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Posts tagged with RAF

  1. The first one: August 25th, 1940

    2019-05-01 17:50:00 UTC

    ‘They had bombed London, whether on purpose or not, and the British people and London especially should know that we could hit back. It would be good for the morale of us all’. – Winston S Churchill –  Photo: © IWM (H-3514). The prelude: LondonDuring the early…

  2. Big X!

    2019-03-24 19:49:00 UTC

    • THE GREAT ESCAPE •Tonight marks the 75th anniversary of the famous ‘Great Escape’, the massive jailbreak from a German prisoners camp by Allied airmen in Poland [Squadron Leader Richard Churchill, RAF bomber pilot, seen here through the entrance of one of the three tunnels digged. He…

  3. ‘Cookie’ delivery to Berlin

    2019-03-11 17:17:00 UTC

    26 million of German people lost their homes during the war, just in Berlin 600,000 apartments were destroyed, half of all houses were damaged and around a third uninhabitable, as much as 16 km² of the city was simply rubble. When the war came to an end in May 1945…

  4. Bombensturm! (Part IV)

    2019-02-05 20:18:00 UTC

    HC Bombs [RAF ground crew push a 4,000-lb blast-bomb towards the bomb-bay of a Vickers Wellington of No 75 (NZ) Squadron at RAF Feltwell in May, 1942.] Photo: Imperial War Museums © IWM (TR 11). The strategic method to destroy German cities employed by Bomber Command in area bombings was…

  5. The RAF strikes the Opera

    2019-01-08 19:26:00 UTC

    9 / 10 APRIL 1941 On that night, Wednesday, RAF Bomber Command launched an operation against ‘the Big City’. The mixed attacking force comprised 80 bombers - 36 Wellingtons, 24 Hampdens, 17 Whitleys and 3 of the new Short Stirling heavy bomber. This was the first raid on…

  6. The Opera - Hitlers favourite

    2018-12-29 22:37:56 UTC

    If there was a building at Berlin favourite for the Führer that was the Opera… Its importance and history, its location in Berlin Mitte in the middle of Unter den Linden Avenue, and its musicians, made it a symbol of the city. A symbol raised to the altars by…

  7. Zerstörung am Haus der Schweiz

    2018-12-09 18:23:37 UTC

    During the war, this zone was severely damaged by Allied bombings, the building was hit on the evening of 9/10 April 1941 during the raid made by RAF British bombers which affected many areas in Berlin-Mitte including the famous Staatsoper den Linden. Some bombs hit this area on February…

  8. Bombensturm! (Part III)

    2018-06-12 21:51:00 UTC

    MC Bombs: [Armourers from No 97 Squadron preparing MC-bombs on their trolleys to be loaded onto a Lancaster bomber on July 1943 at RAF Waddington.] The limited and inadequate arsenal of bombs composed of the high explosive GP (general purpose) bombs (10-15% detonation failure rate) made British Bomber Command to…

  9. Bombensturm! (Part II)

    2018-05-03 12:37:00 UTC

    The Incendiary Bombs [Haus Vaterland (“Fatherland House”) burns following a night raid on 22/23 November 1943 by British RAF bombers. The building was a pleasure palace on the southwest side of Potsdamer Platz. At left, a S-Bahn signal post.] Photo: Ullstein bild / Archiv Golejewski Incendiaries (IB), usually…

  10. Feuer!

    2018-04-23 19:53:04 UTC

    Fire, as Bomber Command well knew, was the biggest destroyer of property On 23 September 1941, Britain’s Air Staff produced a report detailing the effectiveness of German incendiary attacks on Britain and recommending that fire be a central feature of Bomber Command attacks. The key lesson to be…

  11. Bombensturm!

    2018-03-18 20:20:39 UTC

    When British Bomber Command went to war in 1939 it found itself equipped with a very limited and inadequate arsenal of bombs. General Purpose GP Bombs:The high explosive GP (general purpose) bombs, developed from 1935, were the initial arsenal Bomber Command had to carry destruction to Third Reich soil…

  12. The Whitley

    2017-07-12 10:09:00 UTC

    The Armstrong Whitworth Whitley was one of the three ‘strategic’ bomber types with which Britain went to war in September 1939. The Whitley was conceived as a night ‘heavy’ bomber and was RAF’s first monoplane bomber and the first one to penetrate in German airspace.  [An in-flight view of Whitley…

  13. The Flying Suitcase

    2017-06-01 15:05:31 UTC

    One of the three bombers types beside Wellingtons and Whitleys which participated on the first British attack over Berlin in August 1940 was the Handley-Page Hampden, model HP 52.  [A two-ship formation of Handley P Hampdens from No 44 Squadron RAF over England.] [Photo: LIFE images.] That first night…
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