Photos WW2 British & Commonwealth Forces

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29 Sept 1942. Avro Lancaster R5740/`KM-O' taxis out at Waddington, Lincolnshire for air-to-air photography. At the controls is Squadron Leader Pat Burnett, the B Flight Commander of No 44 Squadron RAF.

 

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Stirling bombers, acting as glider tugs, lining at the runway at Tarrant Rushton, England, May-Jun 1944.

 

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Spitfire Mk.IIA of 72 Fighter Squadron, RAF, based at Aklingtone, off the coast of Northumbria. Pilot Robert Elliot. April 1941.

 

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RAF Mustang Mk IIIs of 19 Sqn. based at Ford, Sussex painted with white nose and wing stripes to prevent mistaking them as Bf109s, April 21, 1944

 

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On this day in 1944, Normandy. Major "Spike" Galloway (6 Durham LI) from Newcastle, goes off to hospital after his wounded arm had been attended to at a Regimental Aid Post.

He was later KIA By a tree burst on 12 Aug 1944 near Le Plessis Grimault , he is buried with some of his lads in St Manvieu

 

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Balikpapan, Borneo, 1 July 1945. Troops of 2/9 Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers, searching for mines soon after the Oboe 2 Operation landing by 7 Division.

 

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17 June 1940, during Operation Aerial, RMS Lancastria was attacked by the Luftwaffe & sunk in 20 mins near St-Nazaire. 3,000 to 5,800 fatalities in Britain's worst maritime disaster - greater than Titanic & Lusitania combined. 2,477 survivors. Churchill imposed a media blackout on news.

 

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OTD in 1944, Southampton. After delivering tanks in Normandy, LCT 921 was struck by a torpedo, but made it back

 

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OTD in 1944, Tilly-sur-Seulles area, France. Men from 2 Essex passing a knocked out Panther tank.

OTD in 1944, Tilly-sur-Seulles, France. The remains of a Universal carrier blown up by a mine.

 

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Bristol Blenheim 1941

 

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OTD 1943. Lieutenant C.W. Malins, commander of the destroyer HMS Easton.

Easton was a Hunt-Class destroyer, completed in 1942. She served primarily in the Med, where in 1943 she was badly damaged ramming and sinking a U-Boat. Repairs lasted well into 1944 but the lasting effects of the collision led to her being laid up after the war.

 

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Stirling Mark I, R9254, fitted with H2S radar at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, Boscombe Down, Wiltshire. This aircraft was passed to No. 214 Squadron RAF for operational service, and finally to No. 1653 Conversion Unit.

 

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Lancaster fitted with Radar, Air-to-Surface Vessel (ASV) with "Yagi" arrays for forward-search

 

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Undated, Egypt. No need for glass. Twin-Browning machine gun mounting in the tail of a Liberator Mark II from 159 Squadron

 

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Anstruther, Scotland. A member of a navy mine disposal unit, after defusing yet another mine

 

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Tank crew from 3/4 County of London Yeomanry "Sharpshooters".

 

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North Africa. Soldiers from Indian 4 Division. ("Hellfire Pass" was the nickname for the strategically important Halfaya Pass, fortified by the Germans and which the British attacked, unsuccessfully, during operation Battleaxe.)

 

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A British soldier of the Welsh Guards with an American M1 Garand during Operation Veritable, Reichswald Forest, 1944

 

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New Zealand tanks wait to be ferried across the Adige in northern Italy while lighter vehicles cross a pontoon bridge, 28 March 1945.

 

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Bougainville Campaign. Battle of Slater's Knoll. 30 March 1945. Australian 2/4th Armoured Regiment Matilda tanks advance along Buin Road over Slater's Knoll, towards the Hongorai River. They are supported by 25 Infantry Battalion troops and a bulldozer