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Frederick Rosier
Air Chief Marshal Sir Frederick Rosier, (13 October 1915 – 10 September 1998) was a senior Royal Air Force commander. Early and wartime career Born in Wrexham on 13 October 1915, son of E. G. Rosier, a railway engine driver, Fred Rosier was educated at Grove Park School and played rugby for North Wales Schoolboys. He received a Short Service Commission in the Royal Air Force in 1935 and served with No. 43 Squadron flying Hawker Fury aircraft at Tangmere from 1936 to 1939. He was a flight commander with No. 229 Squadron RAF (Hawker Hurricane aircraft) by May 1940, having helped form and convert the squadron from the Bristol Blenheim aircraft. He first saw active service during the Second World War in France where he commanded a detachment of No. 229 Squadron at Vitry-en-Artois near Arras and was shot down by a Messerschmitt Bf 109, receiving facial burns. Returning to active service by October 1940, he commanded 229 Squadron from RAF Northolt for the last 12 days of the Battle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Clement Danes
St Clement Danes is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London. It is now situated near the 19th-century Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand in Aldwych. Although the first church on the site was reputedly founded in the 9th century by the Danes, the current building replaced the medieval church building and was completed in 1682 by celebrated architect Sir Christopher Wren. Wren's building was gutted by ''Luftwaffe'' bombing raids during the Blitz and not restored until 1958, when it was adapted to its current function as the central church of the Royal Air Force. The church might be the one featured in the nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons" and the bells do indeed play that tune every day at 9 am, noon, 3pm and 6pm—as reported in 1940 the church's playing of the tune was interrupted during World War II due to Nazi bombing. However, St Clement's Eastcheap, in the City of London, is also possibly the church from the rhyme. St Clement Danes is known as one of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a Military awards and decorations, military award of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, awarded for operational gallantry for highly successful command and leadership during active operations, typically in actual combat. Equal in Awards and decorations of the British Armed Forces, British precedence of military decorations to the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross and Royal Red Cross, since 1993 the DSO is eligible to all Military rank, ranks awarded specifically for "highly successful command and leadership during active operations". History Instituted on 6 September 1886 by Queen Victoria by Warrant (law), Royal Warrant published in ''The London Gazette'' on 9 November, the first DSOs awarded were dated 25 November 1886. The Order (distinction), order was established to recognise individual instances of meritorious or distinguished service in war. It is a military order, and wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wing Commander (rank)
Wing commander (Wg Cdr or W/C) is a senior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. Wing commander is immediately senior to squadron leader and immediately below group captain. It is usually equivalent to the rank of commander in the navy and the rank of lieutenant colonel in other services. The equivalent rank in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and the Women's Royal Air Force (until 1968) and in Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service (until 1980) was wing officer. The equivalent rank in the Royal Observer Corps (until 1995) was observer commander, which had a similar rank insignia. Canada The rank was used in the Royal Canadian Air Force until the 1968 unification of the Canadian Forces, when army-type rank titles were adopted. Canadian wing commanders then became lieutenant colonels. In official Canadian French usage, the rank tit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malta
Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two official languages are Maltese language, Maltese and English language, English. The country's capital is Valletta, which is the smallest capital city in the EU by both area and population. It was also the first World Heritage Site, World Heritage City in Europe to become a European Capital of Culture in 2018. With a population of about 542,000 over an area of , Malta is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, tenth-smallest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population density, ninth-most densely populated. Various sources consider the country to consist of a single urban region, for which it is often described as a city-state. Malta has been inhabited since at least 6500 BC, during the Mesolith ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Africa
North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of the Western Sahara in the west, to Egypt and Sudan's Red Sea coast in the east. The most common definition for the region's boundaries includes Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Western Sahara, the territory territorial dispute, disputed between Morocco and the list of states with limited recognition, partially recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. The United Nations’ definition includes all these countries as well as Sudan. The African Union defines the region similarly, only differing from the UN in excluding the Sudan and including Mauritania. The Sahel, south of the Sahara, Sahara Desert, can be considered as the southern boundary of North Africa. North Africa includes the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla, and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a monoplane fighter aircraft that was designed and initially produced by the Nazi Germany, German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt#History, Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW). Together with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the Bf 109 formed the backbone of the ''Luftwaffe's'' fighter force during the World War II. It was commonly called the Me 109 by Allied aircrew and some German aces/pilots, even though this was not the official model designation. The Bf 109 was designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser, who worked at BFW during the early to mid-1930s. It was conceived as an interceptor aircraft, interceptor. However, later models were developed to fulfill multiple tasks, serving as Escort fighter, bomber escort, fighter-bomber, day fighter, day-, night fighter, night-, all-weather fighter, ground-attack aircraft, and aerial reconnaissance aircraft. It was one of the most advanced fighters when the fighter first appeared, being furnished with an all-me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arras
Arras ( , ; ; historical ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France; before the reorganization of 2014 it was in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The historic centre of the Artois region, with a Baroque town square, Arras is in northern France at the confluence of the rivers Scarpe and Crinchon. The Arras plain is on a large chalk plateau bordered on the north by the Marqueffles fault, on the southwest by the Artois and Ternois hills, and on the south by the slopes of Beaufort-Blavincourt. On the east it is connected to the Scarpe valley. Saint Vedast (or St. Vaast) was the first Catholic bishop in the year 499 and tried to eliminate paganism among the Franks. By 843, Arras was seat of the County of Artois which became part of the Royal domain in 1191. The first mention of the name ''Arras'' appeared in the 12th century. Some hypothesize it is a contraction of '' Atrebates'', a Belgic tribe of Gaul and Britain that u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vitry-en-Artois
Vitry-en-Artois (; literally "Vitry in Artois"; or ) is a Communes of France, commune and in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography Vitry-en-Artois is situated some northeast of Arras, at the junction of the N50, D39 and the D42 roads. The river Scarpe (river), Scarpe flows through the town, which is also served by the SNCF railway. The World War II German airfield was later used by the Americans, then after the war, was put to commercial use as the local aerodrome. Population See also *Communes of the Pas-de-Calais department References Communes of Pas-de-Calais, Vitryenartois {{Arras-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bristol Blenheim
The Bristol Blenheim is a British light bomber designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, which was used extensively in the first two years of the Second World War, with examples still being used as trainers until the end of the war. Development began with the ''Type 142'', a civil airliner, after a challenge from the newspaper proprietor Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere, Lord Rothermere to produce the fastest commercial aircraft in Europe. The ''Type 142'' first flew in April 1935, and the Air Ministry, ordered a modified design as the ''Type 142M'' for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a bomber. Deliveries of the new Blenheim to RAF squadrons commenced on 10 March 1937. In service the Type 142M became the Blenheim Mk.I which would be developed into the long-nosed Type 149, the Blenheim Mk.IV, except in Canada where Fairchild Canada built the Type 149 under licence as the Bolingbroke. The Type 160 Bisley was also developed from the Blenheim but was already obsol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by the Supermarine Spitfire during the Battle of Britain in 1940, but the Hurricane inflicted 60% of the losses sustained by the ''Luftwaffe'' in the campaign, and fought in all the major theatres of the Second World War. The Hurricane originated from discussions between RAF officials and aircraft designer Sir Sydney Camm about a proposed monoplane derivative of the Hawker Fury biplane in the early 1930s. Despite an institutional preference for biplanes and lack of interest by the Air Ministry, Hawker refined its monoplane proposal, incorporating several innovations which became critical to wartime fighter aircraft, including retractable landing gear and the more powerful Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. The Air Ministry ordered Hawker's ''Interce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawker Fury
The Hawker Fury is a British biplane fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force in the 1930s. It was a fast, agile aircraft, and the first interceptor in RAF service faster than in level flight. It was the fighter counterpart to the Hawker Hart light bomber. Design and development The Hawker Fury was a development of the earlier Hawker F.20/27 prototype fighter, replacing the radial engine of the F.20/27 with the new Rolls-Royce F.XI V-12 engine (later known as the Rolls-Royce Kestrel), which was also used by Hawker's new light bomber, the Hawker Hart. The new fighter prototype, known as the ''Hawker Hornet'', first flew at Brooklands, Surrey, in March 1929.Mason 1992, p.213. The Hornet was a single-engined biplane, with single bay wings, initially powered by a Rolls-Royce F.XIC engine enclosed by a smooth, streamlined cowling but was quickly re-engined with a Kestrel IS.Goulding 1986, p.37. The prototype was evaluated against the similarly powered Fairey Firefly II ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Wales
North Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdonia, Snowdonia National Park ( and the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley (), known for its mountains, waterfalls and trails, wholly within the region. Its population is concentrated in the North East Wales, north-east and northern coastal areas, with significant Welsh-speaking populations in its North West Wales, western and rural areas. North Wales is imprecisely defined, lacking any exact definition or administrative structure. It is commonly defined administratively as its six most northern Principal areas of Wales, principal areas, but other definitions exist, with Montgomeryshire historically considered to be part of the region. Those from North Wales are sometimes referred to as "Gogs" (); in turn, those from South Wales are sometimes cal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
