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Most pressing of the Sandys recommendations was the supplementing of the V-Bomber Force with long-range ballistic missiles with the British-designed and -developed (and then cancelled) Blue Streak at the centre but with the loan of US-made types in the meantime, between 1959 and 1963. The US-designed Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile was deployed on Britain’s south and east coasts and the…
Attack Squadron 15 (VA-15). August 1965: Although scheduled to transition to the A-6 Intruder, VA-15 began training under VA-44 for transition to the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. 4 April–21 November 1966: VA-15 deployed to Vietnam as a component of CVW-10 embarked on USS Intrepid. CVW-10 was an all-attack air wing composed…
By the time General Vasily Chuikov, the previous deputy commander of the 64th Army positioned south of Stalingrad, was appointed as commander of the 62nd Army, the 62nd Army had lost half of its men. For some, the Volga appeared to be the best means of escaping certain death. Chuikov…
Perhaps because of the failure of the intended raid on RAF Kenley on 15 August 1940 another mission was ordered, this time to be carried out by a specialist low-level attack unit, the Dornier 17-Z-equipped 9./KG76. Nine of the unit’s aircraft streaked low across the English Channel at lunchtime on…
While this was going on, nine Do 17s from 9./KG 76 under Hauptmann Joachim Roth were about to cross the Channel at wave-top height. The German plan was that twelve Ju 88s from II./KG 76 would begin by dive bombing Kenley air base, after which the nine Do 17s from…
James Allan Ward There were 182 VCs awarded in the Second World War. For each one a certain amount of time passed between the commission of the act and the official gazetting of the award. This `lag-time’ between act and gazette date varied from as low as eight days to…
Supermarine Spitfire Mark Is Such was the threat of terror from the air in Britain that even before the Wehrmacht struck against Poland on 1 September 1939 very many thousands of people were suffering the first inconveniences of war. Not only were large numbers of militiamen and reservists called to…
The construction of Flaktürme (Flak towers) in major cities began in response to the first…
Douglas A-20 Havoc Douglas Aircraft developed the Model 7B twin-engine light attack bomber in the…
Final Encounter (Spitfire v Messerchmitt) by Michael Turner. Wing Commander J E Johnnie Johnson, Spitfire…
Russian MiG-15 Aces in Korea, from left to right: Aleksandr P. Smorchkov (8 kills), Nikolai…
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