The situation in Europe in the summer of 1939 was deteriorating and as a prudent measure, Leslie Hore-Belisha, Secretary of State for War, persuaded the cabinet of Neville Chamberlain to introduce a limited form of conscription on 27 April 1939. The Military Training Act being passed the following month. Only […]
Seven Italian aircraft, Savioa-Marchetti S.73s belonging to the Belgian Societé Anonyme Belge d’Exploitation de la Navigation Aérienne (SABENA) were flown to Britain in May 1940 and pressed into service for the RAF. On 23 May 1940, RAF 271 Squadron Pilot Officer John Robertson McLaren RAFVR (78975) took off in an S.73 from Merville Airfield […]
On 16 November 1944, Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress, Mk. III, HB787, call-sign BU-J of RAF 214 (Federated Malay States) Squadron took off at 22.30 hours on ‘Special Duty’ from RAF Oulton, three miles west of Aylsham, Norfolk. RAF Bomber Command had tasked a mission to bomb Düren, Jülich and Heinsburg […]
Sergeant Thomas Kaye RAFVR, (1051935), pilot, died age 22 in an accident at RAF North Coates, Lincolnshire on 31 August 1941. He was the pilot of Bristol Beaufort Mk. I AW213 of RAF 86 Squadron attached to Coastal Command. Kaye was killed when his Beaufort crashed into a parked Lockheed […]
Andrew Beattie Sneddon RFC born in 1898 was the son Andrew M (Solicitor) and Sophie E Sneddon of Bellwood Park, Perth. On Wednesday 3 October 1917 he lost his life when he flew his Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2e, A8641, aircraft out over the North Sea and did not return. Sneddon […]
Leading Aircraftman Ian Taylor RAF (649184) of RAF 113 squadron was stationed at Maaten Bagush, between Mersa Matruh and Alexandria in Egypt during August of 1942. In April of 1938, the squadron had moved the Middle East. Italy declared war in June of 1940 and the squadron started their campaign by attacking Italian forces […]
Flight Engineer William Alexander Watson (567222) joined the RAF straight from school in 1934 as an apprentice at RAF Halton, near Wendover in Buckinghamshire. Watson preferred to be known as Sandy. He trained as a fitter and by 1935 he was awarded the coveted Barrington-Kennett medal for his sporting achievements. […]
In November of 1999, a retired farmer of Staunton-in-the-Vale, Nottinghamshire, asked a friend if she could investigate and aircraft accident he witnessed in possibly 1942. He thought it was a Wellington bomber, it had an engine on fire and disappeared into a valley and he next heard a loud bang. […]
RAF 100 Squadron, Avro Lancaster III, W4998, call sign HW-J, took off from RAF Grimsby at 23.54 pm on Sunday, 25 May 1943, on its way to bomb Düsseldorf in Germany. It marked the heaviest air raid in history, up to that time. The Royal Air Force dropped on that […]
Sergeant Leonard Albert Soutar RAFVR was the son of Albert Leonard and Agnes Soutar of Dundee and Auchter Villa, Clyde Place, Perth. He was a former pupil of Perth Academy and a member of staff in the Workmen’s Department of the General Accident Fire & Life Assurance Corporation. He began training in his spare […]
