RAF Honington
Royal Air Force Honington or more simply RAF Honington is a Royal Air Force station located south of Thetford near Ixworth in Suffolk, England. Although used as a bomber station during the Second World War, RAF Honington is now the RAF Regiment depot. History Royal Air Force use Construction of Honington airfield, which was undertaken by John Laing & Son, began in 1935, and the facility was opened on 3 May 1937. Squadrons of RAF Bomber Command using the airfield prior to the Second World War were: * No. 77 Squadron RAF (Hawker Harts and Vickers Wellesleys) (July 1937 – July 1938)Jefford 1988, p. 48 * No. 102 Squadron RAF (Handley Page Heyford) (July 1937 – July 1938) – Moved to RAF Driffield * No. 75 Squadron RAF ( Handley Page Harrow and Vickers Wellington) (July 1938 – July 1939) – Moved to RAF Stradishall. * No. 215 Squadron RAF (Harrow and Wellington) (July 1938 – July 1938) – Moved to RAF Bassingbourn. * IX Squadron (Wellington Mk Is, later changing to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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]   |
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RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bombing campaign against Germany became less restrictive and increasingly targeted industrial sites and the civilian manpower base essential for German war production. In total 364,514 operational sorties were flown, 1,030,500 tons of bombs were dropped and 8,325 aircraft lost in action. Bomber Command crews also suffered a high casualty rate: 55,573 were killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew, a 44.4% death rate. A further 8,403 men were wounded in action, and 9,838 became prisoners of war. Bomber Command stood at the peak of its post-war military power in the 1960s, the V bombers holding the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent and a supplemental force of Canberra light bombers. In August 2006, a memorial was unveiled at Lincoln Cathe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of disease, injury, and other physical and mental impairments. Physicians may focus their practice on certain disease categories, types of patients, and methods of treatment—known as specialities—or they may assume responsibility for the provision of continuing and comprehensive medical care to individuals, families, and communities—known as general practice. Medical practice properly requires both a detailed knowledge of the academic disciplines, such as anatomy and physiology, underlying diseases and their treatment—the ''science'' of medicine—and also a decent competence in its applied practice—the art or ''craft'' of medicine. Both the role of the physician and the meaning ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Aidan MacCarthy
Air Commodore Joseph Aidan MacCarthy, (19 March 1913 – 11 October 1995) was an Irish doctor of the Royal Air Force and a prisoner of war to the Japanese during the Second World War. He survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945. Early life Aidan MacCarthy was born on 19 March 1913, in the town of Castletownbere, Beara Peninsula, County Cork, Ireland, to Denis Florence MacCarthy and Julia (née Murphy). He was one of ten children; five boys and five girls. He was the sixth child and lived in an apartment above the family business, MacCarthy's Bar, established by his grandfather, Michael McCarthy. His parents owned land and businesses in the area. He attended Clongowes Wood School and University College Cork. He graduated with a medical degree in 1938. He was unable to obtain employment as a doctor in Ireland so he moved to the United Kingdom, working first in Wales, then in London. It was there he met two former classmates from his medical school and, after a nigh ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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RAF East Wretham
Royal Air Force East Wretham or more simply RAF East Wretham is a former Royal Air Force station located northeast of Thetford, Norfolk, England. History Royal Air Force use East Wretham airfield was hurriedly brought into service during the early years of the Second World War as a satellite airfield with No. 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF dispersed there from RAF Honington on 29 July 1940. A more permanent allocation followed in September. The squadron operated their bombers from the airfield until April 1942 when it transferred to Coastal Command. Later, RAF Bomber Command No. 115 Squadron RAF, operating Vickers Wellington Mk IIIs and later Avro Lancasters, occupied the airfield from November 1942. Sydney Percival Smith, a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot flying Wellingtons in 115 Squadron, says East Wretham in late 1942 was ".. a fully operational station complete with ammunition dumps, hangar repair shops, barracks, messes, and briefing rooms." He describes flying on mi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 10°E to 30°E longitude. A marginal sea of the Atlantic, with limited water exchange between the two water bodies, the Baltic Sea drains through the Danish Straits into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, Great Belt and Little Belt. It includes the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga and the Bay of Gdańsk. The " Baltic Proper" is bordered on its northern edge, at latitude 60°N, by Åland and the Gulf of Bothnia, on its northeastern edge by the Gulf of Finland, on its eastern edge by the Gulf of Riga, and in the west by the Swedish part of the southern Scandinavian Peninsula. The Baltic Sea is connected by artificial waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea–Baltic Canal and to the German ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kriegsmarine
The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the and the , of the , the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945. In violation of the Treaty of Versailles, the grew rapidly during German naval rearmament in the 1930s. The 1919 treaty had limited the size of the German navy and prohibited the building of submarines. ships were deployed to the waters around Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) under the guise of enforcing non-intervention, but in reality supported the Nationalists against the Spanish Republicans. In January 1939, Plan Z, a massive shipbuilding program, was ordered, calling for surface naval parity with the British Royal Navy by 1944. When World War II broke out in September 1939, Plan Z was shelved in favour of a crash building program for submarines (U-boat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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RAF Bassingbourn
Royal Air Force Bassingbourn or more simply RAF Bassingbourn is a former Royal Air Force Royal Air Force station, station located in Cambridgeshire approximately north of Royston, Hertfordshire, Royston, Hertfordshire and south west of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. During the Second World War it served first as an RAF station and then as a bomber airfield of the Eighth Air Force, of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). It remains the home of the Tower Museum Bassingbourn. Origin and development Construction RAF Bassingbourn was constructed by John Laing Group, John Laing & Son between 1937 and 1939 in the parishes of Wendy, Cambridgeshire, Wendy and Bassingbourn (village), Bassingbourn immediately to the west of the A14 road (Great Britain), A14 (now the A1198 road, A1198) road. The site selected was low ground between several tributaries of the River Cam. The area had been long cleared of forest and tended to be swampy and unstable, and because the boggy ground ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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RAF Stradishall
Royal Air Force Stradishall or more simply RAF Stradishall is a former Royal Air Force Royal Air Force station, station located north east of Haverhill, Suffolk, Haverhill, Suffolk and south west of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. Part of the site remains in use as Stradishall Training Area. History In his memoirs, Murray Peden, a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot, recounts his training at Stradishall. In the RAF's "heavy conversion unit" (No. 1657 Heavy Conversion Unit) at the airfield, he and others were trained to fly Short Stirling bombers. He describes in detail his experiences flying there, and the life on the ground of aircrew who were shortly to begin operations over Nazi Germany as part of RAF Bomber Command during World War II. The airfield was home to a number of squadrons during its lifetime: * No. 1 Squadron RAF, No. 9 Squadron RAF, No. 35 Squadron RAF, No. 51 Squadron RAF, No. 54 Squadron RAF, No. 75 Squadron RAF, No. 85 Squadron RAF, No. 89 Squadron RAF. * No. 1 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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]   |
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Handley Page H
Handley may refer to: Places In the United Kingdom *Handley, Cheshire, a village *Handley, a hamlet in the parish of Stretton, Derbyshire *Middle Handley, a hamlet in the parish of Unstone, Derbyshire *Nether Handley, a hamlet in the parish of Unstone, Derbyshire *West Handley, a hamlet in the parish of Unstone, Derbyshire *Handley, a village in Dorset now known as Sixpenny Handley In the United States *Handley, Dallas County, Missouri *Handley (Fort Worth), a former town currently located with the city of Fort Worth, Texas *Handley, West Virginia *John Handley High School, Winchester, Virginia Other uses *Handley (surname) *Handley Page H.P.42 The Handley Page H.P.42 and H.P.45 were four-engine biplane airliners designed and manufactured by British aviation company Handley Page, based in Radlett, Hertfordshire. It held the distinction of being the largest airliner in regular use in ..., British four-engine long-range biplane airliners in service from 1931 to 1940 See also ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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RAF Driffield
Royal Air Force Driffield or RAF Driffield is a former Royal Air Force station in the East Riding of Yorkshire, in England. It lies about south-west of Driffield and north-west of Beverley. It is now operated by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, as the Driffield Training Area. History The site was first opened in 1918 by the Royal Air Force under the name of RAF Eastburn, and closed in 1920. In 1935 a new airfield was built, initially training bomber crews. In 1977 the site was turned over to the British Army for use as a driving school, and was renamed Alamein Barracks, a satellite to Normandy Barracks of the Defence School of Transport at Leconfield. The station was the initial posting of Leonard Cheshire VC, who was at that time a member of 102 Squadron. On 15 August 1940 there was a German air raid on the airfield. Casualties included the first fatality in the Women's Royal Air Force. On 1 August 1959, the station was armed with PGM-17 Thor The PGM-17A Thor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |