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RAF Kaldadarnes
Royal Air Force Kaldadarnes or more simply RAF Kaldadarnes is a former Royal Air Force station at Kaldaðarnes, near the town of Selfoss, Iceland. Beginnings The station was built in 1940 by the British Army and used by the Royal Air Force from March 1941 and throughout the remainder of the Second World War. On 2 September 1942 the war artist Eric Ravilious was lost after he flew from Kaldadarnes. . Royal Navy During 1943 lodger facilities for an RN Air Section were granted from |
Selfoss (town)
Selfoss () is a town in southern Iceland on the banks of the Ölfusá river. It is the seat of the municipality of Árborg. The Icelandic Route 1 (Iceland), Route 1 runs through the town on its way between Hveragerði and Hella, Iceland, Hella. The town is a centre of commerce and small industries with a population of around 10,000 (2023), making it the largest residential area in South Iceland. History Overview Selfoss was settled by Þórir Ásason sometime after 1000, but the sagas of Icelanders mention that Ingólfur Arnarson was there during the winter of 873-74, under the Ingólfsfjall mountain, which is west of the Ölfusá river. In the summer of 1891, due to the lobbying of Tryggvi Gunnarsson, a member of the Alþing, the first suspension bridge was built over the Ölfusá. That was a major breakthrough in Icelandic infrastructure. The current bridge was built in 1945 after the original structure collapsed. The cabin built to house workers constructing the bridge i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arctic Convoys Of World War II
The Arctic convoys of World War II were oceangoing convoys which sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America to northern ports in the Soviet Union – primarily Arkhangelsk (Archangel) and Murmansk in Russia. There were 78 convoys between August 1941 and May 1945, sailing via several seas of the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic and Arctic Ocean, Arctic oceans, with periods with no sailings during several months in 1942, and in the summers of 1943 and 1944. About 1,400 merchant ships delivered essential supplies to the Soviet Union under the Anglo-Soviet Agreement and US Lend-Lease program, escorted by ships of the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, and the U.S. Navy. Eighty-five merchant vessels and 16 Royal Navy warships (two cruisers, six destroyers, eight other escort ships) were lost. Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' lost a number of vessels including German battleship Scharnhorst, one battleship, three destroyers, 30 U-boats, and many aircraft. The convoys demonstrated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Sumburgh
Royal Air Force Sumburgh or more simply RAF Sumburgh is a former Royal Air Force satellite station that was located on the southern tip of the mainland island of the Shetland Islands, and was home to half of No. 404 Squadron RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force). At the outbreak of the Second World War the airstrip at the Sumburgh Links was taken over by the Air Ministry. By 1941 there were three operational runways at RAF Sumburgh from which a variety of RAF aircraft operated. History Sumburgh Links was surveyed and the grass strips laid out by Captain E. E. Fresson in 1936, and the airport was opened on 3 June of that year with the inaugural flight from Aberdeen (Kintore) by de Havilland Dragon Rapide G-ACPN piloted by Captain Fresson himself. It was also one of the first airfields to have RDF facilities, due to the frequency of low cloud and fog and the proximity of Sumburgh Head. The building of runways was at the instigation of Capt Fresson, who had proved to the Royal N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Wick
Wick John O' Groats Airport () is located north of the town of Wick, at the north-eastern extremity of the mainland of Scotland. It is owned and maintained by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited. The airport provides commercial air travel connections for Caithness, with scheduled services to Aberdeen Airport and, until early 2020, Edinburgh. It remains regularly used by helicopters servicing local offshore oil operations and the Beatrice Offshore Windfarm. It also serves as a stop-over for light aircraft ferry flights between Europe and North America via Iceland. The airport also operates an out of hours call-out service for air ambulances, coastguard and police flights. The airport has one usable runway. Two are disused. History Wick was originally a grass airfield, used by Captain E. E. Fresson's Highland Airways Ltd. (later Scottish Airways Ltd.) from 1933 until 1939. Requisitioned by the Air Ministry during the Second World War, the airfield was extended with hard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lockheed Hudson
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. The Hudson served throughout the war, mainly with Coastal Command but also in transport and training roles, as well as delivering agents into occupied France. It was also used extensively with the Royal Canadian Air Force's anti-submarine squadrons and by the Royal Australian Air Force. Design and development In late 1937 Lockheed sent a cutaway drawing of the Model 14 to various publications, showing the new aircraft as a civilian aircraft and co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Admiralty (United Kingdom)
The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom that was responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. Historically, its titular head was the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of its history, from the early 18th century until its abolition, the role of the Lord High Admiral was almost invariably put "in commission" and exercised by the Lords Commissioner of the Admiralty, who sat on the governing Board of Admiralty, rather than by a single person. The Admiralty was replaced by the Admiralty Board in 1964, as part of the reforms that created the Ministry of Defence and its Navy Department (later Navy Command). Before the Acts of Union 1707, the Office of the Admiralty and Marine Affairs administered the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of England, which merged with the Royal Scots Navy and then absorbed the responsibilities of the Lord High Admiral of the Kingdom of Scotland with the unification of the Kingdom of Great B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
892 Naval Air Squadron
892 Naval Air Squadron (892 NAS), also known as 892 Squadron, was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). It most recently operated the Phantom FG.1 all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber, between March 1969 and December 1978. Established in July 1942, as a fighter squadron in the United States (US), it embarked in HMS ''Battler'' in December for the United Kingdom, disembarking at HMS ''Landrail'', RNAS Machrihanish. In February 1943, the squadron was assigned to HMS ''Archer'' to provide air cover for Atlantic convoys, but was officially disbanded aboard the ship in August. Re-established as a night fighter squadron, at HMS ''Gannet'', RNAS Eglinton, Northern Ireland, in April 1945, the squadron conducted training exercises at HMS ''Nighthawk'', RNAS Drem, before embarking in HMS ''Ocean'' towards the end of the year, ultimately disbanding in the spring of 1946. In July 1955, 892 Naval Air Squadron wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
819 Naval Air Squadron
819 Naval Air Squadron (819 NAS), also known as 819 Squadron, was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). It most recently operated Westland Sea King between February 1971 and November 2001. Established in January 1940, at HMS ''Peregrine'', the Royal Naval Air Station at Ford, the squadron was sent to Coastal Command to protect the Dunkirk evacuation. In June 1940, the squadron joined HMS ''Illustrious'', serving in the North Atlantic before moving to the Mediterranean Fleet in August and participated in the Taranto attack in November. After HMS ''Illustrious'' was severely damaged in January 1941, the squadron was disbanded. Reformed at HMS ''Daedalus'', RNAS Lee-on-Solent, in October, the squadron was again assigned to Coastal Command, later. In April 1943 it embarked in HMS ''Archer'' and provided anti-submarine protection for North Atlantic convoys. It became the first squadron to sink a U-boat using rockets. The squadron later bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Officer (armed Forces)
An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an Military, armed force or Uniformed services, uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer (NCO), or a warrant officer. However, absent contextual qualification, the term typically refers only to a force's ''commissioned officers'', the more senior members who derive their authority from a Commission (document), commission from the head of state. Numbers The proportion of officers varies greatly. Commissioned officers typically make up between an eighth and a fifth of modern armed forces personnel. In 2013, officers were the senior 17% of the British armed forces, and the senior 13.7% of the French armed forces. In 2012, officers made up about 18% of the German armed forces, and about 17.2% of the United States armed forces. Historically armed forces have generally had much lower proportions of officers. During the First World War, fewer than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naval Rating
In military terminology, a rate or rating (also known as bluejacket in the United States) is a junior enlisted sailor in a navy who is below the military rank of warrant officer. Depending on the country and navy that uses it, the exact term and the range of ranks that it refers to may vary. Royal Navy In the Royal Navy (RN) and other navies in the Commonwealth, ''rate'' and ''rating'' are interchangeably used to refer to an enlisted sailor who is ranked below warrant officers and commissioned officers, but may include petty officers and chief petty officers. Specifically, ''rate'' is the term used to describe generically all members of all ranks below a warrant officer; whereas ''rating'' is part of the official name of individual specific ranks, such as Able Rating and Leading Rating. The term comes from the general nautical usage of 'rating', to refer to a seaman's class or grade as recorded in the ship's books. The system of conferring authority on sailors i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flag Officer Commanding, Iceland (C)
The Flag Officer Commanding, Iceland (C) was an appointment of the British Royal Navy during the Second World War. His headquarters were at the stone frigate HMS Baldur, based at Hvitanes, in Hvalfjörður fjord, on the west coast of Iceland. It was initially administered by the Admiral Commanding, Iceland (C), then as the Flag Officer Commanding, Iceland (C), from 1942 to 1945. History Following the German invasion of Denmark in April 1940, Iceland, then in personal union with Denmark, declared neutrality throughout the rest of the war. Iceland's location was of strategic importance to the British who decided to station naval forces at a naval base called HMS Baldur at Hvitanes following the invasion of Iceland in May 1940. In addition it also established an accounting and accommodation shore base called HMS Baldur II. Iceland was an important base for North Atlantic convoys, patrol and anti-submarine duties. The Admiralty appointed a flag officer to administer the station. On ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Naval Reserve
The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Royal Naval Reserve, created in 1859, and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR), created in 1903. The Royal Naval Reserve has seen action in World War I, World War II, the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan. History Establishment The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) has its origins in the Register of Seamen, established in 1835 to identify men for naval service in the event of war, although just 400 volunteered for duty in the Crimean War in 1854 out of 250,000 on the Register. This led to a Royal Commission on Manning the Navy in 1858 and 1859, which in turn led to the Naval Reserve Act 1859. This established the RNR as a reserve of professional seamen from the British Merchant Navy and fishing fleets, who could be called upon durin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
