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The story of the photographic intelligence work undertaken from a country house at Medmenham, Buckinghamshire, is one of the great lost stories of the Second World War . At its peak in 1944, almost 2,000 British and American men and women worked at the top-secret Danesfield House, interpreting photographs - the majority stereoscopic so they could be viewed in 3D - to unlock secrets of German military activity and weapons development. Millions of aerial photographs were taken by Allied pilots, flying unarmed modified Spitfires and Mosquitos on missions over Nazi Europe. it was said that an aircraft could land, the photographs be developed and initial interpretation completed within two hours - marking the culmination of years of experiments in aerial intelligence techniques. Their finest hour began in 1943, during the planning stages of the Allied invasion of Europe, when Douglas Kendall, who masterminded the interpretation work at Medmenham, led the hunt for Hitler's secret weapons. Operation Crossbow would grow from a handful of photographic interpreters to the creation of a hand-picked team, and came to involve interpreters from across the Medmenham spectrum, including the team of aircraft specialists led by the redoubtable Constance Babington Smith. In November that year, whilst analysing photographs of Peenemunde in northern Germany, they spotted a small stunted aircraft on a ramp. This intelligence breakthrough linked the Nazi research station with a growing network of sites in northern France, where ramps were being constructed aligned not only with London, but targets throughout southern Britain. Through the combined skill and dedication of the Crossbow team and the heroism of the Allied pilots, throughout late 1943 and 1944 V-weapon launch sites were located and through countermeasures destroyed, saving hundreds of thousands of lives, and changing the course of the war. Operation Crossbow is a wonderful story of human endeavour and derring-do, told for the first time.
This book gives readers a direct link to crash sites that can be visited, with accurate grid references, site description and current photographs. It covers some 450 selected sites with emphasis given to those on open access land. The areas covered are: Southern England: Dartmoor and Exmoor 20 entries * Wales 120 entries * Isle of Man 20 entries Peak District 75 entries * Yorkshire Moors: Eastern 20 entries * Lake District 25 entriesPennines: East Lancashire & West Yorkshire * Scotland: Central and Southern 30 entriesScotland: Highlands & Islands * Ireland 20 entries Each area includes a preamble describing the local geography and historical notes. Individual site entries include exact location, details of the aircraft and crew and the circumstances of the loss.
The companion volume to Dark Peak Aircraft Wrecks 1 carries more of the in-depth stories of aircraft crashes in the Dark Peak area of the Peak District. The history of flying is told by way of the crash sites, where to this day piles of rusting metal still exist.
Fly shotgun with the pilots and crews of both sides who fought in the air at night over England during World War I and World War II. In two world wars, a corridor from The Wash to Birmingham was turned into a fierce battleground. The air route from Germany and the occupied countries through this corridor, to targets right across the industrial heartland of England, became a three-dimensional combat zone that proved to be as grim a killing ground by night as anywhere else in the land. No Place for Chivalry encapsulates the story of the air defense of England against attack by night. By taking the area covered by RAF Wittering and Digby sectors, looking at the action of night fighter squadrons operating from those stations and their satellite airfields, the way the battle developed, its timeline of events, the events themselves and the organization of those involved, a coherent picture of how the night air defense of Britain evolved is formed. The narrative is pitched at a level of detail and with such human-interest content that it enables readers not only to grasp what is happening and why but also to feel the tensions, frustrations and euphoria of success that the aircrews felt at the time. The reader gets a view from the cockpit or gun turret, to “meet” and “fly” with the men of both sides who fought in the air at night—men whose moral standards on the ground were above reproach but, when fighting in the night sky, gave no quarter.
In 1940, the Manchester and Salford Blitz saw the city and its surroundings targeted by the German Luftwaffe. The most destructive attack was launched in late December 1940; it is remembered today as 'the Christmas Blitz'. Nearly 800 people lost their lives, and thousands more were injured, in two nights of raids ending with a devastating Christmas Eve that saw hundreds of tons of high explosive and thousands of incendiaries fall. Attacks continued into 1941 and beyond, and landmarks such as the cathedral, the Free Trade Hall, the Royal Infirmary and the Royal Exchange were all to suffer. At Old Trafford, too, a bomb wrecked the pitch and demolished the stands. This 75th anniversary narrative, based on first-hand accounts and extensive research, tells the story of how the people of Manchester, Salford, Trafford Park and Stretford endured this dark period in their history – a tale of courage, sacrifice, loss and the unconquerable power of the human spirit. Richly illustrated with contemporary photographs and documents, some of which have never been published before, this book is a valuable addition to the history of Manchester and Salford.
Expertly contextualized by two leading historians in the field, this unique collection offers 13 accounts of individual experiences of World War II from across Europe. It sees contributors describe their recent ancestors' experiences ranging from a Royal Air Force pilot captured in Yugoslavia and a Spanish communist in the French resistance to two young Jewish girls caught in the siege of Leningrad. Contributors draw upon a variety of sources, such as contemporary diaries and letters, unpublished postwar memoirs, video footage as well as conversations in the family setting. These chapters attest to the enormous impact that war stories of family members had on subsequent generations. The story of a father who survived Nazi captivity became a lesson in resilience for a daughter with personal difficulties, whereas the story of a grandfather who served the Nazis became a burden that divided the family. At its heart, Family Histories of World War II concerns human experiences in supremely difficult times and their meaning for subsequent generations.
This series, fully illustrated with maps and half-tones, is written for general readers as well as the student. In illuminating the anonymous lives of our predecessors it will, when complete, substantially enrich our understanding of the many histories which together make up the history of England. This authoritative volume surveys the modern history of the counties of Lancashire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Cheshire. In 1540 this was a backward area, poor, underpopulated and conservative. During the seventeenth and early eighteenth century the spread of the first cottage industries to the mills and the mines transformed the region into one of the engines of Britain's nineteenth-century greatness. The causes, the costs and the consequences of that transformation are vividly portrayed in this very readable text. Offers a succinct account and analysis of the first region to experience the developed factory system. Discusses the rise, dominance and decline of the region which has parallels across the country and the world. Provides essential background text for the students of local history. Assumes no previous knowledge of the region.
This book is based on the copious notes that Ted ‘Shippy’ Shipman wrote in the 1970s and brings a firsthand insight into the life of an RAF Spitfire pilot during the early war years and then his remaining wartime and postwar service until 1959.
The period in question began quietly with the Luftwaffe busy elsewhere, yet the increasing attacks on Germany by the Royal Air Foce provoked a response in the form of the so-called Baedeker offensive of 1942. And it is against this background of the hammer blows dealt out to German towns and cities that the Blitz on Britain during 1942 - 1944 period must be viewed.