The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models designated as various LB-30s, in the Land Bomber design category.
The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley was a British medium bomber aircraft of the 1930s. It was one of three twin-engined, front line medium bomber types that were in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) at the outbreak of the Second World War. Alongside the Vickers Wellington and the Handley Page Hampden, the Whitley was developed during the mid-1930s according to Air Ministry Specification B.3/34, which it was subsequently selected to meet. In 1937, the Whitley formally entered into RAF squadron service; it was the first of the three medium bombers to be introduced.
The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester.
Number 17 Squadron, currently No. 17 Test and Evaluation Squadron (TES), is a squadron of the Royal Air Force. It was reformed on 12 April 2013 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, as the Operational Evaluation Unit (OEU) for the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning.
The Lockheed Hudson is a light bomber and coastal reconnaissance aircraft built by the American Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. It was initially put into service by the Royal Air Force shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War and primarily operated by it thereafter. The Hudson was a military conversion of the Model 14 Super Electra airliner, and was the first significant aircraft construction contract for Lockheed — the initial RAF order for 200 Hudsons far surpassed any previous order the company had received.
Number 120 Squadron or No. CXX Squadron is a squadron of the Royal Air Force which was established as a Royal Flying Corps unit late in World War I, disbanded a year after the end of the war, then re-established as a RAF Coastal Command squadron during World War II. Although disbanded again a month after Victory in Europe Day, during and after World War II it operated almost continuously, with maritime patrol aircraft; most recently with the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod, based at RAF Kinloss in Scotland until the type's withdrawal in March 2010. The squadron was disbanded again the following year. No. 120 Squadron stood up again in April 2018 at RAF Lossiemouth and became the first squadron to be equipped with the Boeing Poseidon MRA1 anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft on 31 October 2019.
811 Naval Air Squadron was a unit of the British Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. It was first founded in 1933, and served during World War II, seeing action in the battle of the Atlantic and on Russian convoys, and was eventually disbanded in 1956.
No. 303 Squadron RAF, also known as the 303rd "Tadeusz Kościuszko Warsaw" Fighter Squadron, was one of two Polish squadrons that fought during the Battle of Britain along with No. 302 Squadron, of 16 total Polish squadrons during the Second World War. Flying Hawker Hurricanes, the squadron claimed the largest number of aircraft shot down of the 66 Allied fighter squadrons engaged in the Battle of Britain, even though it joined the fray two months after the battle had begun.
Operation Stonewall was an Allied naval and air operation in the Second World War from 26 to 27 December 1943, to intercept blockade-runners sailing to German-occupied France through the Bay of Biscay. Operations Barrier and Freecar, by the Allied navies and the Brazilian Air Force, had taken place in the south- and mid-Atlantic. The ships were tracked by OP-20-G and British code-breakers, which decrypted Japanese machine cyphers and German Enigma machine transmissions to U-boats and blockade-runners.
No. 304 Polish Bomber Squadron was a Polish World War II bomber unit. It fought alongside the Royal Air Force under their operational Command and operated from airfields in the United Kingdom, serving from April 1941 as a bomber unit in RAF Bomber Command, from May 1942 as an anti-submarine unit in RAF Coastal Command and from June 1945 as a transport unit in RAF Transport Command.
402 "City of Winnipeg" Squadron is a Royal Canadian Air Force squadron based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Royal Air Force Fairwood Common, or more simply RAF Fairwood Common, is a former Royal Air Force Sector Station located on Fairwood Common, on the Gower Peninsula, to the west of Swansea. It is now the location of Swansea Airport.
The Mid-Atlantic gap is a geographical term applied to an undefended area of the Atlantic ocean during the Battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War. The region was beyond the reach of land-based RAF Coastal Command antisubmarine (A/S) aircraft. It is frequently known as The Black Pit, as well as the Atlantic Gap, Air Gap, Greenland Gap, or just "the Gap". This resulted in heavy merchant shipping losses to U-boats. The gap was eventually closed in May 1943, as growing numbers of VLR Liberators and escort carriers became available, and as basing problems were addressed.
Royal Air Force Angle or more commonly RAF Angle, is a former Royal Air Force station located on the Angle Peninsula Coast, 8 miles (13 km) west of Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales. It was operational from 1 June 1941 to 11 July 1946, having been used by both the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy.
No. 248 Squadron was a squadron of the Royal Air Force, active immediately after World War I, and again during World War II.
Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force (RAF). Founded in 1936, it was to act as the RAF maritime arm, after the Fleet Air Arm became part of the Royal Navy in 1937. Naval aviation was neglected in the inter-war period, 1919–1939, and as a consequence the service did not receive the resources it needed to develop properly or efficiently. This continued until the outbreak of the Second World War, during which it came to prominence. Owing to the Air Ministry's concentration on Fighter Command and Bomber Command, Coastal Command was often referred to as the "Cinderella Service", a phrase first used by the First Lord of the Admiralty at the time A. V. Alexander.
No. 255 Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force Squadron formed as an anti-submarine unit in First World War and a night-fighter unit in the Second World War. The First World War squadron was formed from former Royal Naval Air Service coastal flights and was responsible for coastal anti-submarine patrols. It was disbanded after the war.
Operation Orator was the code name for the defence of the Allied Arctic convoy PQ 18 by British and Australian air force units, based temporarily in North-West Russia, against attack by the German battleship Tirpitz and other Kriegsmarine surface vessels. The wing, known as the Search & Strike Force, was commanded by Group Captain Frank Hopps and its maritime strike element was the Leuchars Wing, comprising No. 144 Squadron, Royal Air Force (RAF) and No. 455 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) equipped with Handley-Page Hampden TB 1 torpedo bombers.
Squadron Leader Terence Malcolm Bulloch, was a Royal Air Force Coastal Command pilot during the Second World War. He carried out the highest number of attacks on U-boats during the Battle of the Atlantic, sinking a record total of three.
