of hostilities in the Pacific Ocean, strategic bases at Rabaul and Kavieng were defended by a small Australian detachment, Lark Force. During January 1942, the Japanese heavily bombed Rabaul, on 23 January, Japanese marines landed by the thousands, starting the Battle of Rabaul. The Japanese used Rabaul as a key base until 1944, it served as the key point for the invasion of Port Moresby. New Britain was invaded by the U. S, 1st Marine Division in the Cape Gloucester area of the very western end of the island, and also by U. S. Army soldiers at some other coastal points
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Leapfrogging (strategy)
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Leapfrogging, also known as island hopping, was a military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against Japan and the Axis powers during World War II. After Japans victories in the Sino-Japanese War and in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, as a result, the U. S. Navy began to draft, as early as 1897, war plans against Japan, which were eventually code-named War Plan Orange. The war plan of 1911, which was drafted under Rear Admiral Raymond P. Rodgers, after World War I, the Versailles Treaty gave Japan a mandate over former German colonies in the western Pacific, specifically, the Mariana, Marshall, and Caroline Islands. If these islands were fortified, Japan could, in principle, therefore, in 1921, Major Earl Hancock Ellis of the U. S. The books were not only by Americans but by senior officers of the Japanese Imperial Navy. Thus troops on islands which had bypassed, such as the major base at Rabaul, were useless to the Japanese war effort. General Douglas MacArthur greatly supported this strategy in his effort to regain the Philippines and this strategy began to be implemented in late 1943 in Operation Cartwheel. While MacArthur claimed to have invented the strategy, it came out of the Navy. Leapfrogging would allow the United States forces to reach Japan quickly and not expend the time, manpower and it would give the Allies the advantage of surprise and keep the Japanese off balance. The overall leapfrogging strategy would involve two prongs, the southern prong, led by General MacArthur and with larger land forces, would take the Solomons, New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, advancing toward the Philippines. The principle of leapfrogging was not always followed in the Pacific, when MacArthur moved south to attack Mindanao after capturing the northern Philippines, and when he instigated the reconquest of portions of Borneo, he violated the basic tenets of island hopping. In the first case, this may have motivated by MacArthurs promise to return to the people of the Philippines as soon as possible. Seabees Unsinkable aircraft carrier Asada, Sadao, From Mahan to Pearl Harbor, The Imperial Japanese Navy, collier, Basil, The Second World War, a Military History, New York, William Morrow & Co. Roehrs, Mark D, Renzi, William A, World War II in the Pacific, London, ME Sharpe
32.
Attack aircraft
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This class of aircraft is designed mostly for close air support and naval air-to-surface missions, overlapping the tactical bomber mission. Designs dedicated to non-naval roles are often known as ground-attack aircraft, Strike fighters, which have effectively replaced the fighter-bomber and light bomber concepts, also differ little from the broad concept of an attack aircraft. The dedicated attack aircraft as a separate class existed primarily during, the precise implementation varied from country to country, and was handled by a wide variety of designs. In the US and UK, attack aircraft were based on light bombers, sometimes carrying heavier forward-firing weapons like the B-25G. In Germany and USSR, where they were known as schlachtflugzeug or sturmovik, in the late-war era, the fighter-bomber began to take over many attack roles, a change that continued in the post-war era. Jet powered examples were relatively rare, but not unknown, like the Blackburn Buccaneer, the US Navy continued to introduce new aircraft in their A-series, but these were purely light and medium bombers. Since the 1960s, only two dedicated attack aircraft designs have been introduced, the US A-10 Thunderbolt II and Soviet Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot. One oddity belonging to class is the AC-130, which features as its primary armament high-caliber artillery guns adapted for aircraft use. A variety of attack aircraft exist, usually based on adapted trainers or other light fixed-wing aircraft. Presently, U. S. attack aircraft are identified by the prefix A-, as in A-6 Intruder, however, until the end of World War II the A- designation was shared between attack planes and light bombers for the Army aircraft. The US Navy used a separate system and at the time preferred to call similar aircraft scout bombers or torpedo bombers. For example, Douglas SBD Dauntless scout bomber was designated A-24 when used by the USAAF. It was not until 1946, when the US Navy and US Marine Corps started using the attack designation, as with many aircraft classifications, the definition of attack aircraft is somewhat vague and has tended to change over time. Current U. S. military doctrine defines it as an aircraft which most likely performs an attack mission, Attack mission means, in turn, specifically tactical air-to-ground action—in other words, neither air-to-air action nor strategic bombing is considered an attack mission. In United States Navy vocabulary, the designation for the same activity is a strike mission. Attack missions are divided into two categories, air interdiction and close air support. In the last several decades, the rise of the ubiquitous multi-role fighter has created confusion about the difference between attack and fighter aircraft. According to the current U. S. designation system, an aircraft is designed primarily for air-to-surface
33.
Battle of Imphal
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The Battle of Imphal took place in the region around the city of Imphal, the capital of the state of Manipur in northeast India from March until July 1944. Japanese armies attempted to destroy the Allied forces at Imphal and invade India, the defeat at Kohima and Imphal was the largest defeat to that date in Japanese history. At the start of 1944, the war was going against the Japanese on several fronts and they were being driven back in the central and southwest Pacific, and their merchant ships were under attack by Allied submarines and aircraft. In southeast Asia, they had held their lines over the year, but the Allies were preparing several offensives from India. In particular, the town of Imphal in Manipur on the frontier with Burma was built up to be a substantial Allied logistic base, with airfields, encampments and supply dumps. Imphal was linked to a larger base at Dimapur in the Brahmaputra River valley by a road which wound for 100 miles through the steep. Imphal was held by the IV Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Geoffrey Scoones, the corps was in turn part of the British Fourteenth Army under Lieutenant General William Slim. 20th Indian Infantry Division under Major-General Douglas Gracey occupied Tamu,110 kilometres south-east of Imphal, the division was untried but well-trained. 17th Indian Infantry Division under Major-General Punch Cowan occupied Tiddim,243 kilometres south of Imphal, at the end of a long, the division, which had two brigades only, had been intermittently in action since December 1941. 23rd Indian Infantry Division under Major-General Ouvry Roberts was in reserve in and it had served on the Imphal front for two years and was severely understrength as a result of endemic diseases such as malaria and typhus. 50th Indian Parachute Brigade under Brigadier Maxwell Hope-Thompson was north of Imphal, 254th Indian Tank Brigade under Brigadier R. L. Scoones was stationed in and around Imphal. The Indian divisions were composed of both British and Indian personnel, in each brigade, there was generally one British, one Gurkha and one Indian battalion, although two brigades were composed entirely of Gurkha units. Each division was supported by two artillery regiments and one Indian mountain artillery regiment. In March 1943, the Japanese command in Burma had been reorganised, a new headquarters, Burma Area Army, was created under Lieutenant-General Masakazu Kawabe. One of its formations, responsible for the central part of the front facing Imphal. Lieutenant-General Renya Mutaguchi was appointed to command this army in July 1943, from the moment he took command, Mutaguchi forcefully advocated an invasion of India. His motives for doing so appear to be complex and he had played a major part in several Japanese victories, ever since the Marco Polo Bridge incident in 1937, and believed it was his destiny to win the decisive battle of the war for Japan. He may also have been goaded by the first Chindit expedition, Mutaguchi planned to exploit the capture of Imphal by advancing to the Brahmaputra Valley
34.
China Burma India Theater
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China Burma India Theater was the United States military designation during World War II for the China and Southeast Asian or India-Burma theaters. Operational command of Allied forces in the CBI was officially the responsibility of the Supreme Commanders for South East Asia or China, in 1941 the U. S. made a series of decisions to support China in its war with Japan. Lend Lease supplies were provided after President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced the defense of China to be vital to the defense of the United States, over the summer, as Japan moved south into French Indo-China, the U. S. Britain and the Netherlands instituted an oil embargo on Japan, cutting off 90% of its supplies, Japan cut off Allied supplies to China that had been coming through Burma. China could be supplied only by flying over the Himalaya mountains from India, or capturing territory in Burma, in 1941 and 1942, Japan was overextended. Its naval base could not defend its conquests, and its base could not beef up the navy. To cut off China from Allied aid, it went into Burma, captured Rangoon on March 8,1942, moving north the Japanese took Tounggoo, Burma, then captured Lashio in upper Burma on April 29. The British, primarily concerned with India, looked to Burma as the theater of action against Japan. The overland supply route from India to China had to go through Burma, Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek realized it was all fantasy. On the other hand, there were vast sums of American dollars available if he collaborated and he did so and managed to feed his starving soldiers, but they were so poorly equipped and led that offensive operations against the Japanese in China were impossible. However, Chiang did release two Chinese armies for action in Burma under Stilwell. They were smashed by the Japanese and Stilwell, on foot, barely escaped to India, on April 14,1942, William Donovan, as Coordinator of Information, activated Detachment 101 for action behind enemy lines in Burma. Because Detachment 101 was never larger than a few hundred Americans, in particular, the vigorously anti-Japanese Kachin people were vital to the unit’s success. 101s efforts opened the way for Stilwells Chinese forces, Wingates Raiders, Merrills Marauders, US forces in the CBI were grouped together for administrative purposes under the command of General Joseph Vinegar Joe Stilwell. However, unlike other combat theaters, for example the European Theater of Operations, initially U. S. However, Stilwell often broke the chain of command and communicated directly with the US Joint Chiefs of Staff on operational matters. This continued after the formation of the South East Asia Command, Admiral Lord Mountbatten was appointed as the Supreme Allied Commander of South-East Asia forces in October 1943. However, in practice, Gen. Stilwell never agreed to this arrangement, as SEACs deputy leader, Stilwell was Giffards superior, but as operational commander of NCAC, Giffard was Stilwells superior. As the two men did not get on, this lead to conflict and confusion
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Indochina
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Indochina, originally Indo-China, is a geographical term originating in the early nineteenth century and referring to the continental portion of the region now known as Southeast Asia. The name refers to the lands historically within the influence of India and China. It corresponds to the areas of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam. The term was adopted as the name of the colony of French Indochina. However, Indo-China had already gained traction and soon supplanted alternative terms such as Further India, in biogeography, the Indochinese Region is a major biogeographical region in the Indomalaya ecozone, and also a phytogeographical floristic region in the Paleotropical Kingdom. It includes the flora and fauna of all the countries above. The adjacent Malesian Region covers the Maritime Southeast Asian countries, and straddles the Indomalaya, suvarnabhumi Golden Chersonese Indochina Time List of butterflies of Indochina Media related to Indochina at Wikimedia Commons Media related to Flora of Indo-China at Wikimedia Commons
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Geography of Taiwan
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Taiwan is an island in East Asia, located some 180 kilometres off the southeastern coast of mainland China across the Taiwan Strait. It has an area of 35,883 km2 and spans the Tropic of Cancer, the East China Sea lies to the north, the Philippine Sea to the east, the Luzon Strait directly to the south and the South China Sea to the southwest. There are several peaks over 3,500 m, the highest being Yu Shan at 3,952 metres, the tectonic boundary that formed these ranges is still active, and the island experiences many earthquakes, a few of them highly destructive. There are also many active volcanoes in the Taiwan Straits. The climate ranges from tropical in the south to subtropical in the north, the island is struck by an average of four typhoons in each year. The eastern mountains are forested and home to a diverse range of wildlife. The total area of the island is 36,193 km2 and it has a coastline of 1,139 km. The ROC claims an economic zone of 200 nmi and a territorial sea of 12 nmi. The main island of the archipelago is the island of Taiwan, the central point of the island is the Geographic Center of Taiwan in Puli Township, Nantou County. The southernmost point of the island is the Taiwan Southernmost Point in Hengchun Township, the island of Taiwan is separated from the southeast coast of China by the Taiwan Strait, which ranges from 220 km at its widest point to 130 km at its narrowest. Part of the shelf, the Strait is no more than 100 m deep. To the south, the island of Taiwan is separated from the Philippine island of Luzon by the 250 km -wide Luzon Strait, the South China Sea lies to the southwest, the East China Sea to the north, and the Philippine Sea to the east. The island of Taiwan was formed approximately 4 to 5 million years ago at a convergent boundary between the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate. In a boundary running the length of the island and continuing southwards in the Luzon Volcanic Arc, most of the island comprises a huge fault block tilted to the west. The western part of the island, and much of the central range, in the northeast of the island, and continuing eastwards in the Ryukyu Volcanic Arc, the Philippine Sea Plate slides under the Eurasian Plate. The tectonic boundary remains active, and Taiwan experiences 15,000 to 18,000 earthquakes each year, of which 800 to 1,000 are noticed by people. The most catastrophic recent earthquake was the magnitude-7.3 Chi-Chi earthquake, on 4 March 2010 at about 01,20 UTC, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit southwestern Taiwan in the mountainous area of Kaohsiung County. Another major earthquake occurred on 6 February 2016, with a magnitude of 6.4, Tainan was damaged the most, with 117 deaths, most of them caused by the collapse of a 17-story apartment building
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Kyushu
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Kyushu is the third biggest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternative ancient names include Kyūkoku, Chinzei, and Tsukushi-no-shima, the historical regional name Saikaidō referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands. In the 8th century Taihō Code reforms, Dazaifu was established as an administrative term for the region. As of 2016, Kyushu has a population of 12,970,479, the island is mountainous, and Japans most active volcano, Mt Aso at 1,591 metres, is on Kyushu. There are many signs of tectonic activity, including numerous areas of hot springs. The most famous of these are in Beppu, on the east shore, the island is separated from Honshu by the Kanmon Straits. The name Kyūshū comes from the nine ancient provinces of Saikaidō situated on the island, Chikuzen, Chikugo, Hizen, Higo, Buzen, Bungo, Hyūga, Osumi, excepting Oita and Miyazaki cities, the eastern seaboard shows a general decline in population. Designated cities Fukuoka Kitakyushu Kumamoto Core cities Kagoshima Ōita Nagasaki Miyazaki Naha Kurume Parts of Kyushu have a climate, particularly Miyazaki. Major agricultural products are rice, tea, tobacco, sweet potatoes, the island is noted for various types of porcelain, including Arita, Imari, Satsuma, and Karatsu. Heavy industry is concentrated in the north around Fukuoka, Kitakyushu, Nagasaki, and Oita and includes chemicals, automobiles, semiconductors, in 2010, the graduate employment rate in the region was the lowest nationwide, at 88. 9%. Besides the volcanic area of the south, there are significant mud hot springs in the part of the island, around Beppu. These springs are the site of occurrence of certain extremophile micro-organisms, the Kanmon Bridge also connects the island with Honshu. Railways on the island are operated by the Kyushu Railway Company, and Nishitetsu Railway
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Saipan
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Saipan /saɪˈpæn/ is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a commonwealth of the United States in the western Pacific Ocean. According to the 2010 United States Census, Saipans population was 48,220, the Commonwealths center of government is located in the village of Capitol Hill on the island. Since the entire island is organized as a municipality, most publications term Saipan as the Commonwealths capital. The current Mayor of Saipan is David M. Apatang, who was sworn into office on June 12,2015, Saipan is the second-largest island in the Mariana Islands archipelago, after Guam. It is located about 120 mi north of Guam and 5 nautical miles northeast of Tinian, Saipan is about 12 mi long and 5.6 mi wide, with a land area of 115.38 km2. The western side of the island is lined with sandy beaches, the eastern shore is composed primarily of rugged rocky cliffs and a reef. A narrow underwater bank of Marpi Reef lies 28 mi north of the Saipan, the highest elevation on Saipan is a limestone-covered mountain called Mount Tapochau at 1,560 ft. Unlike many of the mountains in the Mariana Islands, it is not an extinct volcano, to the north of Mount Tapochau towards Banzai Cliff is a ridge of hills. Mount Achugao, situated about 2 miles north, has interpreted to be a remnant of a stratified composite volcanic cone whose Eocene center was not far north of the present peak. Saipans flora is predominantly limestone forest, some developed areas on the island are covered with Leucaena leucocephala, also known as tangan-tangan trees, that were spread broadly some time after World War II. Tangan-Tangan trees were introduced, primarily, as an erosion-prevention mechanism, remaining native forest occurs in small isolated fragments on steep slopes at low elevations and highland conservation areas of the island. Coconuts, papayas, and Thai hot peppers – locally called donni såli or boonie peppers – are among the fruits grow wild. Mango, taro root, breadfruit, and bananas are a few of the many foods cultivated by local families, Saipan is home to a number of endemic bird species. Among them, the Mariana fruit dove, white-throated ground dove, bridled white-eye, golden white-eye, Micronesian myzomela and the endangered nightingale reed warbler. The island used to have a population of giant African land snails, introduced either deliberately as a food source, or accidentally by shipping. In the last few decades, its numbers have been controlled by an introduced flatworm. Unfortunately, possibly due to the flatworm, the native tree-snails also became extinct, Saipan has a tropical marine climate moderated by seasonal trade winds from the northeast from November to March, and easterly winds from May to October. Average year-round temperature is 84 °F, there is little seasonal temperature variation, and Saipan has been cited by the Guinness Book of World Records as having the least fluctuating temperatures in the world
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Guam
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Guam is an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, Guam is one of five American territories with a civilian government. The capital city is Hagåtña and the most populous city is Dededo, in 2015,161,785 people resided on Guam. Guamanians are American citizens by birth, Guam has an area of 210 sq mi and a population density of 770/sq mi. It is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands and the largest island in Micronesia, among its municipalities, Mongmong-Toto-Maite has the highest density at 3, 691/sq mi, whereas Inarajan and Umatac have the lowest density at 119/sq mi. The highest point is Mount Lamlam at 406 meters above sea level, the Chamorros, Guams indigenous people, settled the island approximately 4,000 years ago. Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was the first European to visit the island on March 6,1521, Guam was colonized in 1668 with settlers, like Diego Luis de San Vitores, a Catholic missionary. Between the 16th century and the 18th century, Guam was an important stopover for the Spanish Manila Galleons, during the Spanish–American War, the United States captured Guam on June 21,1898. Under the Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded Guam to the United States on December 10,1898, Guam is among the seventeen Non-Self-Governing Territories of the United Nations. Before World War II, Guam and three other territories – American Samoa, Hawaii, and the Philippines – were the only American jurisdictions in the Pacific Ocean. On December 7,1941, hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Guam was captured by the Japanese, during the occupation, Guamanians were subjected to beheadings, forced labor, rape, and torture. Guam endured hostilities when American forces recaptured the island on July 21,1944, since the 1960s, the economy is supported by two industries, tourism and the United States Armed Forces. The original inhabitants of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are believed to be descendants of Austronesian people originating from Southeast Asia as early as 2000 BC and they evolved into the Chamorro people. The ancient-Chamorro society had four classes, chamorri, matua, achaot, the matua were located in the coastal villages, which meant they had the best access to fishing grounds, whereas the manachang were located in the interior of the island. Matua and manachang rarely communicated with other, and matua often used achaot as intermediaries. There were also makåhna, skilled in healing and medicine, belief in spirits of ancient Chamorros called Taotao mona still persists as a remnant of pre-European culture. Their society was organized along matrilineal clans, Latte stones are stone pillars that are found only in the Mariana Islands, and, they are a recent development in Pre-Contact Chamorro society. The latte-stone was used as a foundation on which thatched huts were built, Latte stones consist of a base shaped from limestone called the haligi and with a capstone, or tåsa, made either from a large brain coral or limestone, placed on top
40.
Tinian
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Tinian is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguijan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of the four constituent municipalities of the Northern Marianas, Tinians largest village is San Jose. Tinian is about 5 nautical miles southwest of Saipan, from which it is separated by the Saipan Channel and it has a land area of 39 square miles, with its highest elevation at Mount Lasso at 171 meters. The island has a variety of flora and fauna, and limestone cliffs, the Tinian monarch is the islands only endemic bird species and it is threatened by habitat loss. There is a variety of life and coral reefs surrounding the island. Its clear, warm waters are ideal for snorkeling, scuba diving, the population of Tinian was 3,136, which corresponds to less than 5 percent of all residents of the Northern Mariana Islands and a population density of 35 people per km2. Most of the inhabitants are Chamorros and members of other groups of islands in the Caroline Islands. There are also minorities of Filipino, Bangladeshi, East Asian, around 3000 years ago, Tinian was ruled by the Chamorro Chief Taga, who built the biggest stone home with latte stones. A beach on Tinian and the charter airline were named after him. Tinian, together with Saipan, was possibly firstly sighted by Europeans by the Spanish expedition of Ferdinand Magellan, when it made a landfall in the southern Marianas on 6 March 1521. Again, it is likely it was sighted by Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa in 1522 on board of Spanish ship Trinidad and this would have happened after the sighting of the Maug Islands in between the end of August and end of September. The Spanish formally occupied Tinian in 1669, with the expedition of Diego Luis de San Vitores who named it Buenavista Mariana. From 1670, it became a port of call for Spanish and occasional English, Dutch and French ships as a station for food. The native population, estimated at 40,000 at the time of the Spanish arrival, shrank to less than 1400 due to European-introduced diseases, the survivors were forcibly relocated to Guam in 1720 for better control and assimilation. Under Spanish rule, the island was developed into ranches for raising cattle and pigs, after the Spanish–American War of 1898, Tinian was occupied by the United States. However, it was sold by Spain to the German Empire in 1899. In 1914, during World War I, the island was captured by the Empire of Japan, the island was settled by ethnic Japanese, Koreans and Okinawans, who developed large-scale sugar plantations. Initial efforts to settle the island met with difficulties, including an infestation of scale insects, by June 1944, some 15,700 Japanese civilians were resident on Tinian
41.
Marshall Islands
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The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country located near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the International Date Line. Geographically, the country is part of the island group of Micronesia. The countrys population of 53,158 people is spread out over 29 coral atolls, comprising 1,156 individual islands and islets. The islands share maritime boundaries with the Federated States of Micronesia to the west, Wake Island to the north, Kiribati to the south-east, about 27,797 of the islanders live on Majuro, which contains the capital. Micronesian colonists gradually settled the Marshall Islands during the 2nd millennium BC, Islands in the archipelago were first explored by Europeans in the 1520s, with Spanish explorer Alonso de Salazar sighting an atoll in August 1526. Other expeditions by Spanish and English ships followed, the islands derive their name from British explorer John Marshall, who visited in 1788. The islands were known by the inhabitants as jolet jen Anij. The European powers recognized Spanish sovereignty over the islands in 1874 and they had been part of the Spanish East Indies formally since 1528. Later, Spain sold the islands to the German Empire in 1884, in World War I the Empire of Japan occupied the Marshall Islands, which in 1919 the League of Nations combined with other former German territories to form the South Pacific Mandate. In World War II, the United States conquered the islands in the Gilbert, along with other Pacific Islands, the Marshall Islands were then consolidated into the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands governed by the US. Self-government was achieved in 1979, and full sovereignty in 1986, Marshall Islands has been a United Nations member state since 1991. The country uses the United States dollar as its currency, the majority of the citizens of the Marshall Islands are of Marshallese descent, though there are small numbers of immigrants from the United States, China, Philippines, and other Pacific islands. The two official languages are Marshallese, which is a member of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, and English, micronesians settled the Marshall Islands in the 2nd millennium BC, but there are no historical or oral records of that period. Over time, the Marshall Island people learned to navigate over long distances by canoe using traditional stick charts. Spanish explorer Alonso de Salazar was the first European to see the islands in 1526, commanding the ship Santa Maria de la Victoria, on August 21, he sighted an island at 14°N that he named San Bartolome. On September 21,1529, Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón commanded the Spanish ship Florida and he stood off a group of islands from which local inhabitants hurled stones at his ship. These islands, which he named Los Pintados, may have been Ujelang, on October 1, he found another group of islands where he went ashore for eight days, exchanged gifts with the local inhabitants and took on water. These islands, which he named Los Jardines, may have been Enewetak or Bikini Atoll
42.
Second Battle of El Alamein
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The Second Battle of El Alamein was a decisive battle of the Second World War that took place near the Egyptian railway halt of El Alamein. With the Allies victorious, it marked the watershed of the Western Desert Campaign, the First Battle of El Alamein had prevented the Axis from advancing further into Egypt. The British victory turned the tide in the North African Campaign and ended the Axis threat to Egypt, the Suez Canal, the Second Battle of El Alamein revived the morale of the Allies, being the first big success against the Axis since Operation Crusader in late 1941. The battle coincided with the Allied invasion of French North Africa in Operation Torch, which started on 8 November, as well as the Battle of Stalingrad and this threatened the British Empires control of the Suez Canal and Mandatory Palestine. General Claude Auchinleck withdrew the Eighth Army to within 80 kilometres of Alexandria to a point where the Qattara Depression came to within 64 kilometres of El Alamein on the coast. This gave the defenders a short front to defend and provided secure flanks because tanks could not traverse the Depression, the Axis advance was halted here in early July in the First Battle of El Alamein. The Eighth Army counter-offensives during July failed, as Rommel had dug in to allow his troops to regroup. Auchinleck called off all offensive action at the end of July to allow rebuilding the Eighth Armys strength. The attack failed in this battle at the Alamein line, better known as the Battle of Alam el Halfa, expecting a counter-attack by Montgomerys Eighth Army. The factors that had favoured the Eighth Armys defensive plan in the First Battle of El Alamein, the front line. Rommel, furthermore, had plenty of time to prepare his defensive positions and lay extensive minefields, Alexander and Montgomery were determined to establish a superiority of forces sufficient not only to achieve a breakthrough but also to exploit it and destroy Panzer Army Africa. The British had an advantage, signals intelligence from Ultra and local sources, exposed the Axis order of battle, its supply position, force disposition. A reorganisation of the function in Africa in July had also improved the integration of intelligence received from all sources. With rare exceptions, intelligence identified the ships destined for North Africa, their location or routing and in most cases their cargoes. By 25 October, Panzer Army fuel stocks were down to three days supply, of only two days worth were east of Tobruk. Did not possess the operational freedom of movement that was essential in consideration of the fact that the British offensive can be expected to start any day. Submarine and air transport somewhat eased the shortage of ammunition and by late October, after six more weeks, the Eighth Army was ready,195,000 men and 1,029 tanks began the offensive against the 116,000 men and 547 tanks of Panzer Army Africa. Montgomerys plan was for an attack to the north of the line
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North African Campaign
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The North African Campaign of the Second World War took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco, the campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had colonial interests in Africa dating from the late 19th century. The Allied war effort was dominated by the British Commonwealth and exiles from German-occupied Europe, the United States entered the war in December 1941 and began direct military assistance in North Africa on 11 May 1942. Fighting in North Africa started with the Italian declaration of war on 10 June 1940, on 14 June, the British Armys 11th Hussars crossed the border from Egypt into Libya and captured the Italian Fort Capuzzo. Information gleaned via British Ultra code-breaking intelligence proved critical to Allied success in North Africa, victory for the Allies in this campaign immediately led to the Italian Campaign, which culminated in the downfall of the fascist government in Italy and the elimination of a German ally. On 10 May 1940, the Wehrmacht had started the Battle of France, one month later, it was plain to see that France would have to surrender within two weeks. On 10 June 1940, the Kingdom of Italy aligned itself with Nazi Germany and declared war upon France, British forces based in Egypt were ordered to undertake defensive measures, but to act as non-provocatively as possible. However, on 11 June they began a series of raids against Italian positions in Libya, following the defeat of France on 25 June, Italian forces in Tripolitania—facing French troops based in Tunisia—redeployed to Cyrenaica to reinforce the Italian Tenth Army. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini ordered the Tenth Army to invade Egypt by 8 August, two days later, no invasion having been launched, Mussolini ordered Marshal Graziani that, the moment German forces launched Operation Sea Lion, he was to attack. The battle plan was to advance along the road, while limited armoured forces operated on the desert flank. To counter the Italian advance, Wavell ordered his forces to harass the advancing Italians, falling back towards Mersa Matruh. Positioned on the flank was the 7th Armoured Division, which would strike the flank of the Italian force. By 16 September, the Italian force had advanced to Maktila, around 80 mi west of Mersa Matruh, in response to the dispersed Italian camps, the British planned a limited five-day attack, Operation Compass, to strike at these fortified camps one by one. The British Commonwealth force, totalling 36,000 men, attacked the forward elements of the 10-division-strong Italian army on 9 December, following their initial success, the forces of Operation Compass pursued the retreating Italian forces. In January, the port at Bardia was taken, soon followed by the seizure of the fortified port of Tobruk. Some 40,000 Italians were captured in and around the two ports, with the remainder of the Tenth Army retreating along the coast road back to El Agheila. Richard OConnor sent the 7th Armoured Division across the desert, with a reconnaissance group reaching Beda Fomm some ninety minutes before the Italians. Although desperate attempts were made to overcome the British force at the Battle of Beda Fomm, the Italians were unable to break through, and the remnants of the retreating army surrendered
44.
Invasion of Sicily
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The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II, in which the Allies took the island of Sicily from the Axis powers. It was an amphibious and airborne operation, followed by a six-week land campaign and was the beginning of the Italian Campaign. Husky began on the night of 9/10 July 1943, and ended on 17 August, the Italian leader, Benito Mussolini, was toppled from power in Italy and the way was opened for the Allied invasion of Italy. The German leader, Adolf Hitler, canceled a major offensive at Kursk after only a week, in part to divert forces to Italy, resulting in a reduction of German strength on the Eastern Front. The plan for Operation Husky called for the assault of Sicily by two Allied armies, one landing on the south-eastern and one on the central southern coast. The amphibious assaults were to be supported by gunfire, as well as tactical bombing, interdiction. As such, the operation required a complex structure, incorporating land, naval. The overall commander was American General Dwight D. Eisenhower, as Commander-in-Chief of all the Allied forces in North Africa, British General Sir Harold Alexander acted as his second-in-command and as the 15th Army Group commander. The American Major General Walter Bedell Smith was appointed as Eisenhowers Chief of Staff, the overall Naval Force Commander was the British Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham. The Allied land forces were from the American, British and Canadian armies, the Eastern Task Force was led by General Sir Bernard Montgomery and consisted of the British Eighth Army. The Western Task Force was commanded by Lieutenant General George S. Patton, the two task force commanders reported to Alexander as commander of the 15th Army Group. Seventh Army consisted initially of three divisions, organized under II Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General Omar Bradley. Middleton, sailed from the United States via Oran in Algeria, the 2nd Armored Division, under Major General Hugh Joseph Gaffey, also sailing from Oran, was to be a floating reserve and be fed into combat as required. On 15 July, Patton reorganized his command into two corps by creating a new Provisional Corps headquarters, commanded by his deputy army commander, Major General Geoffrey Keyes. The two divisions of XIII Corps, the 5th and 50th Infantry Divisions, commanded by Major-Generals Horatio Berney-Ficklin and Sidney Kirkman and this request was granted by the British, displacing the veteran British 3rd Infantry Division. The Red Patch Division was added to Leeses XXX Corps to become part of the British Eighth Army, in addition to the amphibious landings, airborne troops were to be flown in to support both the Western and Eastern Task Forces. To the east, the British 1st Airborne Division, commanded by Major-General George F. Hopkinson, was to seize vital bridges and high ground in support of the British Eighth Army. The initial plan dictated that the U. S. 82nd Airborne Division, Allied naval forces were also grouped into two task forces to transport and support the invading armies
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Italian Campaign (World War II)
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The Italian Campaign of World War II was the name of Allied operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to the end of the war in Europe. It is estimated that between September 1943 and April 1945, some 60, 000–70,000 Allied and 60, overall Allied casualties during the campaign totaled about 320,000 and the corresponding German figure was well over 600,000. Fascist Italy, prior to its collapse, suffered about 200,000 casualties, mostly POWs taken in the Allied invasion of Sicily, including more than 40,000 killed or missing. Besides them, over 150,000 Italian civilians died, as did 15,197 anti-Fascist partisans and 13,021 troops of the Italian Social Republic. The campaign ended when Army Group C surrendered unconditionally to the Allies on May 2,1945, the independent states of San Marino and the Vatican, both surrounded by Italian territory, also suffered damage during the campaign. Even prior to victory in the North African Campaign in May 1943, the British, especially the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, advocated their traditional naval-based peripheral strategy. The United States, with a larger army, favoured a more direct method of fighting the main force of the German Army in Northern Europe. The ability to such a campaign depended on first winning the Battle of the Atlantic. There was even pressure from some Latin American countries to stage an invasion of Spain, the British argued that the presence of large numbers of troops trained for amphibious landings in the Mediterranean made a limited-scale invasion possible and useful. A contributing factor was Franklin D. Roosevelts desire to keep US troops active in the European theatre during 1943 and it was hoped that an invasion might knock Italy out of the conflict, or at least increase the pressure on them and weaken them further. A combined Allied invasion of Sicily began on 10 July 1943 with both amphibious and airborne landings at the Gulf of Gela, the land forces involved were the U. S. Seventh Army, under Lieutenant General George S. Patton, the original plan contemplated a strong advance by the British northwards along the east coast to Messina, with the Americans in a supporting role along their left flank. The defending German and Italian forces were unable to prevent the Allied capture of the island, but succeeded in evacuating most of their troops to the mainland, the Allied forces gained experience in opposed amphibious operations, coalition warfare and mass airborne drops. Forces of the British Eighth Army, still under Montgomery, landed in the toe of Italy on 3 September 1943 in Operation Baytown, the armistice was publicly announced on 8 September by two broadcasts, first by General Eisenhower and then by a proclamation by Marshal Badoglio. Although the German forces prepared to defend without Italian assistance, only two of their divisions opposite the Eighth Army and one at Salerno were not tied up disarming the Royal Italian Army, on 9 September, forces of the U. S. Fifth Army, under Lieutenant General Mark W, although none of the northern reserves were made available to the German 10th Army, it nevertheless came close to repelling the Salerno landing, due mainly to the cautious command of Clark. As the Allies advanced, they encountered increasingly difficult terrain, the Apennine Mountains form a spine along the Italian peninsula offset somewhat to the east, the rivers were subject to sudden and unexpected flooding, which constantly thwarted the Allied commanders plans. This would make the most of the natural geography of Central Italy, whilst denying the Allies the easy capture of a succession of airfields
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Douglas A-26 Invader
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A limited number of highly modified United States Air Force aircraft served in Southeast Asia until 1969. It was a fast aircraft capable of carrying twice its specified bomb load, a range of guns could be fitted to produce a formidable ground-attack aircraft. A re-designation of the type from A-26 to B-26 led to confusion with the Martin B-26 Marauder, which first flew in November 1940, about 16 months before the Douglas designs maiden flight. The A-26 was Douglas Aircrafts successor to the A-20 Havoc, also known as Douglas Boston, one of the most successful and widely operated types flown by Allied air forces in World War II. Designed by Ed Heinemann, Robert Donovan, and Ted R. Smith, the Douglas XA-26 prototype first flew on 10 July 1942 at Mines Field, El Segundo, with test pilot Benny Howard at the controls. Flight tests revealed excellent performance and handling, but problems with engine cooling led to cowling changes, repeated collapses during testing led to strengthening of the nose landing gear. The A-26 was originally built in two different configurations, the A-26B had a gun nose, which originally could be equipped with a combination of armament including.50 caliber machine guns, 20mm or 37mm auto cannon, or even a 75mm pack howitzer. Normally the gun nose version housed six.50 caliber machine guns, officially termed the all-purpose nose, the A-26Cs glass nose, officially termed the Bombardier nose, contained a Norden bombsight for medium altitude precision bombing. The A-26C nose section included two fixed M-2 guns, later replaced by underwing gun packs or internal guns in the wings. An A-26C nose section could be exchanged for an A-26B nose section, or vice versa, in a few man-hours, thus changing the designation. The flat-topped canopy was changed in late 1944 after about 820 production aircraft, alongside the pilot in an A-26B, a crew member typically served as navigator and gun loader for the pilot-operated nose guns. In an A-26C, that crew member served as navigator and bombardier, a small number of A-26Cs were fitted with dual flight controls, some parts of which could be disabled in flight to allow limited access to the nose section. A tractor-style jump seat was located behind the navigators seat, general George Kenney, commander of the Far East Air Forces stated that, We do not want the A-26 under any circumstances as a replacement for anything. Until changes could be made, the 3d Bomb Group requested additional Douglas A-20 Havocs, the 319th Bomb Group worked up on the A-26 in March 1945, joining the initial 3rd BG, with the 319th flying until 12 August 1945. The A-26 operations wound down in mid-August 1945 with only a few dozen missions flown, several of the A-20 and B-25 AAF units in the Pacific received the A-26 for trials, in limited quantities. Douglas needed better results from the Invaders second combat test, so A-26s began arriving in Europe in late September 1944 for assignment to the Ninth Air Force, the initial deployment involved 18 aircraft and crews assigned to the 553d Squadron of the 386th Bomb Group. This unit flew its first mission on 6 September 1944, no aircraft were lost on the eight test missions, and the Ninth Air Force announced that it was happy to replace all of its A-20s and B-26s with the A-26 Invader. Due to a shortage of A-26C variants, the groups flew a combined A-20/A-26 unit until deliveries of the glass-nose version caught up, besides bombing and strafing, tactical reconnaissance and night interdiction missions were undertaken successfully
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