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Sir Douglas Bader was a British airman. He was born in 1910 and died in 1983. A flying accident in 1931 resulted in the loss of both of his legs, and the prediction by doctors that he would never walk again. Bader went on to teach himself how to walk and to fly again, being accepted back into the RAF, becoming a fighter pilot with No 242 Squadron RAF Fighter Command. In 1941 he was captured after a mid-air collision with an enemy plane.
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Thomas Edward Lawrence (T E Lawrence also known as 'Lawrence of Arabia') was a British soldier. He was born in 1888 and died in 1935. Educated at Oxford, he took part in archaeological expeditions to Syria and Mesopotamia between 1910 and 1914. Later he was appointed to the military intelligence department in Cairo and took part in negotiations for an Arab revolt against the Turks. In 1916 he attached himself to the Emir Faisal and led Arab guerrilla raids against the Turks and encouraged an Arab revolution. In 1922 he joined the RAF under an assumed name, and upon discovery of his true identity transferred to the tank corps in 1923 under the name T E Shaw before returning to the RAF in 1925 and in 1927 changed his name legally to T E Shaw. He was killed in a motorbike accident in 1935.
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Raf Vallone is an actor. He was born in 1916.
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The Air Force Cross is a British distinction instituted in 1918 and awarded to officers and warrant officers of the RAF for courage and devotion to duty, not necessarily in operations against the enemy. The ribbon is red and white.
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The Battle of Britain was an air battle between German and British air forces over Britain from the 10th of July 1940 until October 1940 during the Second World War. At the outset the Germans had the advantage because they had seized airfields in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, which were basically safe from attack and from which south-east England was within easy range. On the 1st of August 1940 the Luftwaffe had about 4,500 aircraft of all kinds, compared to about 3,000 for the RAF. The Battle of Britain had been intended as a preliminary to the German invasion plan Operation Sea Lion, which Hitler indefinitely postponed on the 17th of September and abandoned on the 10th of October, choosing instead to invade the USSR, and the bombing raids were switched to civilian targets.
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Benito was the British RAF code-name for the Y-Verfharen radio navigation system.
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The Bristol Bloodhound (officially code-named Red Duster) later BAC Bloodhound, was the first British surface-to-air anti-aircraft missile to enter service and was used by the RAF during the later part of the 1950s. The Bristol Bloodhound was powered by Thor-type ramjets producing a flight speed in excess of mach 1 and a range of 80 km.
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The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the British army serving in France during the Great War and also the 1939 to 1940 army in Europe during the Second World War, which was evacuated from Dunkirk, France. In the Great War the BEF was first commanded by General J French and then General Douglas Haig. It consisted of five infantry and one cavalry division, numbering about 100,000 men. A sixth infantry division joined this force in September. The term 'BEF' strictly referred only to the forces initially sent to France in 1914, but it continued to be commonly applied to the British forces operating in France and Flanders. During the Second World War General Gort commanded the BEF sent to France in 1939. By May 1940 it consisted of 10 infantry divisions, one tank brigade, and an RAF element of about 500 fighters and light bombers. After sustaining heavy losses during the French and Belgian campaigns of 1940 the remains were evacuated from Dunkirk in June, leaving much of their equipment behind.
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Carpet was the codename for a British air-borne radio jamming device intended to interfere with enemy ground radar installations operating on the 300 Mhz to 600 Mhz band. Carpet was used by the RAF during the Second World War.
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The Colt M1911 Government was an American semi-automatic military pistol chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge which it took from a 7-round magazine. The Colt M1911 was patented in 1907 and first produced in 1911 and was famous for it's reliability and comfort of use and spawned many variations and copies, including a 'RAF' model produced for the British Royal Air Force and chambered for the .455 Webley and Scott cartridge.
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The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
©1993 - 2009 The Probert Encyclopaedia
Southampton, United Kingdom
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