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Lakenheath Air Base
Royal Air Force Lakenheath or RAF Lakenheath is a Royal Air Force station near the village of Lakenheath in Suffolk, England, UK, north-east of Mildenhall and west of Thetford. The base also sits close to Brandon. Despite being an RAF station, Lakenheath currently only hosts United States Air Force (USAF) units and personnel. The host wing is the 48th Fighter Wing (48 FW), also known as the Liberty Wing, assigned to United States Air Forces in Europe - Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFAFRICA). The wing operates the F-15E Strike Eagle and the F-35A Lightning II. History First World War The first use of Lakenheath Warren as a Royal Flying Corps airfield was during the First World War, when the area was made into a bombing and ground-attack range for aircraft flying from RFC Feltwell and RFC Thetford. Second World War In 1940, the Air Ministry selected Lakenheath as an alternative for nearby RAF Mildenhall and used it as a decoy airfield. Surfaced runways were constructed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eriswell
Eriswell is a village and civil parish of West Suffolk in the English county of Suffolk. About forty scattered archaeological finds have been made here, including Bronze Age battle axes, palstaves and rapiers. The greater part of these objects have been entrusted to the Moyse's Hall Museum in Bury St Edmunds while other items are in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge. See also * Forest Heath Forest Heath was a local government district in Suffolk, England. Its council was based in Mildenhall. Other towns in the district included Newmarket. The population of the district at the 2011 Census was 59,748. The district's name reflect ... - civil parishes References External links Villages in Suffolk Forest Heath Civil parishes in Suffolk {{Suffolk-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24,340./ There has been a settlement at Thetford since the Iron Age, and parts of the town predate the Norman Conquest; Thetford Castle was established shortly thereafter. Roger Bigod founded the Cluniac Priory of St Mary in 1104, which became the largest and most important religious institution in Thetford. The town was badly hit by the Dissolution of the Monasteries, including the castle's destruction, but was rebuilt in 1574 when Elizabeth I established a town charter. After World War II, Thetford became an "overspill town", taking people from London, as a result of which its population increased substantially. Thetford railway station is served by the Breckland line and is one of the best surviving pieces of 19th-century railway architec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fiat
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division Stellantis Italy. Fiat Automobiles was formed in January 2007 when Fiat S.p.A. reorganized its automobile business, and traces its history back to 1899 when the first Fiat automobile, the Fiat 4 HP, was produced. Fiat Automobiles is the largest automobile manufacturer in Italy. During its more than century-long history, it remained the largest automobile manufacturer in Europe and the third in the world after General Motors and Ford for over 20 years, until the car industry crisis in the late 1980s. In 2013, Fiat S.p.A. was the second largest European automaker by volumes produced and the seventh in the world, while FCA was the world's eighth-largest automaker. In 1970, Fiat Automobiles employ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously awarded by countries of the Commonwealth of Nations, most of which have established their own honours systems and no longer recommend British honours. It may be awarded to a person of any military rank in any service and to civilians under military command. No civilian has received the award since 1879. Since the first awards were presented by Queen Victoria in 1857, two-thirds of all awards have been personally presented by the British monarch. The investitures are usually held at Buckingham Palace. The VC was introduced on 29 January 1856 by Queen Victoria to honour acts of valour during the Crimean War. Since then, the medal has been awarded 1,358 times to 1,355 individual recipients. Only 15 medals, of which 11 to members of the Britis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ron Middleton (VC)
Rawdon Hume "Ron" Middleton, VC (22 July 1916 – 29 November 1942) was a bomber pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force and a posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Early life Middleton was born on 22 July 1916 in Waverley, Sydney at Nurse Nettleton's Private Hospital. His younger brother, Osman (a Middleton family name), was born in 1918. His parents had married in 1914. His mother was Faith Lillian (born Millar) and his father Francis Rawdon Middleton, known as Frank, who had been raised at Burrowa. Rawdon Middleton's maternal grandmother, Jessie Huon Middleton, née Hume, was the niece of the colonial explorer, Hamilton Hume. Rawdon Middleton spent the main part of his early years in the Central Western districts of New South Wales where his father was employed managing farming properties. His father, known as Frank, was working at Muswellbrook in 1914. At ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Methwold
Royal Air Force Methwold or more simply RAF Methwold is a Royal Air Force station located north east of Feltwell, Norfolk and north west of Thetford, Norfolk, England. History RAF Methwold opened as a dispersal airfield for RAF Feltwell in the Winter of 1938. Vickers Wellington bombers from Feltwell continued to use the site as a satellite base until the grass airfield was transferred to No. 2 Group in the exchange of bases with No. 3 Group, in the summer of 1942. Several asphalt hardstandings were put down for aircraft during 1940–1941. In August 1943, the airfield was closed to flying while it was upgraded to A standard. Three concrete runways were built, the main aligned on 06-24 (2,000 yards), 11-29 (1,600 yards) and 17-35 (1,500 yards). 36 hardstandings were built, 35 of the loop type and a single pan. The original asphalt pans were not retained. Following this work, RAF Methwold was a higher standard base than its parent at Feltwell. The airfield was returned t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vickers Wellington
The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is its geodetic airframe fuselage structure, which was principally designed by Barnes Wallis. Development had been started in response to Air Ministry Specification B.9/32, issued in the middle of 1932, for a bomber for the Royal Air Force. This specification called for a twin-engined day bomber capable of delivering higher performance than any previous design. Other aircraft developed to the same specification include the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and the Handley Page Hampden. During the development process, performance requirements such as for the tare weight changed substantially, and the engine used was not the one originally intended. The Wellington was used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, performing as one o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Stirling
The Short Stirling was a British four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It has the distinction of being the first four-engined bomber to be introduced into service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). The Stirling was designed during the late 1930s by Short Brothers to conform with the requirements laid out in Air Ministry Specification B.12/36. Prior to this, the RAF had been primarily interested in developing increasingly capable twin-engined bombers, but had been persuaded to investigate a prospective four-engined bomber as a result of promising foreign developments in the field. Out of the submissions made to the specification, Supermarine proposed the Type 317, which was viewed as the favourite, whereas Short's submission, named the S.29, was selected as an alternative. When the preferred Type 317 had to be abandoned, the S.29, which later received the name Stirling, proceeded to production. In early 1941, the Stirling entered squadron service. During its use as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Mildenhall
Royal Air Force Mildenhall or RAF Mildenhall is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located near Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. Despite its status as a Royal Air Force station, it primarily supports United States Air Force (USAF) operations, and is currently the home of the 100th Air Refueling Wing (100 ARW). During the Second World War, RAF Bomber Command used the station for operational combat missions until 1945. Placed on standby status after the war, it was reopened by the Royal Air Force and became a USAF-RAF joint operation base on 11 July 1950. It was assigned to Strategic Air Command (SAC) it became a B-50 Superfortress base in 1951, and a KC-97 Stratofreighter base from 1953 until 1958. The Military Air Transport Service transferred its main United Kingdom terminal to Mildenhall in 1958. In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird operations took place from the base. On 8 January 2015, the United States Department of Defense announced that op ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Air Ministry
The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State for Air. Organisations before the Air Ministry The Air Committee On 13 April 1912, less than two weeks after the creation of the Royal Flying Corps (which initially consisted of both a naval and a military wing), an Air Committee was established to act as an intermediary between the Admiralty and the War Office in matters relating to aviation. The new Air Committee was composed of representatives of the two war ministries, and although it could make recommendations, it lacked executive authority. The recommendations of the Air Committee had to be ratified by the Admiralty Board and the Imperial General Staff and, in consequence, the Committee was not particularly effective. The increasing separation of army and naval aviation from 191 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Feltwell
Royal Air Force Feltwell or more simply RAF Feltwell is a Royal Air Force station in Norfolk, East Anglia that is used by the United States Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa. The station is located about 10 miles west of Thetford, and is in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk at approximate Ordnance Survey grid reference . A former Second World War bomber station, the airfield is used as a housing estate for United States Air Force personnel stationed nearby at RAF Mildenhall. History Royal Air Force use The airfield was built during the period of expansion of the RAF in the late 1930s and is similar in layout to many of the other RAF airfields of the period (for example RAF Marham, RAF Watton and RAF West Raynham). The airfield was home to a number of heavy bomber squadrons of the RAF during the Second World War. Post war RAF Thor Missiles were stationed here 1958–1963. After the departure of the Thor missiles in 1963, the RAF's Officer Cadet Training Uni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. Prior to 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente (comprising France, Russia, and Britain) and the Triple Alliance (containing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
