The Royal Air Force’s Avro Lancaster and Handley Page Halifax are considered by many aviation historians to be among the most capable heavy bombers of the Second World War. However, neither were the RAF’s first four-engine bomber. Overshadowed by the Lancaster’s success was the ...
The argument can be made that the Germans make the world’s best engineers. By way of evidence I would submit the StG44 assault rifle, the Me 262 jet fighter, and the Panther tank. While, in each case, the exigencies of around-the-clock bombing certainly took a toll on these revolutionary weapon...
“It was scary, you know? The damnedest thing…” The old Marine flicked at a bright yellow tie he was wearing. “We were ordered to take Atabrine to prevent malaria. Most of us did that but it tended to turn our eyes and skin a bright yellow. And then a rumor started that the stuff would Rea...
The McDonnell F3H Demon was a single-seat, carrier-based jet fighter developed for the United States Navy in the 1950’s. This aircraft represents a critical but troubled chapter in American naval aviation: one that pushed the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation toward design philosophies that would ...
U.S. Air Force Colonel Gail Seymour Halvorsen was a transport pilot best known as the “Candy Bomber” or “Onkel Wiggly Wings,” who became famous for dropping candy to German children in Berlin during the Soviet Blockade of the city. Following Germany’s defeat in World War II, the vic...
By 1940, both England and Germany realized that the Kriegsmarine’s U-Boats were the key to the Battle of the Atlantic. Eliminating the German submarine threat was Britain’s top priority. Expanding the U-Boat fleet was Germany’s greatest hope to bring the British to their knees. In those dar...
In the mid-1930s, Adolph Hitler cast his eye towards France and dreamed of revenge for the outcome of World War One. Standing in his way was the French Maginot Line, a collection of massive concrete strongpoints, casemates, armored turrets, and observation posts. Among the barbed wire, mine field...
In 1937, the Curtiss SBC Helldiver entered service, but even at that point, the carrier-based two-seat scout/dive bomber was on the verge of being obsolete. Interestingly, it was also the second aircraft produced by Curtiss-Wright to earn the designation “Helldiver” after the United States Ma...
The idealized concept immediately took root and blossomed: the Royal Air Force saved Britain from invasion in 1940. The conventional wisdom holds that Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s legendary “few” handed Nazi Germany its first defeat in World War II and paved the road to eventual victo...
The USS Saratoga (CV-3) was one of just three United States Navy aircraft carriers—along with USS Ranger (CV-4) and USS Enterprise (CV-6)—to survive the entirety of the Second World War. Although outdated by 1943, as the newer and more capable Essex-cla...