20th Century
They Flew Alone, Part One
In May 1969 my uncle, John Alldridge, described the voyage of Allcock and Brown for the Montreal Star. This is the first of his reports. – Jerry F MANCHESTER — She hangs now, like some [more…]
Aviation
Animals
Larry’s Diary – Week One Hundred And Eighty-Four
Monday Good morning readers and welcome to another exciting week in No 10. Well, it’s back to more rain this morning and there are puddles on the garden path and the grass is soggy, typical [more…]
20th Century
The Lancaster Bomber
Most will know about the Lancaster Bomber, that it was designed by Ray Chadwick to carry a huge bomb load a very long way and was probably the best bomber in WWII, certainly the most [more…]
20th Century
Mitchell’s Spitfire
Earlier this year, we revisited The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Hanley, primarily because we wanted to see the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard exhibits once again. Now living only a few miles away, a quiet [more…]
20th Century
Press Photographer, Part Two
Another chapter from “Special Assignment” by my uncle John Alldridge (published in 1960 and now long out of print) In almost every great news story of recent times Luck has been the deciding factor. You [more…]
20th Century
Albert Ball – The Angel-Faced Killer
Breakfast His place was laid, The messroom clock struck eight The sun shone through the window On his chair. No one commented on his fate, Save for a headshake here and there; Only old George [more…]
20th Century
The Bomber Command and USAAF Bombing of Dresden, 13-15th February 1945, Part Two
The City of Dresden in 1945 A rather strange myth had grown over the city of Dresden since the mid-1940s. That is was a benevolent municipality, untouched by the horrors of the war raging around, [more…]
20th Century
The Bomber Command and USAAF Bombing of Dresden, 13-15th February 1945, Part One
When he became Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of Bomber Command and at the start of the bombing campaign, Harris said, quoting the Old Testament: The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that [more…]
20th Century
The Spitfire, of course, Part 4
Musings on the development of the Miles M20 prototype Firstly, a reminder of where we started back in part one, I suggested in the first article in this series that the Spitfire was not an [more…]