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Norman Williams (RAAF Officer)
Norman Francis Williams, (3 November 1914 – 30 June 2007) served as an air gunner in Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) bombers in the Second World War, becoming its most highly decorated non-commissioned officer. A rear gunner in a Halifax bomber, he was credited with shooting down 8 German aircraft and damaging several others, making him the RAAF's only "ace" who was not a fighter pilot. Early life Williams was born in Narrandera, New South Wales, the eldest child of Elsie Mary Gibbs and William Francis Williams. He was educated on the family farm until the family moved to Leeton, New South Wales, where his father ran a garage. He attended St Joseph's Convent School and then the Catholic College run by the Marist Brothers in Sale, Victoria. He left school aged 16, and worked in Leeton. Second World War He was working for the New South Wales Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission at the outbreak of the Second World War. He joined the Australian Army, and transferred to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Narrandera, New South Wales
Narrandera ( ) until around 1949 also spelled "Narandera", is a town located in the Riverina region of southern New South Wales, Australia. The town lies on the junction of the Newell and Sturt highways, adjacent to the Murrumbidgee River, and it is considered the gateway to the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. At the 2016 census, Narrandera had a population of 3,746 people. History Narrandera is a river town with a rich heritage. Captain Charles Sturt is credited with being the first European to observe the area that later was to become known as Narrandera. However Sturt, who passed through the district on 12 December 1829, was not the first explorer to cast eyes on the Murrumbidgee River. The upper Murrumbidgee, the "Big Water", was first noted in April 1821 by Charles Throsby. The name ''Narrandera'' is derived from Wiradjuri ''nharrang'', meaning "frill-necked lizard". and the name of the local Narrungderah Clan. Massacre of Narrungderah people The local indigenous peopl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fighter Aircraft
Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield permits bombers and attack aircraft to engage in tactical and strategic bombing of enemy targets. The key performance features of a fighter include not only its firepower but also its high speed and maneuverability relative to the target aircraft. The success or failure of a combatant's efforts to gain air superiority hinges on several factors including the skill of its pilots, the tactical soundness of its doctrine for deploying its fighters, and the numbers and performance of those fighters. Many modern fighter aircraft also have secondary capabilities such as ground attack and some types, such as fighter-bombers, are designed from the outset for dual roles. Other fighter designs are highly specialized while still filling the ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Australia to the west (129th meridian east), South Australia to the south (26th parallel south), and Queensland to the east (138th meridian east). To the north, the territory looks out to the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria, including Western New Guinea and other islands of the Indonesian archipelago. The NT covers , making it the third-largest Australian federal division, and List of country subdivisions by area, the 11th-largest country subdivision in the world. It is sparsely populated, with a population of only 249,000 – fewer than half as many people as in Tasmania. The largest population center is the capital city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. The archaeological hist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
B-24 Liberator
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models designated as various LB-30s, in the Land Bomber design category. At its inception, the B-24 was a modern design featuring a highly efficient shoulder-mounted, high aspect ratio Davis wing. The wing gave the Liberator a high cruise speed, long range and the ability to carry a heavy bomb load. Early RAF Liberators were the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean as a matter of routine. In comparison with its contemporaries, the B-24 was relatively difficult to fly and had poor low-speed performance; it also had a lower ceiling and was less robust than the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. While aircrews tended to prefer the B-17, General Staff favored the B-24 and procured it in huge numbers for a wide variety of roles. At approximately 18,5 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cressy, Victoria
Cressy is a town in Victoria, Australia, approximately north of Colac on the Ballarat road. It is divided between Golden Plains Shire, the Shire of Colac Otway, and Corangamite Shire. At the 2016 census, Cressy and the surrounding area had a population of 175. History George Russell, manager of the pastoral Clyde Company, opened up the area to European settlement in 1836. In 1837, a French man named Jean Duverney crossed the Woady Yaloak River, claimed land on both banks, and named the area "Frenchman's Run". Duverney called the small, developing village Cressy, after Crécy in France, where he was born. The Cressy Post Office opened on 1 January 1858. After the outbreak of World War II, an airfield was constructed south of the town towards Colac, and was used by the RAAF until 1946 as a combat training base and for bombing practice. Cressy airfield had three airstrips, two about long with a drained gravel surface and a grass airstrip about long. Two large Bellman hang ... [...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] |
Nightfighter
A night fighter (also known as all-weather fighter or all-weather interceptor for a period of time after the Second World War) is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility. Night fighters began to be used in World War I and included types that were specifically modified to operate at night. During the Second World War, night fighters were either purpose-built night fighter designs, or more commonly, heavy fighters or light bombers adapted for the mission, often employing radar or other systems for providing some sort of detection capability in low visibility. Many night fighters of the conflict also included instrument landing systems for landing at night, as turning on the runway lights made runways into an easy target for opposing intruders. Some experiments tested the use of day fighters on night missions, but these tended to work only under very favourable circumstances and were not widely successful. Avionics systems were greatly mini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state and the seventh-largest city in Germany, with a population of 617,280. Düsseldorf is located at the confluence of two rivers: the Rhine and the Düssel, a small tributary. The ''-dorf'' suffix means "village" in German (English cognate: ''thorp''); its use is unusual for a settlement as large as Düsseldorf. Most of the city lies on the right bank of the Rhine. Düsseldorf lies in the centre of both the Rhine-Ruhr and the Rhineland Metropolitan Region. It neighbours the Cologne Bonn Region to the south and the Ruhr to the north. It is the largest city in the German Low Franconian dialect area (closely related to Dutch). Mercer's 2012 Quality of Living survey ranked Düsseldorf the sixth most livable city in the world. Düsse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pathfinder (RAF)
The Pathfinders were target-marking squadrons in RAF Bomber Command during World War II. They located and marked targets with flares, which a main bomber force could aim at, increasing the accuracy of their bombing. The Pathfinders were normally the first to receive new blind-bombing aids like Gee, Oboe and the H2S radar. The early Pathfinder Force (PFF) squadrons was expanded to become a group, No. 8 (Pathfinder Force) Group in January 1943. The initial Pathfinder Force was five squadrons, while No. 8 Group ultimately grew to a strength of 19 squadrons. While the majority of Pathfinder squadrons and personnel were from the Royal Air Force, the group also included many from the air forces of other Commonwealth countries. History Background At the start of the war in September 1939, RAF Bomber Command's doctrine was based on tight formations of heavily armed bombers attacking during daylight and fending off attacks by fighters with their defensive guns. In early missions ov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Troopship
A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable land troops directly on shore, typically loading and unloading at a seaport or onto smaller vessels, either tenders or barges. Attack transports, a variant of ocean-going troopship adapted to transporting invasion forces ashore, carry their own fleet of landing craft. Landing ships beach themselves and bring their troops directly ashore. History Ships to transport troops were used in Antiquity. Ancient Rome used the navis lusoria, a small vessel powered by rowers and sail, to move soldiers on the Rhine and Danube. The modern troopship has as long a history as passenger ships do, as most maritime nations enlisted their support in military operations (either by leasing the vessels or by impressing them into service) when their normal naval forces were deemed insufficient fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian Army
The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Australia), Chief of Army (CA), who is subordinate to the Chief of the Defence Force (Australia), Chief of the Defence Force (CDF) who commands the ADF. The CA is also directly responsible to the Minister of Defence (Australia), Minister for Defence, with the Department of Defence (Australia), Department of Defence administering the ADF and the Army. Formed in 1901, as the Commonwealth Military Forces, through the amalgamation of the colonial forces of Australia following the Federation of Australia. Although Australian soldiers have been involved in a number of minor and major conflicts throughout Australia's history, only during the Second World War has Australian territory come under direct attack. The Australian Army was initially composed a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
