Abandoned Airfields, Airports & Airplanes

Air travel has become a major part of our society, with industries and individuals depending on air transport for their livelihood. But have you ever wondered what happens to the artifacts of our airborne culture when they’re no longer needed? In many cases, they’re simply abandoned and forgotten. (images via: Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields) Military airfields often have a rich [...]

Unlikely hero of Arnhem

Oxfordtimes: In a new book about 12,000 heroes, 90-year-old Peter Clarke expresses surprise to find himself on the first page. But an hour in his company reveals just why this softly spoken former solicitor, who has settled near the River Thames in Abingdon, is there as he recalls being on the banks of another river, the Lower Rhine in the [...]

What if D-Day had failed?

By Dr David Stafford for the BBC Centre for World War Two Studies, Edinburgh University How were the huge risks involved in D-Day overcome, and if the D-Day landings had not succeeded, what kind of a Europe would have prevailed? D-Day success was no sure thing and failure would have meant military and political catastrophe. No-one knew this better than [...]

Fact File : Operation Battleaxe 15 to 17 June 1941

Theatre: North Africa Location: Cyrenaica (the eastern province of Libya), on the border with Egypt. Players: Allies: Lieutenant General Noel Beresford-Peirse’s 13th Corps consisting of 7th Armoured Division and 4th Indian Division. Germany: General Erwin Rommel’s Deutsches Afrika Korps including 5th Light Division and 15th Panzer Division. Outcome: A failed attempt to relieve the siege of Tobruk. After Operation Brevity [...]

Tuskegee Airman Clayo Casteal Rice dies at 89

nj.com: One of the famed Tuskegee Airmen of World War II, local hero Clayo C. Rice, passed away at the age of 89 on Wednesday at JFK Hospital-Stratford Division. Rice was drafted out of Bridgeton High School during World War II, but later received his degree, and also received an honorary doctorate from Tuskegee Institute, in Alabama. For President Obama’s [...]

WWII Pacific in Color Air Combat Gun Camera Archive Footage

A brave challenge to the Great War myths

The Telegraph reports: It is bold of Radio 4, and its presenter, Michael Portillo, to challenge the orthodox account of the First World War, says Charles Moore Perhaps the greatest of all journalistic cichés is, ”One thing is certain: things will never be the same again.’’ In the case of the First World War, however, one might think it is [...]

Pardoned WWII Irish soldier lays memorial wreath

An Irish World War II veteran granted a pardon after fighting in the British army has laid a wreath to remember his comrades. Phil Farrington joined relatives and supporters at Islandbridge war memorial in Dublin to remember men who joined Allied forces and were blacklisted on their return to the Irish Republic. BBC: The Irish government announced a pardon for [...]

Rostraver man, WWII ‘Devil’s Brigade’ may receive Congressional Gold Medal

therepublic.com: The notion he could bring home extra pay for indulging his adventurous side was enough motivation for Chuck Kaifes of Rostraver to volunteer for a new Army parachute unit while he was waiting to be shipped overseas during World War II. “He said, ‘I was the first one up there,’” according to his wife, Evelyn. “They told them jump [...]

The doomed flight of the last Dornier

The Telegraph reports: For more than 70 years, it lay in 50ft of water off the Kent coast, until last week when it was raised from the seabed in a restoration project by the RAF Museum. Now the full story behind the Dornier Do-17Z can be told after research in Germany and Britain by The Telegraph pieced together the Nazi bomber’s final [...]