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Peter Parrott (RAF Officer)
Peter Lawrence Parrott, (28 June 1920 – 27 August 2003) was a British aviator, flying ace, and an officer in the Royal Air Force (RAF). He flew fighter aircraft during the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain during the Second World War and later became a test pilot, retiring from the RAF in 1965. Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Force Cross, Parrott is best known as being the face of a recruitment campaign to encourage people to join the RAF. When his medals were sold in 2022, the auction house noted that "...he did more in 1940, aged just 19, than most people experience in a lifetime." Early life Peter Lawrence Parrott was born in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire, on 28 June 1920. He finished his education at Lord Williams's Grammar School in Thame, Oxfordshire. Though many of his family were solicitors, after leaving school he worked for Buckinghamshire County Council. Career Parrott joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) on a short-service commission in 1938, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haddenham, Buckinghamshire
Haddenham is a village and civil parish in west Buckinghamshire, England. It is about south-west of Aylesbury and north-east of Thame in neighbouring Oxfordshire. At the 2011 Census, the population of the civil parish was 4,502. History The place-name "Haddenham" is derived from the Old English ''Hǣdanhām'', "Hǣda's Homestead" or, perhaps ''Hǣdingahām'', "the home of the Hadding tribe". It is possible that the first villagers were members of the Hadding tribe from Haddenham in Cambridgeshire. It may be that the first Anglo-Saxons to settle in the Vale of Aylesbury were followers of Cuthwulf, from Cottenham in Cambridgeshire, who, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, marched southwest to the Thames after routing the British at the Battle of Bedcanford in 571. The Domesday Book of 1086 records the manor as ''Hedreham''. In 1142 it was recorded as ''Hedenham''. From the Norman conquest of England until the Dissolution of the Monasteries the Convent of St Andrew in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by the Supermarine Spitfire during the Battle of Britain in 1940, but the Hurricane inflicted 60% of the losses sustained by the ''Luftwaffe'' in the campaign, and fought in all the major theatres of the Second World War. The Hurricane originated from discussions between RAF officials and aircraft designer Sir Sydney Camm about a proposed monoplane derivative of the Hawker Fury biplane in the early 1930s. Despite an institutional preference for biplanes and lack of interest by the Air Ministry, Hawker refined its monoplane proposal, incorporating several innovations which became critical to wartime fighter aircraft, including retractable landing gear and the more powerful Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. The Air Ministry ordered Hawker's ''Interce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Idi Amin
Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 30 May 192816 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 until Uganda–Tanzania War, his overthrow in 1979. He ruled as a Military dictatorship, military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal Despotism, despots in modern world history. Amin was born to a Kakwa people, Kakwa father and Lugbara people, Lugbara mother. In 1946, he joined the King's African Rifles (KAR) of the British Colonial Army as a cook. He rose to the rank of lieutenant, taking part in British Empire, British actions against Somali rebels and then the Mau Mau rebellion, Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya Colony, Kenya. Uganda gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1962, and Amin remained in the Uganda Army (1962–1971), army, rising to the position of deputy army commander in 1964 and being appointed commander two years later. He became aware that Ugandan president Milton Obote was planning to arrest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (20 October 2011) was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until Killing of Muammar Gaddafi, his assassination by Libyan Anti-Gaddafi forces, rebel forces in 2011. He came to power through a 1969 Libyan revolution, military coup, first becoming Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic, Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution, Brotherly Leader of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011. Initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, Gaddafi later ruled according to his own Third International Theory. Born near Sirte, Italian Libya, to a poor Bedouin Arab family, Gaddafi became an Arab nationalist while at school in Sabha, Libya, Sabha, later enrolling in the Benghazi Military University Academy, Royal Military Academy, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of Naples, province-level municipality is the third most populous Metropolitan cities of Italy, metropolitan city in Italy with a population of 2,958,410 residents, and the List of urban areas in the European Union, eighth most populous in the European Union. Naples metropolitan area, Its metropolitan area stretches beyond the boundaries of the city wall for approximately . Naples also plays a key role in international diplomacy, since it is home to NATO's Allied Joint Force Command Naples and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean. Founded by Greeks in the 1st millennium BC, first millennium BC, Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited urban areas in the world. In the eighth century BC, a colony known as Parthenope () was e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Martlesham Heath
Royal Air Force Martlesham Heath or more simply RAF Martlesham Heath is a former Royal Air Force station located southwest of Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. It was active between 1917 and 1963, and played an important role in the development of airborne radar. History RFC/RAF prewar use Martlesham Heath was first used as a Royal Flying Corps airfield during the First World War. In 1917 it became home to the Aeroplane Experimental Unit, RFC which moved from Upavon with the site named as the Aeroplane Experimental Station, next became the Aeroplane Experimental Establishment (Home) in 1920 and then the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) in 1924. The A&AEE carried the evaluation and testing of many of the aircraft types and much of the armament and other equipment that would later be used during the Second World War. No. 22 Squadron RAF and No. 15 Squadron RAF were present during the 1920s. No. 64 arrived in the 1930s. RAF Fighter Command use The A&AEE ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Tern Hill
Royal Air Force Tern Hill, or more simply RAF Tern Hill, was a Royal Air Force station at Ternhill in Shropshire, England, near the towns of Newport and Market Drayton. The station closed in 1976, with the technical and administrative site transferring to the British Army to become Borneo Barracks, later renamed Clive Barracks (after Major-General Robert Clive). The airfield part of the site was retained by the RAF and is now known as Tern Hill Airfield. It is predominantly used as a relief landing ground for helicopters of the No 1 Flying Training School, based at RAF Shawbury. The airfield is also home to the RAF's No. 632 Volunteer Gliding Squadron. History First World War The airfield was first opened in 1916 and was initially operated by the Royal Flying Corps before being taken over by its successor the Royal Air Force (RAF) on 1 April 1918. The first squadron posted to RFC Tern Hill was 95 Squadron RFC from 8 October 1917 with various aircraft being moving to S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Hullavington
Royal Air Force Hullavington, or more simply RAF Hullavington, was a Royal Air Force station located at Hullavington, near Chippenham, Wiltshire, England. The station opened in June 1937 and was primarily used for training. It closed on 31 March 1992 when it was transferred to the British Army and renamed Buckley Barracks. The airfield part of the site, known as Hullavington Airfield, continued to be used for RAF gliding operations until 2016 when it was sold to technology company Dyson. History The site spans three parishes: the hangars and grassland in the north and west lie in Hullavington parish, while other hangars, most of the runways and the northern part of the barracks are in St Paul Malmesbury Without. The rest of the barracks are in Stanton St Quintin parish and are near the small village of Lower Stanton St Quintin and the A429 Chippenham-Malmesbury road. The airfield was opened on 14 June 1937 with No 9 Flying Training School arriving from RAF Thornaby on 10 Ju ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Flying School
The Central Flying School (CFS) is the Royal Air Force's primary institution for the training of military flying instructors. Established in 1912 at the Upavon Aerodrome, it is the longest existing flying training school in the world. The school was based at RAF Little Rissington from 1946 to 1976. Its motto is ''Imprimis Praecepta'', Latin for "The Teaching is Everlasting". The school currently manages a series of training squadrons and the RAF Display Team. History The Central Flying School was established by the Royal Navy at Upavon Aerodrome, near Upavon, Wiltshire, on 12 May 1912. The school's strength at the outset was ten Staff Officers and eighty flying students, whose course lasted for sixteen weeks.Hugh Soar, ''Straight & True'' (2012), p. 87 Its first commandant was Captain Godfrey Paine RN, and it also trained pilots for the Royal Flying Corps, created in 1912, and the Royal Naval Air Service, 1914–1918. The school was transferred from the Southern Train ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Gazette
London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Thames in southeast England, at the head of a tidal estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for nearly 2,000 years. Its ancient core and financial centre, the City of London, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and has retained its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has been the centuries-long host of the national government and parliament. London grew rapidly in the 19th century, becoming the world's largest city at the time. Since the 19th century the name "London" has referred to the metropolis around the City of London, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent and Hertfordshire, which since 1965 has largely comprised the adm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sturzkampfgeschwader 77
''Sturzkampfgeschwader'' 77 (StG 77) was a Luftwaffe dive bomber Wing (air force unit), wing during World War II. From the outbreak of war StG 77 distinguished itself in every Wehrmacht major operation until the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942. If the claims made by StG 77 are accurate, it inflicted more damage to enemy ground forces than any other wing. It operated the Junkers Ju 87 dive-bomber exclusively in the combat role. The Dornier Do 17 and Messerschmitt Bf 110 were both used in the air reconnaissance role. Founded in May 1939 StG 77 entered the war with only two of the usual three groups assigned to a Luftwaffe combat wing. It supported the Invasion of Poland (1939), invasion of Poland in September 1939 which opened the conflict. In May and June 1940 it operated in the interdiction, close air support and anti-shipping role supporting Army Group A and Army Group B in the Battle of the Netherlands, Battle of Belgium and Battle of France. In June 1940 a thir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Junkers Ju 87
The Junkers Ju 87, popularly known as the "Stuka", is a German dive bomber and ground-attack aircraft. Designed by Hermann Pohlmann, it first flew in 1935. The Ju 87 made its combat debut in 1937 with the Luftwaffe's Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939 and served the Axis powers, Axis in World War II from beginning to end (1939–1945). The aircraft is easily recognisable by its inverted gull wings and fixed Aircraft fairing, spatted Landing gear, undercarriage. Upon the leading edges of its faired main gear legs were mounted ram-air Siren (alarm), sirens, officially called "Lärmgerät" (noise device), which became a propaganda symbol of German Aerial warfare, air power and of the so-called ''Blitzkrieg'' victories of 1939–1942, as well as providing Stuka pilots with audible feedback as to speed. The Stuka's design included several innovations, including automatic pull-up dive brakes under both wings to ensure that the aircraft recovered from its attac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
