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Army Cooperation Command
The RAF Army Co-operation Command was a short-lived command of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, comprising the army cooperation units of the RAF. The command was formed on 1 December 1940 when No. 22 (Army Co-Operation) Group, previously a part of Fighter Command, was raised to command status. Initially it controlled two groups: No. 70 Group RAF for training and No. 71 Group RAF for operations. In August 1941, 71 Group re-organized its squadrons into a Wing basis. Each wing was directly attached to a UK based Army regional Command. Its function was to act as the focus for activities connected with the interaction of the British Army and the RAF, such as close air support, tactical reconnaissance, artillery spotting and training of anti-aircraft defences. It was also responsible for developing tactics for the invasion of Europe, where direct air support proved to be decisive.Delve 1994, p. 100. Army Co-Operation Command proved to be controversial, with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ensign Of The Royal Air Force
An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be different from the civil ensign (merchant ships) or the yacht ensign (recreational boats). Large versions of naval ensigns called battle ensigns are used when a warship goes into battle. The ensign differs from the jack (flag), jack, which is flown from a jackstaff at the bow of a vessel. In its widest sense, an ensign is just a flag or other standard. The European military rank of Ensign (rank), ensign, once responsible for bearing a unit's standard (whether national or regimental), derives from it (in the cavalry, the equivalent rank was Cornet (rank), cornet, named after a type of flag). Ensigns, such as the ancient Roman ensigns in the Arch of Constantine, are not always flags. National ensigns In nautical use, the ensign is flown on a shi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Macmerry
Royal Air Force Macmerry or more simply RAF Macmerry is a former Royal Air Force satellite station located west of Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland and east of Edinburgh. It was situated immediately to the north east of Macmerry on the north side of the A1 road. It has also been called RNAS Macmerry (when used by the Royal Navy) and unofficially RAF Tranent and RAF Penston during its life. History A landing ground known as Penston was used by the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. Subsequently, an adjacent site was developed as Macmerry airfield by the Edinburgh Flying Club, and this was used for scheduled flights by North Eastern Airways from 1936 to 1939. In 1942 Macmerry was expanded to encompass the former Penston site. Civil flying ceased with the outbreak of the Second World War, and the airfield was taken over by the RAF as a satellite to the nearby fighter station RAF Drem, although its role was soon expanded to other uses. From March 1941 until J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Weston Zoyland
RAF Westonzoyland is one of the country's oldest airfields being established in the early 1920s. Somerset, England. The airfield is located approximately east-southeast of Bridgwater; about west-southwest of London. It was opened in 1925 with summer camps lasting from May until September each year. It was later used by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces. During the war it was used primarily as an army co-operation airfield but several squadrons were based there with a variety of aircraft, including Spitfires, Hurricanes and Mosquitos. Gloster Meteor jets were stationed there for a short time before moving to RAF Culmhead in Somerset. After being stood down in 1947 it was recommissioned in 1952 as a Meteor jet training station to support the demands of the Korean War. It was home to No. 209 Advanced Flying School RAF whose pupils included future Air Chief Marshals Lord Craig and Sir Patrick Hine. Today the remains of the airfield are a mixture of farmlan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salisbury
Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wiltshire, near the edge of Salisbury Plain. Salisbury Cathedral was formerly north of the city at Old Sarum. The cathedral was relocated and a settlement grew up around it, which received a city charter in 1227 as . This continued to be its official name until 2009, when Salisbury City Council was established. Salisbury railway station is an interchange between the West of England Main Line and the Wessex Main Line. Stonehenge is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is northwest of Salisbury. Name The name ''Salisbury'', which is first recorded around the year 900 as ''Searoburg'' ( dative ''Searobyrig''), is a partial translation of the Roman Celtic name ''Sorbiodūnum''. The Brittonic suffix ''-dūnon'', meaning "fortress" (in reference ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Croydon
Croydon Airport (former ICAO code: EGCR) was the UK's only international airport during the interwar period. Located in Croydon, South London, England, it opened in 1920, built in a Neoclassical style, and was developed as Britain's main airport, handling more cargo, mail, and passengers than any other UK airport at the time. Innovations at the site included the world's first air traffic control and the first airport terminal. During World War II the airport was named RAF Croydon as its role changed to that of a fighter airfield during the Battle of Britain; and in 1943 RAF Transport Command was founded at the site, which used the airport to transport thousands of troops into and out of Europe. After the Second World War, its role returned to civil aviation, but the role of London's primary international airport passed to London Heathrow Airport. Croydon Airport closed in 1959. It had been known under eight different names while it was active. In 1978, the terminal buildin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Odiham
RAF Odiham is a Royal Air Force station situated a little to the south of the village of Odiham in Hampshire, England. It is the home of the Royal Air Force's heavy lift helicopter, the Chinook, and of the King’s Helicopter Flight (TKHF) . Its current station commander is Group Captain Donal McGurk. History Aircraft operations began from the site in 1925 but it was not until October 1937 that it was opened as a permanent airfield. Second World War During the Second World War North American Mustangs and Hawker Typhoons were flown out of the base. After the Allied invasion of Europe the site became a prisoner of war camp. * No. 2 Squadron RAF operated the Mustang I between 7 August 1943 and 22 September 1943 and again between 6 October 1943 and 14 November 1943. ** The squadron returned on 27 June 1944 with the Mustang II before leaving on 29 July 1944. * No. 4 Squadron RAF using the Hawker Hector and the Westland Lysander I between 16 February 1936 and 24 September 1939. ** ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
400 Tactical Helicopter Squadron
400 "City of Toronto" Tactical Helicopter and Training Squadron is part of 1 Wing, and as such a lodger unit of Canadian Forces Base Borden. The squadron operates the CH-146 Griffon. History The squadron was formed as No. 10 Army Co-Operation Squadron at Toronto, Ontario on 5 October 1932, when it flew from the Trethewey Farm Airfield (De Lesseps Field) from 1934 to 1939. On 15 November 1937, it was renumbered No. 110 "City of Toronto" Army Co-Operation Squadron. When the squadron was called out on active service 3 September 1939, it first deployed to CFB Rockcliffe (now Ottawa/Rockcliffe Airport), Ottawa, Ontario for conversion to the Westland Lysander aircraft. The new commanding officer (CO) at that time was S/L Wilbur Dennison Van Vliet, an experienced peacetime flier. By early February 1940, the squadron was ready to depart to the UK, travelling by rail to Halifax and then by steamship across the Atlantic on 15 February. The squadron was the first Royal Canadian Air Forc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Gatwick
Gatwick Airport was in Surrey until 1974, when it became part of West Sussex as a result of a county boundary change. The original, pre-World War II airport was built on the site of a manor in the parish of Charlwood. The land was first used as an aerodrome in the 1920s, and in 1933 commercial flights there were approved by the Air Ministry. Origins * 1241: First record of the name "Gatwick" (as "Gatwik"). Gatwick was a manor in the parish of Charlwood, a village in Surrey. Gatwick manor house (not the same as the present Gatwick Manor Hotel) was on the site of today's airport, on the northern edge of the North Terminal's aircraft taxiing area; until the 19th century, it was owned by the De Gatwick family."Gatwick Airport History", Business & Community Reference Guide for in and around Crawley 2008/09, Wealden Marketing, 2008, p. 85 Its name derives from the Old English ''gāt'' (goat) and ''wīc'' (dairy farm); i.e. "goat farm". * 12 July 1841: The London and Brighton Railway ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reigate
Reigate ( ) is a town status in the United Kingdom, town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earliest archaeological evidence for human activity is from the Paleolithic and Neolithic, and during the Roman Britain, Roman period, tile making took place to the north east of the modern centre. A motte-and-bailey castle was erected in Reigate in the late 11th or early 12th century. It was originally constructed of lumber, timber, but the curtain walls were rebuilt in stone about a century later. In the first half of the 13th century, an Augustinians, Augustinian priory was founded to the south of the modern town centre. The priory was dissolution of the monasteries, closed during the English Reformation, Reformation and was rebuilt as a private residence for William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham, William Howard, the 1st Baron Howard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Snailwell
Royal Air Force Snailwell or more simply RAF Snailwell is a former Royal Air Force station located near to the village of Snailwell, Cambridgeshire, located north of Newmarket, Suffolk, England. History * USAAF 347th Fighter Squadron Operational Royal Air Force units and aircraft * No. 56 Squadron RAF (1942) - Hawker Typhoon IA and IB. * No. 137 Squadron RAF (1942) - Westland Whirlwind I. * No. 152 (Hyderabad) Squadron RAF (1941) - Supermarine Spitfire IIA. * No. 168 Squadron RAF (1942) - Curtiss Tomahawk II. * No. 170 Squadron RAF (1943) - North American Mustang I. * No. 181 Squadron RAF (1943) - Hawker Typhoon IB. * No. 182 Squadron RAF (1943) - Hawker Typhoon IB. * No. 183 (Gold Coast) Squadron RAF (1943) - Hawker Typhoon IB. * No. 184 Squadron RAF (1943) - Hawker Hurricane IV. * No. 247 (China-British) Squadron RAF (1943) - Hawker Typhoon IB. * No. 268 Squadron RAF (1941) - Curtiss Tomahawk IIA. * No. 268 Squadron RAF (1942) - North American Mustang I. * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Sawbridgeworth
Royal Air Force Sawbridgeworth or RAF Sawbridgeworth is a former Royal Air Force station located north of Harlow, Essex and east of Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England. The airfield was used during the First World War as a night landing ground for fighter aircraft of the Home Defence squadrons protecting London against attacks from German airships. During the inter-war period it was occasionally used for glider and civilian flying until 1937 when it became Mathams Wood Advanced Landing Ground (named after the nearby wooded area). In 1940 it was renamed RAF Sawbridgeworth after correspondence between the 2(AC) Squadron (and station) Commanding Officer Wing Commander A. J. W. Geddes and the Air Ministry in London. It ceased active operations in 1944 and, after a number of ground-based units operated from the site, was finally closed in mid-1946 and safeguarding relinquished by the RAF in May 1956. Station history First World War A large field west of Shingle Hall farm was used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Bottisham
Royal Air Force Bottisham or more simply RAF Bottisham is a former Royal Air Force station located east of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. History RAF Fighter Command use RAF Bottisham opened in March 1940 and was first used by bomb-armed de Havilland Tiger Moths transferred from No. 22 Elementary Flying Training School RAF (EFTS) to be prepared for possible anti-invasion duties. From October 1940 the airfield was used by 22 EFTS Tiger Moths as a Relief Landing Ground until 1941. With the departure of the Tiger Moths, Bottisham was transferred to 241 Sqn Army Co-operation Command with Westland Lysanders, Curtiss Tomahawks, North American Mustang Mk 1's, moved to Ayr. From 15 June 1942, the airfield was used by No. 652 Squadron RAF and No. 168 Squadron RAF. A number of other Royal Air Force squadrons used the airfield before it was turned over to the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF): * No. 2 Squadron RAF between 31 January 1943 and 19 March 1943 with detachments ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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