1.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
2.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
3.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
4.
Guy Gibson
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He was awarded the Victoria Cross, and in June 1943 became the most highly decorated serviceman in the country, but lost his life later in the war. He had completed over 170 operations at the age of 26, Gibson was born in Simla, British India, the son of Alexander James Gibson and his wife Leonora Mary Gibson. At the time of his birth, his father was an officer in the Imperial Indian Forestry Service, in 1924, when he was six, his parents separated. His mother was granted custody of Gibson, his elder brother Alexander and sister Joan, as her family came from Porthleven, Cornwall, she settled first in Penzance. Gibson started school in England at the school as his sister. His mother then moved to London and he was sent as a boarder to Earls Avenue School, in 1932 he started at St Edwards School, Oxford, the same school as Douglas Bader where he was also placed in the same house, Cowells. Gibsons housemaster was A. F. Freddie Yorke who became Gibsons guardian, following her return from India, his mother developed a drinking problem which escalated into alcoholism. Her behaviour became erratic and sometimes violent towards her children. The school organised lodgings for Gibson and his brother during the school holidays, noras younger sister, Mrs Beatrice Christopher, gave Gibson his own room at her house. Her husband, John, helped Nora out with school fees and they also both attended some school functions to support their nephews. Gibson was an average student academically and played for the Rugby Second XV and his interests included science and photography. At one stage as a teenager, he seems to have become interested and he read all kinds of books, especially the Arthurian legends and Shakespeare. His favourite play was Henry V and he was made a House Prefect. From an early age Gibson wanted to fly and he had a picture of his boyhood hero, Albert Ball VC, the First World War flying ace, on his bedroom wall at his aunts house. His ambition was to become a civilian test pilot, Gibson applied to the RAF, but was rejected when he failed the Medical Board, the probable reason is his legs were too short. His later application was successful, and his personal file included the remark satisfactory leg length test carried out and he commenced a short service commission in November 1936. Gibson commenced his training on 16 November 1936 at the Bristol Flying School, Yatesbury, with No.6 Flying Training Course. Owing to poor weather the course did not conclude until 1 January 1937, after some leave, he then moved to No.24 Group at RAF Uxbridge for his RAF basic training
5.
Josef Kammhuber
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Josef Kammhuber was a career officer in the Luftwaffe and post-World War II German Air Force. During World War II, he was the first general of night fighters in the Luftwaffe, personal battles between him and Erhard Milch, director of the Reich Air Ministry, led to his dismissal in 1943. After the war, he the joined the Bundeswehr, the forces of West Germany. Kammhuber joined the staff of General Walter Wever, chief of staff of the Luftwaffe prior to World War II, Kammhuber returned to active duty in February 1939 and was assigned as chief-of-staff of Luftflotte 2. On January 11,1940, he was reprimanded by Hitler personally because of the Mechelen Incident and he was then transferred to the Western Front where he became commander of KG51. One 3 June 1940, he flew with the wing on Operation Paula and he was shot down and briefly became a prisoner of war. Kammhuber was released upon the Armistice of 22 June 1940, in July 1940 he was placed in command of coordinating flak, searchlight and radar units at Luftwaffes General Staff. The result was the 12th Air Corps, a new dedicated night-fighting command and he reached the rank of Generalleutnant by October 1941 and General der Flieger on 1 January 1943. RAF bombers flying into Germany or France would have to cross the line at point. Later versions of the Himmelbett added two Würzburg radars, with a range of about 30 km, unlike the early-warning Freya radar, Würzburgs were accurate tracking radars. One would be locked onto the fighter as soon as it entered the cell. To aid in this, a number of the fighters were fitted with a short-range infrared device known as Spanner anlage. Another tactic that proved effective was to send their own planes to England while the raids were taking off or landing. By the beginning of October the night intruder force had claimed a hundred kills but on October 13, Hitler ordered the force sent to the Mediterranean, british intelligence soon discovered the nature of the Kammhuber Line and started studying ways to defeat it. However this also meant that the Himmelbett centers were only dealing with one or two planes at a time, making their job much easier. The Himmelbett centers were now facing hundreds of bombers, countering with only a few aircraft of their own, so successful was this tactic that the success rate of the night fighters dropped almost to zero. Kammhuber started looking for solutions, and the result was the concept of Wilde Sau. The Wilde Sau force scored their most notable success during Operation Hydra, de Havilland Mosquito bombers had dropped target marker flares over Berlin and most of the night fighter force was sent there
6.
Avro Lancaster
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The Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber designed and built by Avro for the Royal Air Force. The Lanc, as it was known, thus became one of the more famous and most successful of the Second World War night bombers. The Lancaster, an evolution of the troublesome Avro Manchester, was designed by Roy Chadwick and was powered by four Rolls-Royce Merlins, or, in one version and this was the largest payload of any bomber in the war. In 1943, a Lancaster was converted to become an engine test bed for the Metropolitan-Vickers F.2 turbojet, Lancasters were later used to test other engines, including the Armstrong Siddeley Mamba and Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops, and the Avro Canada Orenda and STAL Dovern turbojets. Postwar, the Lancaster was supplanted as the RAFs main strategic bomber by the Avro Lincoln, the Lancaster took on the role of long range anti-submarine patrol aircraft and air-sea rescue. In March 1946, a Lancastrian of BSAA flew the first scheduled flight from the new London Heathrow Airport, the resulting aircraft was the Manchester, which, although a capable aircraft, was underpowered and troubled by the unreliability of the Vulture engine. Only 200 Manchesters were built, with the type withdrawn from service in 1942, at first the aircraft was called Avro Type 683 Manchester III and later renamed the Lancaster. The prototype aircraft BT308 was assembled by the Avro experimental flight department at Ringway Airport, test pilot H. A. Bill Thorn took the controls for its first flight at Ringway, on Thursday,9 January 1941. The aircraft proved to be an improvement on its predecessor. Some of the orders for Manchesters were changed in favour of Lancasters. The Lancaster discarded the stubby central third tail fin of the early Manchesters and used the wider span tailplane, the majority of Lancasters built during the war years were manufactured by Avro at their factory at Chadderton near Oldham, Greater Manchester and test flown from Woodford Aerodrome in Cheshire. Other Lancasters were built by Metropolitan-Vickers and Armstrong Whitworth, the Lancaster B III had Packard Merlin engines but was otherwise identical to contemporary B Is, with 3,030 B IIIs built, almost all at Avros Newton Heath factory. The B I and B III were built concurrently and minor modifications were made to both marks as new batches were ordered, of later variants, only the Canadian-built Lancaster B X, manufactured by Victory Aircraft in Malton, Ontario, was produced in significant numbers. The first Lancaster produced in Canada was named the Ruhr Express, the first batch of Canadian Lancasters delivered to England suffered from faulty ailerons. This was traced to the use of unskilled labourers, the Lancaster is a mid-wing cantilever monoplane with an oval all-metal fuselage. The wing was constructed in five sections, the fuselage in five sections. All wing and fuselage sections were built separately and fitted all the required equipment before final assembly. The tail unit had twin fins and rudders
7.
12th Air Corps (Germany)
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12th Air Corps was formed 1 August 1941 in Zeist from the Stab of the 1. Nachtjagd-Division and was redesignated as I, the unit was subordinated to Luftwaffenbefehlshaber Mitte. General Josef Kammhuber,9 August 1941 –15 September 1943 Luftwaffe Organization
8.
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
9.
No. 617 Squadron RAF
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No.617 Squadron was a Royal Air Force aircraft squadron based at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland. It is commonly known as the Dambusters, for its actions during Operation Chastise against German dams during the Second World War, in the early 21st century it operated the Tornado GR4 in the ground attack and reconnaissance role until being disbanded in the Spring of 2014. As of 2016 it is in the process of forming ahead of standing up in January 2018 as the first British frontline squadron with the F-35 Lightning II, the squadron was formed under great secrecy at RAF Scampton during the Second World War on 21 March 1943. The plan was given the codename Operation Chastise and was carried out on 17 May 1943, the Squadrons badge, approved by King George VI, depicts the bursting of a dam in commemoration of Chastise. The squadrons chosen motto was Après moi le déluge, a double entendre on a famous saying of Madame de Pompadour to King Louis XV made on the loss at the Battle of Rossbach by the French. The original commander of 617 Squadron, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, was awarded the Victoria Cross for his part in the raid, Guy Gibson also owned a black Labrador named Nigger, who was the mascot of the squadron for some time. Alas, Nigger was killed on the evening of the raid, after the raid, Gibson was withdrawn from flying and went on a publicity tour. Mick Martin took command temporarily, before Leonard Cheshire took over as CO and he was also awarded the VC. On 15 July 1943 twelve aircraft of the squadron took off from Scampton to attack targets in Northern Italy, all aircraft attacked and proceeded to North Africa without loss. The operation met little opposition but the targets were obscured by valley haze, the 12 crews returned to Scampton on 25 July from North Africa after bombing Leghorn docks on the return journey. The raid on Leghorn Docks was not a success due to mist shrouding the target. On 29 July 1943 nine aircraft took off from Scampton to drop leaflets on Milan, Bologna, Genoa, all aircraft completed the mission and landed safely in Blida North Africa. Seven of the returned to Scampton on 1 August, one on the 5th. The Dortmund-Ems Canal was finally breached with Tallboys in September 1944, a particularly notable series of attacks caused the disabling and sinking of the Tirpitz. Tirpitz had been moved into a fjord in northern Norway where she threatened the Arctic convoys and was too far north to be attacked by air from the UK. She had already damaged by an attack by Royal Navy midget submarines and a series of attacks from carrier-borne aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm. The task was given to No.9 and No.617 Squadrons where they were deployed to Yagodnik and this fjord was in range of bombers operating from Scotland and from there, in October, she was attacked again, but cloud cover thwarted the attack. Finally on 12 November 1944, the two squadrons attacked Tirpitz, the first bombs missed their target, but following aircraft scored two direct hits in quick succession
10.
Bouncing bomb
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During this time, the Tirpitz was being kept safe from attack by being moored in Norwegian fjords, where it had the effect of a fleet in being. Consequently, Walliss proposed weapon attracted attention and underwent active testing, Collins, a scientific officer from the Road Research Laboratory, which was then based at Harmondsworth, Middlesex. G. Charlesworth, Dr. A. R. Collins and it was decided in November 1942 to devise a larger version of Walliss weapon for use against dams, and a smaller one for use against ships, these were code-named Upkeep and Highball respectively. Though each version derived from what was envisaged as a spherical bomb. In the event, as this date approached, Highball remained in development, whereas development of Upkeep had completed, and the decision was taken to deploy Upkeep independently. In January 1974, under Britains thirty year rule, secret government files for both Upkeep and Highball were released, although details of the weapons had been released in 1963. As a result, Upkeeps spherical casing was eliminated from the design, provision was also made for self-destruct detonation by a fuze, armed automatically as the bomb was dropped from the aircraft, and timed to fire after 90 seconds. The bomb was held in place in the aircraft by a pair of calipers, or triangulated carrying arms, which swung away from either end of the bomb to release it. Back-spin was to begin 10 minutes before arriving at a target and this motor was powered by the hydraulic system normally used by the upper gun turret, which had been removed. In practice, this could prove awkward to handle, and some aircrews replaced it with their own arrangements, fixed within the aircraft itself, on the night of 16/17 May 1943, Operation Chastise attacked dams in Germanys Ruhr Valley, using Upkeep. Two dams were breached, causing flooding and damage. The significance of this attack upon the progress of the war is debated, british losses during the operation were heavy, eight of the 19 attacking aircraft failed to return, along with 53 of 113 RAF aircrew. Upkeep was not used again operationally, by the time the war ended, the remaining operational Upkeep bombs had started to deteriorate and were dumped into the North Sea without their detonation devices. In April 1942, Wallis himself had described his proposed weapon as essentially a weapon for the Fleet Air Arm and it is a terrible thing that this prize should be waiting and no one be able to think of a way of winning it. However, Highball was ultimately developed as an RAF weapon for use against various targets, from November 1942, development and testing for Highball continued alongside that of Upkeep, including the dropping of prototypes at both Chesil Beach and Reculver. They were dropped by the modified Wellington bomber and at Reculver by a modified de Havilland Mosquito B Mk IV, one of two assigned to Vickers Armstrong for the purpose. By early February 1943, Wallis envisaged Highball as comprising a 500 lb charge in a contained in a 35 in sphere with of 950 lb. In tests at Reculver in the middle of April 1943, it was found that Highballs spherical casing suffered similar damage to that of Upkeep
11.
Barnes Wallis
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Sir Barnes Neville Wallis CBE FRS RDI FRAeS, was an English scientist, engineer and inventor. He is best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the Royal Air Force in Operation Chastise to attack the dams of the Ruhr Valley during World War II. The raid was the subject of the 1955 film The Dam Busters, among his other inventions were the geodetic airframe and the earthquake bomb. He subsequently changed his apprenticeship to J. Samuel Whites, the shipbuilders based at Cowes on the Isle of Wight and he originally trained as a marine engineer and in 1922 he took a degree in engineering via the University of London External Programme. He left J. Samuel Whites in 1913 when an opportunity arose for him to work on airship design and he worked for Vickers - later part of Vickers-Armstrongs and latterly part of the British Aircraft Corporation until his retirement in 1971. His many achievements include the first use of design in engineering and in the gasbag wiring of Vickers R100 in 1930. He also pioneered, along with John Edwin Temple, the use of light alloy, nevil Shute Norway was the chief calculator for the project, responsible for calculating the stresses on the frame. Despite a better-than-expected performance and a return flight to Canada in 1930, the R100 was broken up following the crash in northern France of its sister ship. The later destruction of the Hindenburg led to the abandonment of airships as a mode of mass transport, by the time of the R101 crash, Wallis had moved to the Vickers aircraft factory at the Brooklands motor circuit and aerodrome between Byfleet and Weybridge in Surrey. The pre-war aircraft designs of Rex Pierson, the Wellesley, the Wellington, the latter was one of the most robust airframes ever developed, and pictures of its skeleton largely shot away, but still sound enough to bring its crew home safely, are still impressive. The geodetic construction offered a light and strong airframe, with clearly defined space within for fuel tanks, payload, however the technique was not easily transferred to other aircraft manufacturers, nor was Vickers able to build other designs in factories tooled for geodetic work. Referring to the power supplies, he wrote, If their destruction or paralysis can be accomplished they offer a means of rendering the enemy utterly incapable of continuing to prosecute the war. As a means to do this, he proposed huge bombs that could concentrate their force, Walliss first super-large bomb design came out at some ten tonnes, far more than any current bomber could carry. Rather than drop the idea, this led him to suggest a plane that could carry it - the Victory Bomber, early in 1942, Wallis began experimenting with skipping marbles over water tanks in his garden, leading to his April 1942 paper Spherical Bomb — Surface Torpedo. After some initial scepticism, the Air Force accepted Walliss bouncing bomb for attacks on the Möhne, Eder, the raid on these dams in May 1943 was immortalised in Paul Brickhills 1951 book The Dam Busters and the 1955 film of the same name. The Möhne and Eder dams were breached, causing damage to German factories. After the success of the bomb, Wallis was able to return to his huge bombs, producing first the Tallboy. These were not the same as the 5-tonne blockbuster bomb, which was a conventional blast bomb and they were the forerunners of modern bunker-busting bombs
12.
Edersee Dam
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The Edersee Dam is a hydroelectric dam spanning the Eder river in northern Hesse, Germany. Constructed between 1908 and 1914, it lies near the town of Waldeck at the northern edge of the Kellerwald. Breached by Allied bombs during World War II, it was rebuilt during the war, at low water in late summers of dry years the remnants of three villages and a bridge across the original river bed submerged when the lake was filled in 1914 can be seen. Descendants of those buried there go to visit the graves of their ancestors, the dam was breached in World War II by bouncing bombs dropped by British Lancaster bombers of No.617 Squadron RAF as part of Operation Chastise. The early morning raid of 17 May 1943 created a massive 70 metres wide and 22 metres deep breach in the structure. Water emptied at the rate of 8,000 cubic metres per second into the valley below. The dam was rebuilt within months by forced labour drawn from construction of the Atlantic Wall under command of Organisation Todt, the lake today is the third largest reservoir in Germany. Its capacity of 199,300,000 cubic metres makes it a major recreational facility. The 1955 film, The Dam Busters chronicled the British attack on the dam, list of hydroelectric power station failures Möhne Reservoir Media related to Edersee Dam at Wikimedia Commons Interactive 360° panorama of Edersee dam
13.
Ruhr (river)
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The Ruhr is a river in western Germany, a right tributary of the Rhine. The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region and it flows into the lower Rhine at an elevation of only 56 feet in the municipal area of Duisburg. Its total length is 218 km, its discharge is 79 m³/s at Mülheim near its mouth. Thus, its discharge is, for example, comparable to that of the River Ems in Northern Germany or the River Thames in the United Kingdom, the Ruhr first passes the towns of Meschede, Arnsberg, Wickede, Fröndenberg, Holzwickede, Iserlohn and Schwerte. Then the river marks the limit of the Ruhr area, passing Hagen, Dortmund, Herdecke, Wetter, Witten, Bochum, Hattingen, Essen, Mülheim. The Ruhr area was Germanys primary industrial area during the early- to mid-20th century, as a result, the German hyperinflation crisis grew even worse. The story was told in a 1951 book and the popular 1955 film made from it, there are five Ruhr reservoirs on the river, often used for leisure activities. Notes Sources This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Media related to Ruhr at Wikimedia Commons
14.
Edertal
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Edertal is a community in Waldeck-Frankenberg in northern Hesse, Germany. Edertal lies roughly 30 km in a line southwest of Kassel. It is on the north and northwest edges of the Kellerwald range and stretches to the shore of the Edersee and south. It lies at the edge of the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park. The community of Edertal is crossed by the river Eder, the biggest body of flowing water in the community, into this empties the Wesebach at the constituent community of Giflitz. The Affolderner See, which is found within municipal limits, is another used as lower reservoir for the Waldeck Pumped Storage Station. On the whole, hydroelectric use at the Edersee is also well developed, in Giflitz is the communitys administrative seat. With the neighbouring centre of Bergheim to the northeast, it forms the heart of the community and, accordingly, the community of Edertal consists of the following centres, Bringhausen was one of three villages that originally stood where the Edersee is now. It was relocated to higher ground early in the 20th century, the area belongs to the foothills of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. Outcrops here are mainly shale and greywacke, edertals council is made up of 31 councillors, with seats apportioned thus, in accordance with municipal elections held on 26 March 2006, Note, FWG is a citizens coalition. Elections in March 2016, CDU,6 SPD,10 Greens,3 FDP,3 FW,6 WIR,3 Edertal at DMOZ
15.
Sorpe Dam
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The Sorpe Dam is a dam on the Sorpe river, near the small town of Sundern in the district of Hochsauerland in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Together with the Biggesee, the Möhne Reservoir, and the Verse reservoir, besides serving as a water supply, it is utilized for electricity generation and as a leisure and recreation area. The Sorpe Dam is situated to the north of the Homert natural park and it is supplied by the Sorpe stream. About once a year in spring, the reservoir runs over into the spillway, in total, the steam trains carried more than 300,000 metric tonnes of construction material to the Sorpe dam, where smaller light railways took over. In World War II, the Sorpe Dam was among the targets of the British airstrikes of Operation Chastise in the night from the 16th to the 17th of May,1943, as were the dams on the Eder and Möhne. In these attacks, the Royal Air Force attempted to destroy the dams using bouncing bombs, according to the BBC Dambusters Declassified the bomb used on Sorpe was not to spin as it was dropped on the dam rather than on the water and had no need to bounce. The planners of the Operation had estimated that it would take 5 of the bombs placed correctly to weaken the dam sufficiently for water pressure to complete the break. The attacks also had to be parallel to the line of the dam rather than perpendicular. A second British airstrike on October 15,1944 with five-ton Tallboy bombs also failed, leaving behind only several huge craters and causing minor spillage. After the war, in late 1958 the reservoir was drained for bomb damage repairs, in the course of which, shortly before Christmas and it has therefore become a favourite local recreation area for residents of the nearby Ruhr Area and is also popular with Dutch tourists. The passenger motor ship MS Sorpesee is available for outings during the summer season, four DLRG lifeguard bases as well as a Red Cross base on campsite 3 provide safety. The campsites are numbered 2 through 5 from North to South, a new bicycle and pedestrian lane was constructed on the west bank parallel to the quayside road in 2006, connecting the hamlets of Sundern-Amecke and Sundern-Langscheid. Motor access to the east bank road is limited to service vehicles, private motor boats are prohibited on the reservoir to prevent oil spills and for maintaining a high drinking water quality. Röhr river Dams in North Rhine-Westphalia List of reservoirs and dams in Germany Sorpesee
16.
Air Ministry
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The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the authority of the Secretary of State for Air. The new Air Committee was composed of representatives of the two war ministries, and although it could make recommendations, it lacked executive authority. The recommendations of the Air Committee had to be ratified by the Admiralty Board and the Imperial General Staff and, in consequence, the Committee was not particularly effective. The increasing separation of army and naval aviation from 1912 to 1914 only exacerbated the Air Committees ineffectiveness and it was the supply problems to which an attempt at rectification was first made. This committee was titled the Joint War Air Committee, and its chairman was Lord Derby and it was also at the meeting on 15 February that Curzon proposed the creation of an Air Ministry. As with the pre-war Air Committee, the Joint War Air Committee lacked any executive powers, after only eight sittings, Lord Derby resigned from the Committee, stating that It appears to me quite impossible to bring the two wings closer together. Unless and until the system of the Air Service is changed. The next attempt to establish effective co-ordination between the two air services was the creation of an Air Board, the first Air Board came into being on 15 May 1916 with Lord Curzon as its chairman. The inclusion of Curzon, a Cabinet Minister, and other political figures was intended to give the Air Board greater status than the Joint War Air Committee, in October 1916 the Air Board published its first report which was highly critical of the arrangements within the British air services. In January 1917 the Prime Minister David Lloyd George replaced the chairman Lord Curzon with Lord Cowdray. Godfrey Paine, who served in the newly created post of Fifth Sea Lord and Director of Naval Aviation, sat on the board, despite attempts at reorganization of the Air Board, the earlier problems failed to be completely resolved. In addition, the number of German air raids against Great Britain led to public disquiet. Towards the end of the First World War, on 17 August 1917, Lord Rothermere was appointed the first Air Minister. Later, in 1919, it moved to Adastral House on Kingsway, the creation of the Air Ministry resulted in the disestablishment of the Army Councils post of Director-General of Military Aeronautics. In April 1921 David Lloyd George appointed Frederick Guest as Secretary of State for Air, more importantly in the long term he was also responsible for the appointment of Sir Sefton Brancker to develop civil aviation. With the fall of Lloyd George in October 1922 Sir Samuel Hoare became the Secretary of State for Air. He was the first Secretary to have a seat in the Cabinet, and remained in the post until January 1924, a supporter of airships, Thomson was responsible for the Imperial Airship Scheme, which involved the construction of R101 at the Royal Airship Works at Cardington
17.
Ruhr Valley
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The Ruhr is a river in western Germany, a right tributary of the Rhine. The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region and it flows into the lower Rhine at an elevation of only 56 feet in the municipal area of Duisburg. Its total length is 218 km, its discharge is 79 m³/s at Mülheim near its mouth. Thus, its discharge is, for example, comparable to that of the River Ems in Northern Germany or the River Thames in the United Kingdom, the Ruhr first passes the towns of Meschede, Arnsberg, Wickede, Fröndenberg, Holzwickede, Iserlohn and Schwerte. Then the river marks the limit of the Ruhr area, passing Hagen, Dortmund, Herdecke, Wetter, Witten, Bochum, Hattingen, Essen, Mülheim. The Ruhr area was Germanys primary industrial area during the early- to mid-20th century, as a result, the German hyperinflation crisis grew even worse. The story was told in a 1951 book and the popular 1955 film made from it, there are five Ruhr reservoirs on the river, often used for leisure activities. Notes Sources This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Media related to Ruhr at Wikimedia Commons
18.
Hydroelectricity
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Hydroelectricity is electricity produced from hydropower. In 2015 hydropower generated 16. 6% of the total electricity and 70% of all renewable electricity. Hydropower is produced in 150 countries, with the Asia-Pacific region generating 33 percent of global hydropower in 2013, China is the largest hydroelectricity producer, with 920 TWh of production in 2013, representing 16.9 percent of domestic electricity use. The cost of hydroelectricity is relatively low, making it a source of renewable electricity. The hydro station consumes no water, unlike coal or gas plants, the average cost of electricity from a hydro station larger than 10 megawatts is 3 to 5 U. S. cents per kilowatt-hour. With a dam and reservoir it is also a source of electricity since the amount produced by the station can be changed up or down very quickly to adapt to changing energy demands. Once a hydroelectric complex is constructed, the project produces no direct waste, Hydropower has been used since ancient times to grind flour and perform other tasks. In the mid-1770s, French engineer Bernard Forest de Bélidor published Architecture Hydraulique which described vertical-, by the late 19th century, the electrical generator was developed and could now be coupled with hydraulics. The growing demand for the Industrial Revolution would drive development as well, in 1878 the worlds first hydroelectric power scheme was developed at Cragside in Northumberland, England by William George Armstrong. It was used to power an arc lamp in his art gallery. The old Schoelkopf Power Station No.1 near Niagara Falls in the U. S. side began to produce electricity in 1881. The first Edison hydroelectric power station, the Vulcan Street Plant, began operating September 30,1882, in Appleton, Wisconsin, by 1886 there were 45 hydroelectric power stations in the U. S. and Canada. By 1889 there were 200 in the U. S. alone, at the beginning of the 20th century, many small hydroelectric power stations were being constructed by commercial companies in mountains near metropolitan areas. Grenoble, France held the International Exhibition of Hydropower and Tourism with over one million visitors, by 1920 as 40% of the power produced in the United States was hydroelectric, the Federal Power Act was enacted into law. The Act created the Federal Power Commission to regulate hydroelectric power stations on federal land, as the power stations became larger, their associated dams developed additional purposes to include flood control, irrigation and navigation. Federal funding became necessary for development and federally owned corporations, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority. Hydroelectric power stations continued to become larger throughout the 20th century, Hydropower was referred to as white coal for its power and plenty. Hoover Dams initial 1,345 MW power station was the worlds largest hydroelectric station in 1936
19.
RAF Bomber Command
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RAF Bomber Command controlled the RAFs bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bombing campaign against Germany became less restrictive and increasingly targeted industrial sites, in total 364,514 operational sorties were flown,1,030,500 tons of bombs were dropped and 8,325 aircraft lost in action. Bomber Command crews also suffered a casualty rate,55,573 were killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew, a further 8,403 were wounded in action. Bomber Command stood at the peak of its military power in the 1960s, the V bombers holding the United Kingdoms nuclear deterrent. In August 2006, a memorial was unveiled at Lincoln Cathedral, a memorial in Green Park in London was unveiled by the Queen on 28 June 2012 to highlight the price paid by the aircrews. At the time of the formation of Bomber Command in 1936, Giulio Douhets slogan the bomber will always get through was popular, until advances in radar technology in the late 1930s, this statement was effectively true. Attacking bombers could not be detected early enough to assemble fighters fast enough to prevent them reaching their targets. Some damage might be done to the bombers by AA guns, and by fighters as the returned to base. Consequently, the conception of Bomber Command was as an entity that threatened the enemy with utter destruction. In 1936, Germanys increasing air power was feared by British government planners who commonly overestimated its size, reach, planners used estimates of up to 72 British deaths per tonne of bombs dropped, though this figure was grossly exaggerated. As well, the planners did not know that German bombing aircraft of the day did not have the range to reach the UK with a load of bombs, British air officers did nothing to correct these perceptions because they could see the usefulness of having a strong bombing arm. At the start of the Second World War in 1939, Bomber Command faced four problems, the first was lack of size, Bomber Command was not large enough effectively to operate as an independent strategic force. The second was rules of engagement, at the start of the war, the third problem was the Commands lack of technology, specifically radio or radar derived navigational aids to allow accurate target location at night or through cloud. The fourth problem was the accuracy of bombing, especially from high level. When the war began on 1 September 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the neutral United States, the French and British agreed to abide by the request, provided that these same rules of warfare will be scrupulously observed by all of their opponents. British policy was to restrict bombing to military targets and infrastructure, such as ports, while acknowledging that bombing Germany would cause civilian casualties, the British government renounced deliberate bombing of civilian property as a military tactic. The British abandoned this policy at the end of the Phoney War, or Sitzkrieg, on 15 May 1940, one day after the Rotterdam Blitz
20.
Backspin
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In racquet sports and golf, backspin, is a shot such that the ball rotates backwards after it is hit. This direction of spin imparts an upward force lifts the ball. While a normal hit bounces well forward as well as up, backspin shots bounce higher, backspin is the opposite of topspin. In racket sports, the higher bounce imparted by backspin may make a receiver who has prepared for a different shot miss or mis-hit the ball when swinging. A backspin shot is useful for defensive shots because a backspin shot takes longer to travel to the opponent. Also, because backspin shots tend to bounce less far forward once they reach the opposite court and this is especially important in table tennis because one must wait for the ball to bounce before hitting it, whereas in tennis the opponent may volley the ball. In golf, a shot will result in a large amount of backspin that will carry the ball higher into the air. Backspin also helps with distance control, as if there is enough backspin, the ball will check if it lands on the putting surface, and sometimes even creep backwards upon landing
21.
Vickers-Armstrongs
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Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, Vickers merged with the Tyneside-based engineering company Armstrong Whitworth, founded by W. G. Armstrong, to become Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd. Armstrong Whitworth and Vickers had developed along lines, expanding into various military sectors. Armstrong Whitworth were notable for their manufacture at Elswick and shipbuilding at a yard at High Walker on the River Tyne. 1929 saw the merger of the railway business with those of Cammell Laird to form Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon. In 1935, before rearmament began, Vickers-Armstrongs was the third-largest manufacturing employer in Britain, behind Unilever, in 1960 the aircraft interests were merged with those of Bristol, English Electric and Hunting Aircraft to form the British Aircraft Corporation. This was owned by Vickers, English Electric and Bristol, BAC in turn owned 70% of Hunting. The Supermarine operation was closed in 1963 and the Vickers brand name for aircraft was dropped by BAC in 1965, under the terms of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 BAC was nationalised to become part of British Aerospace. The Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act also led to the nationalisation of Vickers shipbuilding division as part of British Shipbuilders, Vickers Container and Packaging Machinery Division, including the Vickers Stitcher and Vickers Hardness Machine business, was bought by Fords Industrial Products, part of Barry Wehmiller in 1986. In 1991 the Vickers Hardness Machinery business was bought by the field engineers. The Vickers Stitcher was still being manufactured in India as recently as 2005, the steelmaking division became part of British Steel Corporation and the remaining interests were divested as the public company Vickers plc, whose various components were later split. The Vickers name ceased to exist in 2003 when Rolls-Royce renamed its acquisitions Vinters plc, Vickers-Armstrongs inherited the Vickers machine gun of 1912 used in World War I from Vickers Limited. An unusual machine gun also made was the Vickers Higson, Vickers produced larger weapons such as the Ordnance QF 2-pounder gun used on tanks. In 1948 Vickers bought the Australian business of Charles Ruwolt Ltd for £750,000 following Ruwolts death in 1946, during WW2 Ruwolts firm produced armaments for the Australian Government, including field artillery such as mortars and howitzer cannon. Vickers-Armstrongs was one of the most important warship manufacturers in the world and these interests were renamed as Vickers-Armstrongs Shipbuilders in 1955, changing again to Vickers Limited Shipbuilding Group in 1968. The Barrow yard was nationalised and became part of British Shipbuilders in 1977, was privatised as VSEL in 1986, the company was also known for its tank designs, starting with the widely used Vickers 6-Ton. It also produced the influential, if never actually produced, Independent A1E1 tank, one of the companys most important designs was the Valentine Infantry Tank, produced in the thousands in World War II. The military vehicle manufacturing interests were divested into Vickers plc, and would pass to Alvis Vickers, now part of BAE Systems Land
22.
Vickers Wellesley
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The Vickers Wellesley was a British 1930s light bomber built by Vickers-Armstrongs at Brooklands near Weybridge, Surrey, for the Royal Air Force. While it was obsolete by the start of the Second World War and unsuited to the European air war, the Wellesley was operated in the theatres of East Africa, Egypt. It was one of two named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the other being the Vickers Wellington. The Type 253 was declared the winner, with 150 being ordered and this aircraft had superior performance but did not attempt to meet the multi-role requirements of the specification, being designed as a bomber only. An initial order for 96 Type 246s was substituted for the Type 253 order, the RAF ultimately ordered a total of 176 with the service name Wellesley, to a newly written specification 22/35, with a 14-month production run starting in March 1937. The Wellesley was a monoplane with a very high aspect ratio wing. As it was not known how the structure could cope with being disrupted by a bomb bay. The Wellesley Mk I had two cockpits but this was changed in the Wellesley Mk II to a cockpit canopy covering the pilot. The RAF received its first Wellesleys in April 1937, serving with No.76 Squadron RAF at Finningley, five aircraft with provisions for three crew members were modified for long-range work with the RAF Long-Range Development Flight. Additional modifications included the fitting of Pegasus XXII engines and extra fuel tanks, on 5 November 1938, three of them under command of Squadron Leader Richard Kellett flew non-stop for two days from Ismailia, Egypt to Darwin, Australia setting a world distance record. All three aircraft broke the record, but No.2 aircraft landed in West Timor,500 miles short of the objective, the Wellesleys record remained unbroken until November 1945. This flight is still the longest by an aircraft with a piston engine. Following the Italian declaration of war on 10 June 1940, the remaining Wellesley squadrons participated in the East African Campaign against Italian forces in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somaliland. Although obsolete, the Wellesley formed a part of the British Commonwealth bomber forces, mainly carrying out raids against Eritrea. Sudan-based Wellesleys carried out their first bombing mission on 11 June 1940, visintini, who was flying a Fiat CR.42, shot down the aircraft K7743, flown by Pilot Officer Reginald Patrick Blenner Plunkett. It was the first of Visintinis 16 air victories in Eastern Africa, in the early part of the campaign, fighter escort was not available and when caught by CR. 42s, Wellesleys proved vulnerable to the Italian biplane fighter. Despite this, the Wellesley continued to be used for bombing raids, the Wellesley continued in use against the Italians over East Africa until November 1941, when Gondar, the last Italian-held town, fell to Commonwealth and Ethiopian forces. The final Wellesley equipped unit,47 Squadron, was switched to carrying out maritime reconnaissance duties over the Red Sea
23.
Vickers Wellington
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The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. Other aircraft developed to the specification include the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley. During the development process, performance requirements such as for the tare weight changed substantially, the Wellington was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, performing as one of the principal bombers used by Bomber Command. During 1943, it started to be superseded as a bomber by the larger four-engined heavies such as the Avro Lancaster, the Wellington continued to serve throughout the war in other duties, particularly as an anti-submarine aircraft. It holds the distinction of being the only British bomber to be produced for the duration of the war, the Wellington remained as first-line equipment when the war ended, although it had been increasing relegated to secondary roles. The Wellington was one of two named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the other being the Vickers Wellesley. A larger heavy bomber designed to Specification B. 1/35, the Vickers Warwick, was developed in parallel with the Wellington. Many elements of the Wellington were also reused in a civil derivative, in October 1932, the British Air Ministry invited Vickers to tender for the recently issued Specification B. 9/32, which sought a twin-engine medium daylight bomber. This strength allowed for the design to be further developed to reduce the size of individual members. The Pegasus was selected as the engine for air-cooled versions of the bomber, on 28 February 1933, two versions of the aircraft, one with each of the selected powerplants, were submitted to the tender. In September 1933, the Air Ministry issued a contract for the Goshawk-powered version. Other refinements of the design had also implemented and approved, such as the adoption of variable-pitch propellers. By December 1936, the specification had been revised to include front, rear, other specification changes included modified bomb undershields and the inclusion of spring-loaded bomb bay doors. Design studies were conducted on behalf of the Air Ministry into the adoption of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. F. Andrews stated to be a high figure for a medium bomber of those days. During the development phase of the aircraft, the political and military situations in Europe drastically transformed, with the rise of fascist dictatorships in Germany and Italy, the British government had become keen to reevaluate the capabilities of the nations armed forces, including the Royal Air Force. In early 1936, a prototype, K4049, which was originally designated as a Type 271, was assembled. It had provisions for a crew of four, along with a position for performing special duties
24.
Vickers Windsor
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The Vickers Windsor was a Second World War British four-engine heavy bomber, designed by Barnes Wallis and Rex Pierson at the Vickers-Armstrongs factory at Brooklands. As a possible replacement for the pre-war Vickers Wellington medium bomber and this was considered to be neither fast enough to be a fast bomber nor well armed enough to be a normal medium bomber. A four-engined development of the design was also drawn up. The official position was that the Wellington was becoming obsolete but as the Vickers factories were set up only for geodesic construction any design would need to be based on that method. Vickers were working on a Wellington with a cabin for high altitude work and the Ministry was interested in a pressurized version of Warwick. The proposed design changed the twin-engined Warwick wing for a wing with four Merlin engines. The aircraft was expected to manage 43,000 ft having delivered 8,000 lb of bombs, the contract for two prototypes of the Warwick was covered by Specification B. 5/41 and development and construction work proceeded until September 1942. In mid-1942, the Wellington replacement and B. 5/41 were merged as a result of a new specification - B. 3/42 - for a Lancaster replacement but without high altitude performance. Vickers could take the already done along and fit the four-engine wing to a new design of fuselage. The wings of the first prototypes were built to the earlier specification, the Windsor was designed to Air Ministry Specification B. 5/41 for a high-altitude heavy bomber with a pressurised crew compartment, and an ability to fly at 345 miles per hour at 31,000 feet. Notable features of the Windsor included its pressurised crew compartment, the defensive armament was guns mounted in barbettes at the rear of each outboard nacelle, which were to be remotely operated by a gunner in a pressurised compartment in the extreme tail. The Windsor used Walliss geodetic body and wing structure that Vickers had previously used in the Wellesley, Wellington, the wings structure had no spars. Instead, it was a single hollow geodetic tube from tip to tip, the elements thickness was also reduced towards the tips. No two joints had the angle on the wing, an authentic production engineers nightmare. Instead of doped Irish linen covering used on the earlier geodetic aircraft and this was made from woven steel wires and very thin stainless steel ribbons, doped with PVC or other plastic, specially designed to avoid ballooning. To properly fit the skin to the frame, a tuning fork had to be used. The wing was designed so that the tips had a noticeable droop on the ground and this was due to refinements in the existing Lancaster bomber, rendering it suitable for the role for which the Windsor had been designed. The first prototype flew on 23 October 1943, the second on 15 February 1944, all three were built at Vickers secret dispersed Foxwarren Experimental Department between Brooklands and nearby Cobham
25.
Admiralty
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The new Admiralty Board meets only twice a year, and the day-to-day running of the Royal Navy is controlled by a Navy Board. It is common for the authorities now in charge of the Royal Navy to be referred to as simply The Admiralty. The title of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom was vested in the monarch from 1964 to 2011, the title was awarded to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh by Queen Elizabeth II on his 90th birthday. There also continues to be a Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom, the office of Admiral of England was created around 1400 although there had already been Admirals of the Northern and Western Seas. In 1546, King Henry VIII established the Council of the Marine, later to become the Navy Board, operational control of the Royal Navy remained the responsibility of the Lord High Admiral, who was one of the nine Great Officers of State. In 1628, Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission, the office of Lord High Admiral passed a number of times in and out of commission until 1709 after which the office was almost permanently in commission. In 1831, the first Navy Board was abolished as a separate entity, in 1964, the Admiralty along with the War Office and the Air Ministry as separate departments of state were abolished, and re-emerged under one single new Ministry of Defence. Within the expanded Ministry of Defence are the new Admiralty Board which has a separate Navy Board responsible for the running of the Royal Navy. The Army Board and the Air Force Board, each headed by the Secretary of State for Defence, the Board of Admiralty consisted of a number of Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. The Lords Commissioners were always a mixture of admirals, known as Naval Lords or Sea Lords and Civil Lords, the quorum of the Board was two commissioners and a secretary. The president of the Board was known as the First Lord of the Admiralty, after 1806, the First Lord of the Admiralty was always a civilian while the professional head of the navy came to be known as the First Sea Lord. The first real concerted effort to organise the Admiralty was started by Henry VIII. Between 1860 and 1908 there was no study of strategy and of staff work conducted within the naval service. All the navys talent flowed to the great technical universitys and it was perceived by officials within the Admiralty at this time that the running of war was quite a simple matter for any flag officer who required no formal training. The new War Staff had hardly found its feet and it struggled with the opposition to its existence by senior officers they were categorically opposed to a staff. The deficiencies of the system within this department of state could be seen in the conduct of the Dardanelles campaign, there was no mechanisms in place to answer the big strategic questions in 1914 a Trade Division was created. In 1916, Sir John Jellicoe came to the Admiralty, he organized the staff as following, Chief of War Staff, Operations, Intelligence, Signal Section, Mobilization, Trade. This for the first time gave the naval staff direct representation on the Board, the would direct all operations and movements of the fleet, while the would be responsible for mercantile movements and anti-submarine operations
26.
Pound (mass)
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The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement. The international standard symbol for the pound is lb. The unit is descended from the Roman libra, the English word pound is cognate with, among others, German Pfund, Dutch pond, and Swedish pund. All ultimately derive from a borrowing into Proto-Germanic of the Latin expression lībra pondō, usage of the unqualified term pound reflects the historical conflation of mass and weight. This accounts for the modern distinguishing terms pound-mass and pound-force, the United States and countries of the Commonwealth of Nations agreed upon common definitions for the pound and the yard. Since 1 July 1959, the avoirdupois pound has been defined as exactly 0.45359237 kg. In the United Kingdom, the use of the pound was implemented in the Weights and Measures Act 1963.9144 metre exactly. An avoirdupois pound is equal to 16 avoirdupois ounces and to exactly 7,000 grains, the conversion factor between the kilogram and the international pound was therefore chosen to be divisible by 7, and an grain is thus equal to exactly 64.79891 milligrams. The US has not adopted the system despite many efforts to do so. Historically, in different parts of the world, at different points in time, and for different applications, the libra is an ancient Roman unit of mass that was equivalent to approximately 328.9 grams. It was divided into 12 unciae, or ounces, the libra is the origin of the abbreviation for pound, lb. A number of different definitions of the pound have historically used in Britain. Amongst these were the avoirdupois pound and the tower, merchants. Historically, the sterling was a tower pound of silver. In 1528, the standard was changed to the Troy pound, the avoirdupois pound, also known as the wool pound, first came into general use c. It was initially equal to 6992 troy grains, the pound avoirdupois was divided into 16 ounces. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the pound was redefined as 7,000 troy grains. Since then, the grain has often been a part of the avoirdupois system
27.
Tonne
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The SI symbol for the tonne is t, adopted at the same time as the unit itself in 1879. Its use is also official, for the metric ton, within the United States, having been adopted by the US National Institute of Standards and it is a symbol, not an abbreviation, and should not be followed by a period. Informal and non-approved symbols or abbreviations include T, mT, MT, in French and all English-speaking countries that are predominantly metric, tonne is the correct spelling. Before metrication in the UK the unit used for most purposes was the Imperial ton of 2,240 pounds avoirdupois, equivalent to 1,016 kg, differing by just 1. 6% from the tonne. Ton and tonne are both derived from a Germanic word in use in the North Sea area since the Middle Ages to designate a large cask. A full tun, standing about a high, could easily weigh a tonne. An English tun of wine weighs roughly a tonne,954 kg if full of water, in the United States, the unit was originally referred to using the French words millier or tonneau, but these terms are now obsolete. The Imperial and US customary units comparable to the tonne are both spelled ton in English, though they differ in mass, one tonne is equivalent to, Metric/SI,1 megagram. Equal to 1000000 grams or 1000 kilograms, megagram, Mg, is the official SI unit. Mg is distinct from mg, milligram, pounds, Exactly 1000/0. 453 592 37 lb, or approximately 2204.622622 lb. US/Short tons, Exactly 1/0. 907 184 74 short tons, or approximately 1.102311311 ST. One short ton is exactly 0.90718474 t, imperial/Long tons, Exactly 1/1. 016 046 9088 long tons, or approximately 0.9842065276 LT. One long ton is exactly 1.0160469088 t, for multiples of the tonne, it is more usual to speak of thousands or millions of tonnes. Kilotonne, megatonne, and gigatonne are more used for the energy of nuclear explosions and other events. When used in context, there is little need to distinguish between metric and other tons, and the unit is spelt either as ton or tonne with the relevant prefix attached. *The equivalent units columns use the short scale large-number naming system used in most English-language countries. †Values in the equivalent short and long tons columns are rounded to five significant figures, ǂThough non-standard, the symbol kt is also sometimes used for knot, a unit of speed for sea-going vessels, and should not be confused with kilotonne. A metric ton unit can mean 10 kilograms within metal trading and it traditionally referred to a metric ton of ore containing 1% of metal. In the case of uranium, the acronym MTU is sometimes considered to be metric ton of uranium, in the petroleum industry the tonne of oil equivalent is a unit of energy, the amount of energy released by burning one tonne of crude oil, approximately 42 GJ
28.
Torpedo net
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Torpedo nets were a passive ship defensive device against torpedoes. They were in use from the 1890s until the Second World War. They were superseded by the bulge and torpedo belts. With the introduction of the Whitehead torpedo in 1873, and the subsequent development of the torpedo boat, in 1876 the British Admiralty Torpedo Committee came up with a number of recommendations for combating torpedoes, which included. Nets of galvanised iron hung around each battleship from projecting 40 ft spars, experiments were conducted in 1877, with HMS Thunderer becoming the first operational ship to be fitted with the nets. Torpedo nets could be out from the defending ship, when moored or otherwise stationary in the water. Each boom was fixed to the ship at one end at or below the edge of the deck, by a steel pin that permitted the boom to be swung against the ship. A series of such booms was so fixed at intervals along each side of the ship, with the net mounted, a torpedo aimed at the ship would hit the mesh net and explode at a sufficient distance from the hull to prevent serious damage to the ship. Early booms were made of wood, originally 10 inches in diameter, each boom weighed 20 to 24 long cwt and cost £28 to £30. His Lordship further stated that the steel booms that the Committee favoured were of a different type to those designed by Bullivant, on 21 June 1888 three Opposition Liberal MPs questioned the First Sea Lord on whether wooden booms were the best choice for either effectiveness or cost. Admiral Field claimed that the Admiralty Torpedo Committee and Dockyard officials preferred steel booms as they weighed less than 10 long cwt, Field alleged that in experiments since September 1886 wooden booms invariably failed and that steel booms were lighter and more effective. In reply the First Sea Lord claimed that in five experiments, wooden booms had worked on all but one occasion, when questioned by James Picton, MP for Leicester, the First Sea Lord agreed that wooden beams were heavier. Then John Brunner, MP for Northwich, asked who was opposing steel booms, the First Sea Lord ended the discussion by retorting that it was most improper that Questions should be put to him for the purpose of advertising inventions. About 1875 William Munton Bullivant had taken over the Wire Tramway Co, a manufacturer of wire and steel rope based in Millwall, London, the company exhibited at trade events including the Naval and Submarine Exhibition of 1882. Bullivant developed not only steel torpedo nets but also steel booms to suspend them from ships, in 1888 Admiral Field and other Liberal MPs offended the First Sea Lord by promoting Bullivants products in the House of Commons. However, by the early 20th century, torpedo nets were referred to as Bullivant type and they were made from 6 1⁄2-inch-diameter steel hoops linked by smaller hoops to form a mesh, with a weight of about one pound per square foot. These nets were projected from the sides of the ship on 40-foot-long wooden booms, extensive tests were conducted, with the nets proving capable of stopping the contemporary 14-inch-diameter torpedo without being damaged. A 16-inch torpedo with a 91-pound warhead proved capable of causing limited damage to the net, a heavier net was introduced in 1894 consisting of 2 1⁄2-inch hoops with a weight of five pounds per square foot
29.
Depth charge
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A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful. Most depth charges use high explosive charges and a set to detonate the charge. Depth charges can be dropped by ships, patrol aircraft, Depth charges were developed during World War I, and were one of the first effective methods of attacking a submarine underwater. They were widely used in World War I and World War II and they remained part of the anti-submarine arsenals of many navies during the Cold War. Depth charges have now largely replaced by anti-submarine homing torpedoes. A depth charge fitted with a warhead is known as a nuclear depth bomb. These were designed to be dropped from a plane or deployed by an anti-submarine missile from a surface ship, or another submarine. All nuclear anti-submarine weapons were withdrawn from service by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and they were replaced by conventional weapons whose accuracy and range had improved greatly as ASW technology improved. The first attempt to fire charges against submerged targets was with aircraft bombs attached to lanyards which triggered them, a similar idea was a 16 lb guncotton charge in a lanyarded can. Two of these together became known as the depth charge Type A. Problems with the lanyards tangling and failing to function led to the development of a chemical pellet trigger as the Type B and these were effective at a distance of around 20 ft. A1913 Royal Navy Torpedo School report described a device intended for countermining, at Admiral John Jellicoes request, the standard Mark II mine was fitted with a hydrostatic pistol preset for 45 ft firing, to be launched from a stern platform. Weighing 1,150 lb, and effective at 100 ft, the design work was carried out by Herbert Taylor at the RN Torpedo and Mine School, HMS Vernon. The first effective depth charge, the Type D, became available in January 1916 and it was a barrel-like casing containing a high explosive. There were initially two sizes—Type D, with a 300 lb charge for fast ships, and Type D* with a 120 lb charge for ships too slow to leave the area before the more powerful charge detonated. A hydrostatic pistol actuated by water pressure at a pre-selected depth detonated the charge, initial depth settings were 40 or 80 ft. Because production could not keep up with demand, anti-submarine vessels initially carried two depth charges, to be released from a chute at the stern of the ship
30.
Elan Valley Reservoirs
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The Elan Valley Reservoirs are a chain of man-made lakes created from damming the Elan and Claerwen rivers within the Elan Valley in Mid Wales. The reservoirs, which were built by the Birmingham Corporation Water Department, the five lakes are known as the Claerwen, Craig-goch, Pen-y-garreg, Garreg-ddu, and Caban-coch. Water from the reservoirs is carried by gravity to Frankley Reservoir in Birmingham via the Elan aqueduct, pumping is not required because the network drops 52 metres along its 73 miles length from its source to Frankley. A gradient of 1,2300 maintains a flow of less than 2 miles per hour, the aqueduct, which was started in 1896 and opened in 1906, crosses several valleys and features numerous brick tunnels, pipelines, and valve houses. Work to build the Elan Valley reservoirs was undertaken because the growth of the industrial city of Birmingham in the late 19th century had led to a lack of available clean water. Numerous outbreaks of disease prompted Birmingham City Council to petition the British government which passed the Birmingham Corporation Water Act in 1892 and it allowed the Corporation to acquire by compulsory purchase all the land within the water catchment area of the Elan Valleys. Thousands of navvies and their families lived in the purpose-built Elan Village during the construction of the first four dams at the turn of the 20th century, in 1952, the Claerwen dam was opened by Elizabeth II in one of her first official engagements as monarch. Drinking water from the Elan Valley is noted for being exceptionally soft, however local supplies in surrounding areas in the West Midlands, not served by the Elan aqueduct, are noted for hardness. The reservoirs are now owned and managed by Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, the water filtration works further down the valley is run by Severn Trent Water. There are four dams and reservoirs with a potential total capacity of nearly 100,000 megalitres. The dams and reservoirs are, Caban-coch with Garreg-ddu –35,530 megalitre capacity Pen-y-garreg –6,055 megalitre capacity Craig-goch –9,220 megalitre capacity Claerwen –48,694 megalitre capacity and they were to be constructed in accordance with the growth of Birmingham. However, the project was never completed even though the foundations of the first dam were laid at the same time the Elan Valley dams were being constructed. The work had to be done in advance because the level of the Caban Coch would have submerged the site once the reservoir was full. The three-dam project became redundant when newer materials and superior engineering allowed the construction of the single larger Claerwen dam higher up the valley in the 1940/50s, the Garreg-ddu dam – although looking like a viaduct, it is actually a submerged dam. Its role is to maintain a sufficient level in the Garreg-ddu reservoir so water can enter the Foel Tower, the dam is only required to operate during times of extreme drought. The Elan dam scheme was developed in the 19th century following rapid growth of the population of Birmingham in England due to the Industrial Revolution. The citys expansion resulted in outbreaks of water-borne diseases and major epidemics such as typhoid, cholera. Victorian politician, Joseph Chamberlain, the leader of Birmingham City Council began a campaign to get water from the Elan
31.
Chesil Beach
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Chesil Beach /ˈtʃɛzᵻl/, sometimes called Chesil Bank, in Dorset, southern England is one of three major shingle structures in Britain. Its toponym is derived from the Old English ceosel or cisel, the shingle beach is 29 kilometres long,200 metres wide and 15 metres high. The beach and the Fleet are part of the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, at the eastern end of the beach at the village of Chiswell, against the cliffs of the Isle of Portland, the beach curves round sharply to form Chesil Cove. This part of the beach protects the village from flooding. The beach has been the scene of many shipwrecks, and as such was named by Thomas Hardy as Dead Mans Bay, westwards the shingle forms a straight line along the coast, enclosing the Fleet, a shallow tidal lagoon. The beach provides shelter from the winds and waves for the town of Weymouth. It is said that smugglers who landed on the beach in the middle of the night could judge exactly where they were by the size of the shingle, there are three owners of the beach. The Crown Estates own the beach from Portland to its boundary stone at Littlesea, finally from West Bexington to West Bay it is owned by the National Trust. The whole of Chesil Beach south from the Portland Bound Stone is registered common land over which there is a right of access on foot. The origin of Chesil Beach has been argued over for some time, originally it was believed that beach material was from the Budleigh Salterton pebble beds to the west and later from Portland to the south east. Normally, tombolos are created due to the effects of the island on waves and to sediment transport, fossils occur all along the landward shore of the Fleet and along the landward side of Chesil Beach from Abbotsbury to West Bay. The main site is at Burton Bradstock, there have been many shipwrecks on Chesil Beach, particularly during the age of sail. The beach was particularly dangerous within the English Channel, as it forms an extended lee shore during south-westerly gales, a ship coming up the Channel had to clear Portland Bill to be safe, but the wind and tide would be pushing it northwards into Lyme Bay. At present there are no manned stations along the beach, as coverage is provided when required from Portland Coastguard, the local fishermen, particularly at Portland, developed a purpose-built vessel to withstand the sea actions of Chesil Beach. The boat, known as a Lerret, is an open fishing boat - 16–17 feet long - used for seine net fishing. It is usually rowed by four people with a fifth to steer, much of the villages Fleet and Chiswell were destroyed in the Great Storm of 1824. Over the centuries Chiswell had battled with the sea and was flooded during rough winter storms. In the storms the sea would pour through the part of the bank
32.
Francis John Linnell
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Air Marshal Sir Francis John Linnell, KBE, CB was a senior Royal Air Force commander during the Second World War. He was Controller of Research and Development of the Ministry of Aircraft Production during the development of the Bouncing bomb, the weapon eventually employed in Operation Chastise. Jack was dubbed Sir Francis in the desert in front of the British press by King George VI, Francis John Linnell was born on Isle of Thanet, Margate and was educated at Bloxham School. Linnell joined the Royal Naval Reserve as temporary warrant-telegraphist in September 1914, serving with the Royal Naval Air Service in France and he learnt to fly at the Grahame-White Flying School Hendon. Flying a Grahame-White Biplane he gained Royal Aero Club Certificate No.1338 in June 1915, flt Sub-Lt Linnell was responsible for carrying out trials in a special Blackburn-built B. E. 2c. The unique aircraft No.3999 was ordered by Admiralty for W/T experiments, Blackburn-built B. E. 2cs are recognisable by the ringed airscrew motif on the fin and saw active service in every theatre during the war. From March 1916 till the end of 1919 he served with the Grand Fleet as a pilot on HMS Campania, HMS Repulse and he ended the Great War with a permanent commission of captain in the newly formed Royal Air Force. From 1920 he worked as a Royal Air Force Communications Officer at the Department of Civil Aviation and he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in June 1923, the citation reads, This officer has done exceptionally good work in connection with Signals. His liaison with the Navy and the Army has been excellent and he received special thanks from the Air Council for preparing the handbook on air communications and intelligence systems for the air defence of Great Britain. His first command on 20 October 1930 was No.9 Squadron RAF located at RAF Manston, then in July 1935, the year of the Silver Jubilee, RAF Mildenhall welcomed King George V for the first ever Royal review of the RAF. Linnell returned to the Air Ministry in July 1935 as Deputy Director of Organisation, in February 1941 he joined the Air Ministry as Assistant Chief of the Air Staff in charge of Training. On March,1941 he was awarded the Companion of the Order of the Bath and he was appointed Controller of Research and Development Ministry of Aircraft Production and an additional Member of the Air Council on 5 June of the same year. A post that he held until 19 April 1943, Linnell rejoined the Air Ministry in July 1944 for special duties. He died on service,3 November 1944, in a car accident in Oxfordshire. He was cremated at Charing Crematorium, the decoration was presented to his widow, Lady Linnell, by Brigadier General E. F. Koenig at a special ceremony in London. Early in 1943, tests authorised by Linnell in June 1942 at the instigation of Sir Henry Tizard, a meeting between the Air Ministry, RAF Bomber Command and MAP decided to continue development of project Upkeep with a proposal to have a fully trained squadron ready by May. AOC-in-C of RAF Bomber Command Harris thought differently and saw the project as a waste of precious Lancasters, however Chief of the Air Staff Portal was convinced by film footage of the tests and ordered three Lancasters allocated to the project. One week later, at a meeting convened by Linnell, the number of Lancasters ordered had risen to a squadron and Operation Chastise was planned for that spring, only son of William Henry and Kate Linnell, he had one sister, Marjorie Clare
33.
Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet
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In 1942, the British Cabinet agreed to the area bombing of German cities. Harris was tasked with implementing Churchills policy and supported the development of tactics, Harris emigrated to Southern Rhodesia in 1910, aged 17, but returned to England in 1915 to fight in the European theatre of the First World War. At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Harris took command of No.5 Group RAF in England and he retained that position for the rest of the war. After the war Harris moved to South Africa where he managed the South African Marine Corporation, Harris was born on 13 April 1892, at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, where his parents were staying while his father George Steel Travers Harris was on home leave from the Indian Civil Service. A former Allhallows student, the actor Arthur Chudleigh, often visited the school, Harris received such a ticket in 1909, and went to see the play during his summer holidays. The lead character in the show was a Rhodesian farmer who returned to England to wed, harriss father was disappointed, having had in mind a military or civil service career for his son, but reluctantly agreed. In early 1910, Harris senior paid his sons passage on the SS Inanda to Beira in Mozambique, Harris earned his living over the next few years mining, coach-driving and farming. Harris quickly gained his employers trust, and was made manager at Lowdale when Townsend went to visit England for a year in early 1914. Having acquired the necessary to ranch successfully in Rhodesia, Harris decided that he would start his own farm in the country as soon as Townsend returned. According to Probert, Harris by now regarded primarily as a Rhodesian. When the First World War broke out in August 1914, Harris did not learn of it for nearly a month, having learnt to bugle at Allhallows, he successfully applied for the bugler slot and was sworn in on 20 October 1914. The 1st Rhodesia Regiment briefly garrisoned Bloemfontein, then served alongside the South African forces in South-West Africa during the first half of 1915. When the South-West African Campaign ended in July 1915, the 1st Rhodesia Regiment was withdrawn to Cape Town, Harris sailed for England from Beira at the Company administrations expense in August, a member of a 300-man party of white Southern Rhodesian war volunteers. 45 Squadron, flying the Sopwith 1½ Strutter and Sopwith Camel, before he returned to Britain to command No.44 Squadron on Home Defence duties, Harris claimed five enemy aircraft destroyed and was awarded the Air Force Cross on 2 November 1918. Intending to return to Rhodesia one day, Harris wore a shoulder flash on his uniform. He finished the war a major, in April 1920 Squadron Leader Harris was jointly appointed station commander of RAF Digby and commander of No.3 Flying Training School. He later served in different functions in India, Mesopotamia and Persia and he said of his service in India that he first became involved in bombing during the usual annual North West Frontier tribesmen trouble. In Mesopotamia he commanded a Vickers Vernon squadron and we cut a hole in the nose and rigged up our own bomb racks and I turned those machines into the heaviest and best bombers in the command
34.
Chief of the Air Staff (United Kingdom)
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The Chief of the Air Staff is the professional head of the Royal Air Force and a member of both the Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Air Force Board. The post was created in 1918 with Major-General Sir Hugh Trenchard as the first incumbent, the current and 31st Chief of the Air Staff is Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier, who succeeded Sir Andrew Pulford in July 2016. The post was established in January 1918, just prior to the formation of the RAF. Following Trenchards resignation in March 1918 after disagreements with the first air minister, for political reasons Trenchards resignation did not take effect until late April in order that he would be CAS when the RAF was formed. With Churchills post-War appointment as Secretary of State for War and Air, Sykes was moved sideways to head up the nascent Civil Aviation ministry and Trenchard returned as Chief of the Air Staff. In the early 1920s Trenchard had to fight to keep the RAF from being divided and being absorbed back into the Royal Navy, after Lord Trenchard retired in 1930 there were still suggestions that the RAF should be broken up, but Trenchards foundations proved solid. Newall gave way in 1940 to Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, Portal was a tireless defender of the RAF and extremely able in administration and strategy. The Chiefs of the Air Staff of the day had to fight a constant battle to keep the British aircraft industry alive, in the end only minimal success was achieved, with only a rump aviation industrial base left by the 1970s. The first eight chiefs of the air staff were originally commissioned in the Army, with four coming from the infantry, of these both Lord Trenchard and Sir John Salmond each held the post over two separate periods. In 1956 Sir Dermot Boyle became the first chief to have originally been commissioned in the RAF, however, in the case where the officer was promoted on the day before he was posted or retired, then the lower rank is shown. Chief of the Defence Staff First Sea Lord / Chief of the Naval Staff Chief of the General Staff Chief of Air Force Chief of the Air Staff CAS Air Power Workshop
35.
Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford
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Marshal of the Royal Air Force Charles Frederick Algernon Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford, KG, GCB, OM, DSO & Bar, MC, DL was a senior Royal Air Force officer. In the First World War he was a pilot, then a flight commander and he was also an advocate of the need for a renewed strategic bombing offensive. Portal was born at Eddington House, Hungerford, Berkshire, the son of Edward Robert Portal and his younger brother Admiral Sir Reginald Portal joined the Royal Navy and also had a distinguished career. The Portals had Huguenot origins, having arrived in England in the 17th century, Charles Portal, or Peter as he was nicknamed, was educated at Winchester College and Christ Church, Oxford. Portal had intended to become a barrister but he did not finish his degree, at the beginning of the First World War, Portal joined the British Army and served as a dispatch rider in the motorcycle section of the Royal Engineers on the Western Front. Portal was made a corporal very soon after joining the Army, around the same time, Portal was commended in Sir John Frenchs first despatch of September 1914. In December 1914, Portal was given command of all riders in the 1st Corps Headquarters Signals Company, in July 1915, with the need for dispatch riders reducing, Portal transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. He served first as an observer and then, from November 1915 and he graduated as a pilot in April 1916, and joined No.60 Squadron flying Morane biplanes on the Western Front. He became a commander with No.3 Squadron flying BE2c aircraft on the Western Front on 16 July 1916. Portal was promoted to major in June 1917 and given command of No.16 Squadron flying RE8 aircraft on the Western Front at the same time. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 17 June 1918. Portal was awarded the Military Cross in January 1917, the Distinguished Service Order on 18 July 1917, in August 1919 Portal was appointed to a permanent commission in the Royal Air Force in the rank of major. Portal attended the Imperial Defence College in 1929 and became Deputy Director of Plans in the Directorate of Operations & Intelligence at the Air Ministry in December 1930. Promoted to group captain on 1 July 1931, he was appointed commander of British forces in Aden in February 1934, promoted to air commodore on 1 January 1935, he joined the Directing Staff at the Imperial Defence College in January 1936. Portal was promoted to air marshal on 1 July 1937 before being appointed Director of Organization at the Air Ministry on 1 September 1937. Appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1939 New Year Honours, Portal became Air Member for Personnel on the Air Council on 1 February 1939. He was promoted to the rank of air marshal on 3 September 1939, appointed commander-in-chief of Bomber Command in April 1940. Portal advocated strategic bombing against German industrial areas, the same sort of targets that the Luftwaffe was already targeting in the United Kingdom
36.
Ralph Cochrane
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Air Chief Marshal Sir Ralph Alexander Cochrane, GBE, KCB, AFC was a British aviator and Royal Air Force officer, perhaps best known for his role in Operation Chastise, the famous Dambusters raid. Ralph Cochrane was born on 24 February 1895, the youngest son of Thomas Cochrane, 1st Baron Cochrane of Cults, although not certain, it is likely that he attended the Royal Naval College at Osborne in 1908. On 15 September 1912, Cochrane entered the Royal Navy proper as a midshipman, during the First World War, Cochrane served in the Royal Naval Air Service piloting airships. He also completed a tour as a officer in the Admiraltys Airship Department. In January 1920, he was removed from the Navy List, between the wars, Cochrane served in various staff positions and commanded No.3 Squadron from 1924 before attending the RAF Staff College and commanding No.8 Squadron from 1929. He attended the Imperial Defence College in 1935, on 1 April 1937, Cochrane was appointed Chief of the Air Staff of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. During the Second World War, Cochrane commanded No.7 Group from July 1940, No.3 Group from September 1942 and No.5 Group from February 1943,5 Group became the most efficient and elite Main Force bomber group undertaking spectacular raids. In February 1945, Cochrane became Air Officer Commanding at RAF Transport Command, during this time he managed the Berlin Airlift. In 1950 Cochrane was appointed Vice-Chief of the Air Staff, Ralph Cochrane retired from the service in 1952. Following his retirement, Cochrane entered the business world notably as director of Rolls-Royce and he was also chairman of RJM exports which manufactured scientific models and is now known as Cochranes of Oxford. In the New Year Honours 1939 Cochrane was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, in the New Year Honours 1943 Cochrane was appointed as a Companion of the Order of the Bath. In the 1945 New Years Honour list he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, in the 1948 Kings Birthday Honours he was appointed as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. In the 1950 Kings Birthday Honours, he was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
37.
George VI
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George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death. He was the last Emperor of India and the first Head of the Commonwealth, known as Albert until his accession, George VI was born in the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria, and was named after his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort. As the second son of King George V, he was not expected to inherit the throne and spent his life in the shadow of his elder brother. He attended naval college as a teenager, and served in the Royal Navy, in 1920, he was made Duke of York. He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923 and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, in the mid-1920s, he had speech therapy for a stammer, which he never fully overcame. Georges elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII upon the death of their father in 1936, however, later that year Edward revealed his desire to marry divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin advised Edward that for political and religious reasons he could not marry a divorced woman, Edward abdicated in order to marry, and George ascended the throne as the third monarch of the House of Windsor. During Georges reign, the break-up of the British Empire and its transition into the Commonwealth of Nations accelerated, the parliament of the Irish Free State removed direct mention of the monarch from the countrys constitution on the day of his accession. The following year, a new Irish constitution changed the name of the state to Ireland, from 1939, the Empire and Commonwealth – except Ireland – was at war with Nazi Germany. War with Italy and Japan followed in 1940 and 1941, respectively, though Britain and its allies were ultimately victorious in 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union rose as pre-eminent world powers and the British Empire declined. After the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, George remained king of countries, but relinquished the title of Emperor of India in June 1948. Ireland formally declared itself a republic and left the Commonwealth in 1949, George adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth. He was beset by problems in the later years of his reign. He was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Elizabeth II, George was born at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria. His father was Prince George, Duke of York, the second and eldest-surviving son of the Prince and his mother was the Duchess of York, the eldest child and only daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Teck. His birthday was the 34th anniversary of the death of his great-grandfather, Albert, uncertain of how the Prince Consorts widow, Queen Victoria, would take the news of the birth, the Prince of Wales wrote to the Duke of York that the Queen had been rather distressed. Two days later, he again, I really think it would gratify her if you yourself proposed the name Albert to her. Consequently, he was baptised Albert Frederick Arthur George at St. Mary Magdalenes Church near Sandringham three months later, within the family, he was known informally as Bertie
38.
No. 5 Group RAF
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No.5 Group was a Royal Air Force bomber group of the Second World War, led during the latter part by AVM Sir Ralph Cochrane. The Group was formed on 1 September 1937 with headquarters at RAF Mildenhall, in October 1937, the group headquarters was moved to St Vincents Hall in Grantham. Headquarters was moved to Morton Hall at RAF Swinderby in Lincolnshire in November 1943, during the Second World War,5 Group was primarily concentrated in south Lincolnshire,1 Group being more concentrated in north of the same county. Air Vice Marshal Arthur Harris was in here from 11 September 1939 until 22 November 1940. The group started the war with ten squadrons, all equipped with the Handley Page Hampden, the Group continued to fly only Hampdens until the winter of 1940–1941 when it began to convert to the new Avro Manchester. Early in 1942 the four-engined development of the Manchester, the Avro Lancaster, on 17 October 1942 some 865 group Lancasters flew deep into occupied France to attack the Schneider armaments works at Le Creusot and the associated electrical station at Montchanin. On the night of 22–23 October 85 Lancasters of the Group attacked Genoa without a single loss, on 24 October 74 Lancasters delivered a daylight attack on Milan. In May 1943 No.617 Squadron breached two of the Ruhr dams under Operation Chastise, cheshire was subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross and taken off active operations. By mid 1944, using the Stabilizing Automatic Bomb Sight and the 12,000 lb Tallboy bomb,5 Group staff also developed other various techniques, such as the 5 Group corkscrew used to evade enemy fighters, and the quick landing system. The group had some of the most effective squadrons of Bomber Command, personified by No 617 Squadron the Dambusters, most of the groups main airfields were around Lincoln, including RAF Scampton. By the end of the war the group had grown to 15 squadrons, the group was noted for its high accuracy bombing, being involved the sinking of the Tirpitz in November 1944 and the shattering of the strategic Bielefeld railway viaduct in March 1945. The Group introduced new weapons operationally, including Barnes Walliss bouncing and his Tallboy, the group was disbanded on 15 December 1945. Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation – Group Nos 1 –9
39.
Wing commander (rank)
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It is sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a non-English air force-specific rank structure. It ranks immediately above squadron leader and immediately below group captain. It has a NATO ranking code of OF-4, and is equivalent to Commander in the Royal Navy and to Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army, the Royal Marines, and the US Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps. The equivalent rank in the Womens Auxiliary Air Force, Womens Royal Air Force, the equivalent rank in the Royal Observer Corps was observer commander which had a similar rank insignia. In response to the proposal that the RAF should use its own titles, it was suggested that the RAF might use the Royal Navys officer ranks. For example, the rank that later became wing commander would have been air commander and it was also suggested that RAF lieutenant colonels might be entitled reeves or wing-leaders. However, the rank wing commander was chosen as wings were typically commanded by RAF lieutenant colonels. The rank of wing commander has been used continuously since 1 August 1919, in the early years of the RAF, a wing commander commanded a flying wing, typically a group of three or four aircraft squadrons. In current usage a wing commander is more likely to command a wing which is an administrative sub-division of an RAF station, a flying squadron is normally commanded by a wing commander but is occasionally commanded by a squadron leader for small units. In the Air Training Corps, a commander is usually the officer commanding of a wing. The rank insignia is based on the three bands of commanders in the Royal Navy and consists of three narrow light blue bands over slightly wider black bands. This is worn on both the sleeves of the tunic or on the shoulder of the flying suit or the casual uniform. The command pennant is two triangular command pennants used in the RAF, two thin red lines differentiate this one from the other. It is also used in the Egyptian Air Force, Hellenic Air Force, Royal Air Force of Oman, the Royal Canadian Air Force used the rank until the unification of the Canadian Forces in 1968, when army-type rank titles were adopted. A Canadian wing commander became a lieutenant colonel. In official French Canadian usage, a wing commanders rank title was lieutenant-colonel daviation, the rank of wing commander continues to be used as a cadet rank at the Royal Military College of Canada. In the 1990s, the Canadian Forces Air Command altered the structure of those bases under its control, the commander of such an establishment was re-designated as the wing commander. Like the United States Air Force usage, the wing commander is an appointment
40.
Royal Australian Air Force
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The Royal Australian Air Force, formed March 1921, is the aerial warfare branch of the Australian Defence Force. It directly continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps, formed on 22 October 1912, the RAAF provides support across a spectrum of operations such as air superiority, precision strikes, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, air mobility, and humanitarian support. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th centurys major conflicts, thousands of Australians also served with other Commonwealth air forces in Europe. By the time the war ended, a total of 216,900 men and women served in the RAAF, later the RAAF served in the Berlin Airlift, Korean War, Malayan Emergency, Indonesia–Malaysia Confrontation and Vietnam War. More recently, the RAAF has participated in operations in East Timor, the Iraq War, the War in Afghanistan, and the intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq. The RAAF has 259 aircraft, of which 110 are combat aircraft, the RAAF traces its history back to the Imperial Conference held in London in 1911, where it was decided aviation should be developed within the armed forces of the British Empire. By 1914 the corps was known as the Australian Flying Corps, soon after the outbreak of war in 1914, the Australian Flying Corps sent aircraft to assist in capturing German colonies in what is now north-east New Guinea. However, these colonies surrendered quickly, before the planes were even unpacked, the first operational flights did not occur until 27 May 1915, when the Mesopotamian Half Flight was called upon to assist the Indian Army in protecting British oil interests in what is now Iraq. The corps later saw action in Egypt, Palestine and on the Western Front throughout the remainder of the First World War, by the end of the war, four squadrons—Nos. 1,2,3 and 4—had seen operational service, while another four training squadrons—Nos,5,6,7 and 8—had also been established. A total of 460 officers and 2,234 other ranks served in the AFC, casualties included 175 dead,111 wounded,6 gassed and 40 captured. The Australian Flying Corps remained part of the Australian Army until 1919, although the Central Flying School continued to operate at Point Cook, military flying virtually ceased until 1920, when the Australian Air Corps was formed. The Australian Air Force was formed on 31 March 1921, king George V approved the prefix Royal in June 1921 and became effective on 31 August 1921. The RAAF then became the second Royal air arm to be formed in the British Commonwealth, when formed the RAAF had more aircraft than personnel, with 21 officers and 128 other ranks and 153 aircraft. A total of 17 RAAF bomber, fighter, reconnaissance and other squadrons served initially in Britain and with the Desert Air Force located in North Africa, thousands of Australians also served with other Commonwealth air forces in Europe during the Second World War. About nine percent of the personnel who served under British RAF commands in Europe and this statistic is further illustrated by the fact that No.460 Squadron RAAF, mostly flying Avro Lancasters, had an official establishment of about 200 aircrew and yet had 1,018 combat deaths. The squadron was therefore effectively wiped out five times over, total RAAF casualties in Europe were 5,488 killed or missing. The beginning of the Pacific War—and the rapid advance of Japanese forces—threatened the Australian mainland for the first time in its history, the RAAF was quite unprepared for the emergency, and initially had negligible forces available for service in the Pacific
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Royal Canadian Air Force
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The Royal Canadian Air Force is the air force of Canada. Its role is to provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower, the RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Canadian Armed Forces. Lieutenant-General Michael J. Hood, CMM CD, is the current Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force, the RCAF is a partner with the United States Air Force in protecting continental airspace under the North American Aerospace Defense Command. The RCAF also provides all primary air resources to and is responsible for the National Search, the RCAF traces its history to the Canadian Air Force which was formed in 1920. The Canadian Air Force was incorporated in 1923 and granted royal sanction in 1924 by King George V, in 1968 the RCAF was amalgamated with the Royal Canadian Navy, and the Canadian Army, as part of the unification of the Canadian Forces. Air units were split between several different commands, Air Defence Command, Air Transport Command, Mobile Command, Maritime Command, in 1975 some commands were dissolved, and all air units were placed under a new environmental command called simply Air Command. Air Command reverted to its name of the Royal Canadian Air Force in August 2011. The Royal Canadian Air Force has served in the Second World War, the Korean War, as a NATO member, the force maintained a presence in Europe during the second half of the 20th century. The Canadian Air Force was established in 1920 as the successor to a short-lived two-squadron Canadian Air Force formed during the First World War in Europe. John Scott Williams, MC, AFC, was tasked in 1921 with organizing the CAF, the new Canadian Air Force was a branch of the Air Board and was chiefly a training militia that provided refresher training to veteran pilots. Many CAF members also worked with the Air Boards Civil Operations Branch on operations that included forestry, in 1923, the CAF became responsible for all flying operations in Canada, including civil aviation. In 1924, the Canadian Air Force, was granted the royal title, most of its work was civil in nature, however, in the late 1920s the RCAF evolved into more of a military organization. After budget cuts in the early 1930s, the air began to rebuild. By the end of the war, the RCAF had become the fourth largest allied air force, after the war, the RCAF reduced its strength. In 1950, the RCAF became involved with the transport of troops and supplies to the Korean War, however, members of the RCAF served in USAF units as exchange officers and several flew in combat. Both auxiliary and regular air defence squadrons were run by Air Defence Command, at the same time, the Pinetree Line, the Mid-Canada Line and the DEW Line radar stations, largely operated by the RCAF, were built across Canada because of the growing Soviet nuclear threat. In 1957, Canada and the United States created the joint North American Air Defense Command, coastal defence and peacekeeping also became priorities during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1968 the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Air Force and this initiative was overseen by then Liberal Defence Minister, Paul Hellyer
United Kingdom
Germany
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