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Swansea Blitz
The Swansea Blitz was the heavy and sustained bombing of Swansea by the German ''Luftwaffe'' from 19 to 21 February 1941. A total of 230 people were killed and 397 were injured. Swansea was selected by the Germans as a legitimate strategic target due to its importance as a port and docks and the oil refinery just beyond, and its destruction was key to Nazi German war efforts as part of their strategic bombing campaign aimed at crippling coal export and demoralizing civilians and emergency services. PRA planning With the passing of the Air Raid Precaution Act of 1937, Swansea Council was responsible for instigating civil defence measures to protect the local population of 167,000 people. The local authority looked into building communal air raid shelters and setting up the necessary rescue and fire services. With the threat of war with Germany growing towards the end of the 1930s, Swansea council had built over 500 communal air raid shelters as well as providing Anderson shel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Pembrey
Pembrey Sands Air Weapons Range is a Ministry of Defence air weapons range located near the village of Pembrey, Carmarthenshire, northwest of Burry Port and south of Carmarthen, Wales. Adjacent to the weapons range site was a Royal Air Force station known as RAF Pembrey which closed is 1957 and is now a in civilian use as Pembrey Airport. History RAF Pembrey Origin Construction of the airfield for RAF Training Command started in 1937. The airfield opened in March 1939, and by September 1939 the RAF's No. 2 Air Armament School was the first unit to be stationed at the airfield. Second World War By May 1940, the three tarmac runways were completed and the airfield transferred initially to 11 Group RAF Fighter Command and then to the newly formed 10 Group RAF Fighter Command. Supermarine Spitfire pilots of 92 Squadron used Pembrey as their base from 18 June 1940, including Squadron Leader Stanford Tuck, until 12 August, Geoffrey Wellum the author of the 2002 memoir, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1941 In Wales
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1941 to Wales and its people. Incumbents *Archbishop of Wales – Charles Green, Bishop of Bangor *Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Crwys Events *January – RAF Llandwrog opens near Caernarfon as a Bomber Command training airfield. *2 January – Cardiff Blitz: 165 people are killed in Luftwaffe air raids on Cardiff, and Llandaff Cathedral is seriously damaged. *17 January – Swansea Blitz: 58 people are killed in an air raid on Swansea, the town's worst individual raid. *20 January – Welsh press magnate William Ewart Berry is created Viscount Camrose. *13 February – RAF Valley opens on Anglesey as a Fighter Command station. *14 February – Six people are killed in an air raid on Port Talbot. *17 February – Noted Baptist minister Samuel James Leeke finds his Swansea home destroyed by an air raid. * 19-21 February – Swansea Blitz: 240 people are killed in air raids on Swansea. Much of the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1941 In Military History
Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January–August – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and physical disabilities are asphyxiated with carbon monoxide in a gas chamber, at Hadamar Euthanasia Centre in Germany, in the first phase of mass killings under the Action T4 program here. * January 1 – Thailand's Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram decrees January 1 as the official start of the Thai solar calendar new year (thus the previous year that began April 1 had only 9 months). * January 3 – A decree (''Normalschrifterlass'') promulgated in Germany by Martin Bormann, on behalf of Adolf Hitler, requires replacement of blackletter typefaces by Antiqua (typeface class), Antiqua. * January 4 – The short subject ''Elmer's Pet Rabbit'' is released, marking the second appearance of Bugs Bunny, and also the first to have his name on a title card. * January 5 – WWII: Battle of Bardia in Libya: Australian an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Swansea
The history of Swansea in South Wales covers a period of continuous occupation stretching back a thousand years, while there is archaeological evidence of prehistoric human occupation of the surrounding area for thousands of years before that. Swansea ( cy, Abertawe) – occupying a position at the mouth of the River Tawe and adjacent to an extensive bay at the western end of the Bristol Channel – was the main town of its region for much of the Mediaeval period. In the 18th century, local dignitaries attempted to establish it as a tourist resort. The town achieved greater prominence with the onset of the Industrial Revolution. Mirroring similar population explosions in the South Wales Valleys, Swansea's population rose from 6,000 to 17,000 between the Censuses of 1801 and 1851. Industry grew throughout the 19th century, drastically changing the geography of the town and its surroundings. In the 20th century, industry declined but the town continued to grow in population. Swanse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roy Jenkins, Baron Jenkins Of Hillhead
Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead, (11 November 1920 – 5 January 2003) was a British politician who served as President of the European Commission from 1977 to 1981. At various times a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Labour Party, Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Liberal Democrats, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary under the Wilson and Callaghan Governments. The son of Arthur Jenkins, a coal-miner and Labour MP, Jenkins was educated at the University of Oxford and served as an intelligence officer during the Second World War. Initially elected as MP for Southwark Central in 1948, he moved to become MP for Birmingham Stechford in 1950. On the election of Harold Wilson after the 1964 election, Jenkins was appointed Minister of Aviation. A year later, he was promoted to the Cabinet to become Home Secretary. In this role, Jenkins embarked on a major reform programme; he sought to build what he described as "a civilised socie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Under Milk Wood''. He also wrote stories and radio broadcasts such as ''A Child's Christmas in Wales'' and ''Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog''. He became widely popular in his lifetime and remained so after his death at the age of 39 in New York City. By then, he had acquired a reputation, which he had encouraged, as a "roistering, drunken and doomed poet". Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales, in 1914. In 1931, when he was 16, Thomas, an undistinguished pupil, left school to become a reporter for the '' South Wales Daily Post''. Many of his works appeared in print while he was still a teenager. In 1934, the publication of "Light breaks where no sun shines" caught the attention of the literary world. While living in London, Thomas met Caitli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winston 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 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, 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 (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five UK Parliament constituency, constituencies. Ideologically an Economic liberalism, economic liberal and British Empire, imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924. Of mixed English and American parentage, Churchill was born in Oxfordshire to Spencer family, a wealthy, aristocratic family. He joined the British Army in 1895 and saw action in British Raj, Br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the last Empress of India from her husband's accession 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947. After her husband died, she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II. Born into a family of British nobility, Elizabeth came to prominence in 1923 when she married the Duke of York, the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. The couple and their daughters Elizabeth and Margaret embodied traditional ideas of family and public service. The Duchess undertook a variety of public engagements and became known for her consistently cheerful countenance. In 1936, Elizabeth's husband unexpectedly became king when his older brother, Edward VIII, abdicated in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George VI Of The United Kingdom
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947, and the first Head of the Commonwealth following the London Declaration of 1949. The future George VI was born in the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria; he was named Albert at birth after his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort, and was known as "Bertie" to his family and close friends. His father ascended the throne as George V in 1910. As the second son of the king, Albert was not expected to inherit the throne. He spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Prince Edward, the heir apparent. Albert attended naval college as a teenager and served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during the First World War. In 1920, he was made Duke of Yo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Incendiary Device
Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire (and sometimes used as anti-personnel weaponry), that use materials such as napalm, thermite, magnesium powder, chlorine trifluoride, or white phosphorus. Though colloquially often known as bombs, they are not explosives but in fact are designed to slow the process of chemical reactions and use ignition rather than detonation to start or maintain the reaction. Napalm for example, is petroleum especially thickened with certain chemicals into a 'gel' to slow, but not stop, combustion, releasing energy over a longer time than an explosive device. In the case of napalm, the gel adheres to surfaces and resists suppression. Pre-modern history A range of early thermal weapons were utilized by ancient, medieval/post-classical and early modern armies, including hot pitch, oil, resin, animal fat and other similar compounds. Subs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Night Fighters
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 intruder (air combat), 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 sys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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