Page 8 - Fighter Command News Today

Since end of WWII the major role played by the 5th Fighter Command in winning the war in the Pacific has been almost totally neglected. Wolf puts the air campaigns into strategic and tactical context, then breaks down every daily air battle into Fighter Groups and Squadrons using unit Narrative Combat Reports. Daily battles are then described by flights, elements, and individual pilots using over 9,000 newly released documents. Vol.1 describes the 5FC precursors in the Philippines, Java, and Au...

Published: February 24, 2021 at 7:03 am At the height of the battle of Dunkirk in May 1940, the brilliant New Zealander Al Deere was on patrol in his RAF Spitfire over the French coast. Suddenly, through the haze of smoke drifting upwards from the raging combat on the ground, he spotted a German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter below him. He instantly gave chase. Soon, both planes were descending earthwards at high speed. “Down we went, throttles fully open, engines roaring and each det...

How World War II Revolutionized Aerial Warfare The strategic bomber offensive over Europe pitted some of the world’s most advanced bombers against some of its most advanced fighters. Heres What You Need to Know: The Allies had enough of an economic advantage that they could afford to pour remarkable amounts of men and material into the air war. When war broke out in September 1939, none of the combatants were prepared to fight in the way that they wanted. The British lacked the heavy bombers...

The Battle of Britian was a rough time, but London won the day. Key point: The RAF had spunk, determination, and the blunders of Berlin on its side. Here is how the British survived and won the skies of World War II. It was a battle fought without armies. No rifles, no tanks, no barbed wire. In the summer of 1940, the skies above Britain served as the battlefield for the British Royal Air Force and the German Luftwaffe. The Nazis had conquered most of Western Europe, and Britain stood alone. T...

Castletown wartime memento to feature in Highland-wide podcast By Gordon Calder  |  Updated: 15:33, 18 February 2021 Get the Courier and Groat sent to your inbox every week and swipe through an exact replica of the days newspaper The Custer tablecloth made by Isobel Custer features the signatures of 125 airmen. Picture: Neil Buchan / Castletown Heritage Society A unique and poignant wartime memento containing the signatures of 125 airmen who were based at RAF Castletown during World War II...

Joan Potts, WAAF who served with Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain – obituary She worked in the filter room, where inputs from radar units, Royal Observer Corps and patrols were analysed and passed to the plotting room Joan Potts Joan Potts, who has died aged 102, was an early volunteer for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in the Second World War; she served in a Fighter Command operations room during the Battle of Britain, before being commissioned and training others in f...

An Australian fighter pilots committed a terrible act of violence against his baby son and now there is a push by that son to give him a war memorial.

A man whose WWII pilot father shot him in the head as a one-year-old has successfully campaigned for his late dad to get a $2,000 memorial plaque. The plate for WWII fighter pilot Robert Bungey, who took his own life shortly after shooting his baby son Richard, was granted by Holdfast council in Adelaide, South Australia. Councillor and family friend Rosemary Clancy opposed the plaque because she did not want to commemorate someone who had perpetrated domestic violence.   Richard Bungeys WWI...

JOHNNIE Johnson had just the right name for a Spitfire pilot. It simply oozed Old School derring-do. But that was just the start of it, because Johnson, son of a Leicestershire policeman, also possessed enormous courage, tactical nous and an invincibility that combined to make him the top scoring RAF fighter ace of the Second World War. Now two new books by acclaimed Worcester war historian Dilip Sarkar explore the man behind the legend and flesh out his amazing  aerial exploits. Johnnie J...

Move Over, Red Baron: This World War II Fighter Group Scored 500+ Kills The Thunderbolt’s extreme toughness and pulverizing firepower made it the obvious selection to send after the dwindling Luftwaffe on the ground. Heres What You Need To Remember: If his fate had been slightly different, Colonel Hubert Zemke could have been one of the most proficient flying aces in the Luftwaffe instead of the USAAF. On May 4, 1943, the U.S. Army Air Forces’ 56th Fighter Group was ordered to meet a forma...