|
1942 Herefordshire TRE Halifax Crash
V9977 was an Handley Page Halifax II that had been sent to the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) at RAF Defford to be used as a flying testbed for the H2S radar. On the afternoon of 7 June 1942, one of its Rolls-Royce Merlin engines caught fire and led to the aircraft crashing near the England-Wales border, killing all eleven crew-members. Among the dead was Alan Blumlein of EMI, who was well known as the inventor of stereophonic sound recording and the 405-line television system used in the UK until 1985. Investigators determined that improper engine maintenance/assembly procedures caused the accident. It remains the deadliest crash in the history of military test flight in the UK. History Construction V9977 was an early model Halifax II, which introduced the more powerful Merlin XX engine and a number of other detail changes over the original model. Chosen for H2S At a meeting on 23 December 1941, the Secretary of State for Air, Archibald Sinclair, directed the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
June 1942
The following events occurred in June 1942: June 1, 1942 (Monday) *Adolf Hitler visited Army Group South's headquarters at Poltava to confirm plans for the upcoming summer offensive. *Hermann Hoth assumed command of the German 4th Panzer Army while Richard Ruoff took command of the 17th Army. *The Australian depot ship '' Kuttabul'' was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine ''M-24'' during the attack on Sydney Harbour. *The Grand Coulee Dam opened on the Columbia River. *Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, as predecessor of metals and mining manufacturing brand, Vale was founded in Brazil. June 2, 1942 (Tuesday) *During the Siege of Sevastopol, the German 11th Army began a massive five-day artillery barrage on the fortress city using 620 guns including the enormous 800mm Schwerer Gustav "Dora" gun. *German submarine '' U-652'' was depth charged and damaged in the Gulf of Sollum by Fairey Swordfish aircraft and had to be scuttled. *Born: **Eduard Malofeyev, footballer and coac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avro Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stirling, all three aircraft being four-engined heavy bombers adopted by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the same wartime era. The Lancaster has its origins in the twin-engine Avro Manchester which had been developed during the late 1930s in response to the Air Ministry Specification P.13/36 for a medium bomber for "world-wide use" which could carry a torpedo internally, and make shallow dive-bombing attacks. Originally developed as an evolution of the Manchester (which had proved troublesome in service and was retired in 1942), the Lancaster was designed by Roy Chadwick and powered by four Rolls-Royce Merlins and in one of the versions, Bristol Hercules engines. It first saw service with RAF Bomber Command in 1942 and as the strategic bom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cheltenham
Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the most complete Regency town in Britain. The town hosts several festivals of culture, often featuring nationally and internationally famous contributors and attendees; they include the Cheltenham Literature Festival, the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, the Cheltenham Science Festival, the Cheltenham Music Festival, the Cheltenham Cricket Festival and the Cheltenham Food & Drink Festival. In steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup is the main event of the Cheltenham Festival, held every March. History Cheltenham stands on the small River Chelt, which rises nearby at Dowdeswell and runs through the town on its way to the Severn. It was first recorded in 803, as ''Celtan hom''; the meaning has not been resol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east of the border with Wales. Including suburban areas, Gloucester has a population of around 132,000. It is a port, linked via the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal to the Severn Estuary. Gloucester was founded by the Romans and became an important city and '' colony'' in AD 97 under Emperor Nerva as '' Colonia Glevum Nervensis''. It was granted its first charter in 1155 by Henry II. In 1216, Henry III, aged only nine years, was crowned with a gilded iron ring in the Chapter House of Gloucester Cathedral. Gloucester's significance in the Middle Ages is underlined by the fact that it had a number of monastic establishments, including: St Peter's Abbey founded in 679 (later Gloucester Cathedral), the nearby St Oswald's Priory, Glo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malvern, Worcestershire
Malvern is a spa town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England. It lies at the foot of the Malvern Hills, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The centre of Malvern, Great Malvern, is a historic conservation area, which grew dramatically in Victorian times due to the natural mineral water springs in the vicinity, including Malvern Water. At the 2011 census it had a population of 29,626. It includes Great Malvern on the steep eastern flank of the Malvern Hills, as well as the former independent urban district of Malvern Link. Many of the major suburbs and settlements that comprise the town are separated by large tracts of open common land and fields, and together with smaller civil parishes adjoining the town's boundaries and the hills, the built up area is often referred to collectively as The Malverns. Archaeological evidence suggests that Bronze Age people had settled in the area around 1000 BC, although it is not known whether these settlements were permane ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bristol Blenheim
The Bristol Blenheim is a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company (Bristol) which was used extensively in the first two years of the Second World War, with examples still being used as trainers until the end of the war. Development began with the ''Type 142'', a civil airliner, in response to a challenge from Lord Rothermere to produce the fastest commercial aircraft in Europe. The ''Type 142'' first flew in April 1935, and the Air Ministry, impressed by its performance, ordered a modified design as the ''Type 142M'' for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a bomber. Deliveries of the newly named Blenheim to RAF squadrons commenced on 10 March 1937. In service the Type 142M became the Blenheim Mk.I which would be developed into the longer Type 149, designated the Blenheim Mk.IV, except in Canada where Fairchild Canada built the Type 149 under licence as the Bolingbroke. The Type 160 Bisley was also developed from the Blenheim, but was already o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leeson House
Leeson House is a field studies centre in the village of Langton Matravers in the heart of the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, England. The Isle of Purbeck forms part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, designated in 2001. Run as a day and residential centre by Dorset County Council Outdoor Education Service it has been providing environmental education since 1966. History There has probably been a dwelling of some sort on or near the site of the present house since Saxon times. The site was recorded in the ''Domesday book'' as 'Lestington', meaning "the farm of the followers of Lest". In 1805 Reverend John Dampier knocked down most of the farmhouse and built a new home, calling it Leeson house. He later sold it to the wealthy Garland family from Poole to use as a second home. In 1903, it was sold again and became a boarding school for girls. In 1940, the girls were sent home during World War II. The house was taken over by the Air Ministry and was used for top secret Rada ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perspex
Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite, Astariglas, Lucite, Perclax, and Perspex, among several others ( see below). This plastic is often used in sheet form as a lightweight or shatter-resistant alternative to glass. It can also be used as a casting resin, in inks and coatings, and for many other purposes. Although not a type of familiar silica-based glass, the substance, like many thermoplastics, is often technically classified as a type of glass, in that it is a non-crystalline vitreous substance—hence its occasional historic designation as ''acrylic glass''. Chemically, it is the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate. It was developed in 1928 in several different laboratories by many chemists, such as William Chalmers, Otto Röhm, and Walter Bauer, and first brought ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Hurn
Royal Air Force Hurn or more simply RAF Hurn is a former Royal Air Force station located approximately north west of Christchurch, Dorset, England Opened in 1941, it was used by both the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces. During the war it was used primarily as a transport and fighter airfield. Hurn was the final airfield in England for aircraft flying to Morocco for the North African and Italian campaigns, avoiding France, Spain and Portugal airspace. Since 1969, it has also been called Bournemouth Airport. The RAF have returned to Hurn in the form of a temporary Outsourcing Contract for Multi-Engine Pilot Training to cope with limited capacity through normal Training Provisions using L3 Harris Airline Academy (2018 -). RAF use The following squadrons were here at some point Units: USAAF use Hurn was known as USAAF Station AAF-492 for security reasons by the USAAF during the war, and by which it was referred to instead of location. Its USAAF Station ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prime Minister Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924. Of mixed English and American parentage, Churchill was born in Oxfordshire to a wealthy, aristocratic family. He joined the British Army in 1895 and saw action in British India, the Anglo-Sudan War, and the Second Boer War, gaining fame as a war correspondent and writing books about his campaigns. Elected a Conservative MP in 1900, he defected to the Liberals in 1904. In H. H. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nash & Thompson
Nash & Thompson was a British engineering firm that developed and produced hydraulically operated gun turrets for aircraft. As part of Parnall Aircraft it was also an important manufacturer of hydraulic-powered radar scanners used on radar systems such as H2S and AI Mark VIII. Nash & Thompson also designed the hydraulically-powered turret traversing systems that were used in British Cruiser tanks from the A9 - the first tank with a powered turret traverse - through to the Cromwell. History Nash & Thompson was established in 1929 at Kingston upon Thames by business partners Archibald Goodman Frazer Nash and Esmonde Grattan ThompsonEsmonde Grattan Thompson died Roquebrune, Cap-Martin 19 January 1960, Managing Director of Parnall Aircraft. Obituary, ''The Times'', Wednesday, 20 January 1960; p. 15; Issue 54673 Nash & Thompson developed the hydraulic gun turrets that Frazer-Nash invented and his designs were consequently numbered in a series prefixed with "FN". Parnall Airc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albert Rowe (physicist)
Albert Percival Rowe, CBE (23 March 1898 – 25 May 1976), often known as Jimmy Rowe or A. P. Rowe, was a radar pioneer and university vice-chancellor. A British physicist and senior research administrator, he played a major role in the development of radar before and during World War II. Early years Rowe was born in Launceston, Cornwall, and after attending the Portsmouth Naval Dockyard School, he studied physics at the Royal College of Science, University of London, graduating with a first-class honours in 1921, and postgraduate diploma in air navigation in 1922. On 18 June 1932 at Beckenham, Kent, he married Mary Gordon Mathews, a solicitor. Air defence and radar In the Air Ministry he read up everything he could find on the art of air defence, and became alarmed. Working at that time for Harry Wimperis, he wrote a memo to him that concluded that "we were likely to lose the war if it starts within the next ten years". Wimperis took the report seriously, and in 1934 started th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_drawn_and_engraved_under_the_direction_of_Edward_Wedlake_Brayley.jpg "Click for more on -> Gloucester")
