 |
Contents Listing - Articles & Features in this issue
A SECOND HOMECOMING When Pilot Officer W.H.G. Gordon of 234 Squadron was shot down and killed during the Battle of Britain it was, sadly, a far from uncommon event for the period. But what followed immediately thereafter, and in subsequent years, was the unravelling of a highly unusual tale. Here, Andy Saunders uncovers the events surrounding the loss of Pilot Officer Gordon during 1940. CORSAIRS IN THE LAKE Andy Saunders tells the story behind the discovery of a pair of Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Vought Corsair fighters discovered in Lake Sebago, Maine, USA. The aircraft are on the bottom of the lake at a depth of 325 feet. The pair of fighters had collided during a May 1944 training flight, killing 19-year-old pilots Raymond Knott and Reginald Gill. KOHIMA: THE BATTLE FOR THE TENINIS COURT At the beginning of April 1944, the Japanese advance towards India was well underway. For four months the small hill-top Naga village of Kohima was the scene of bitter fighting, fighting which consumed the lives of so many and led to the award of two VCs. Incredibly, the Allied units held off the almost overwhelming Japanese forces and India was saved. James Luto explains how one tank and a tennis court would go down in history. A COSTLY DELAY On 31 January 1944 the nineteen ships of Convoy CW.243 were steaming west in the English Channel when they were attacked by a force of German E-boats. It was an attack that cost the lives of forty-nine men and three ships - losses which could have been avoided, reveals Kendall McDonald, if a vital warning message had not been delayed. THREE IN ONE In a combined naval and air assault, on 30 July 1943, British forces succeeded all three U-boats of one small group that had been surprised whilst surfaced in the Bay of Biscay. Alexander Nicoll reveals what happened. GARDENING FOR VICTORY Look at any Bomber Command log book or report from the Second World War, and you may find a list of codenames - Nickels, Bulls Eyes, and Gardening. As Derek Gandy discovers, The later hides a substantial contribution to the Allied war effort. AFTER THE FALL The final chapter in the destruction of the Third Reich began on 16 April 1945 when Stalin unleashed the brutal power of twenty armies, 6,300 tanks and 8,500 aircraft with the objective of crushing German resistance and capturing Berlin. Soon after the German surrender, a number of British personnel were able to make their way into the German capital. One of those men was the BBC War Correspondent Richard Dimbleby. John Grehan describes what he saw! THE SECOND CHRISTMAS TRUCE The unofficial cessations of hostilities that occurred along the Western Front during Christmas 1914, the so-called Christmas Truce, are famous. Less so are those that took place the following year. Despite official attempts to stifle any fraternization, some encounters still took place in No Man's Land on the Western Front. THE CAPTURE OF NUIMBER 6 Motor Torpedo Boat No.6 was a Norwegian-crewed MTB operating with a British Flotilla in the English Channel. During one mission off the French coast, MTB 06 was abandoned by its crew who believed it would sink. But it did not, and was subsequently washed ashore and captured by the Germans. DATAFILE It was the Royal Naval Air Service which raised the first British armoured car squadron during the First World War using Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts. It was the birth of a legend; a legend which gave rise to the Rolls-Royce 1920 Pattern Mk.I armoured car. Ten Things You Probably Didn't Know About ... THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL MOUNTBATTEN OF BURMA KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC was, writes Bill Gill, a member of the Royal Family who served in the Royal Navy in both world wars.
Article Snippets
Can you provide something to add to this area?
This part of the page works like a Wikipedia entry - we welcome contributions from anyone to improve the usefulness of this page
Click the '?' above for more information.
Adverts and Links based on this content
Advertisement