Deadly Chase by Ronald Wong Shortly after D-Day the menace of the V-1 was revealed. Fighter pilots
evolved a daring tactic to deal with these robot aircraft. Diving first to
build up their speed to match that of the V-1, they would pull alongside
and use the turbulent slipstream from their wing tips to topple the
missile and cause it to crash relatively harmlessly in the fields of South
East England.
Prelude to Peace by Ronald Wong
Pathfinder Mosquitoes precede a main force of Lancaster bombers to
mark out targets zones in the Netherlands fro supply drops during
Operation Manna, in the final week of the war In 1945 German Occupation forces flooded areas of Holland to slow down
the advance of the Allied forces. This had a catastrophic impact on the
food supplies for the civilian population. Faced with defeat, the German
forces extended an amnesty to the Allies to drop food supplies to the
Dutch.
Friendly Ordinance (Beer Run to Normandy) by Ronald Wong
As forward airfields were established in France after D-Day,
replacement fighters being ferried to the front line from South Coast
airfields were called upon to carry MoD XXX Depth Charges to support the
ground troops. The XXX beer was great for troop morale.
On Track by Ronald Wong A Tornado GR1 of 12 squadron RAF, carrying a comprehensive array of
weapons and defence measures streaks low on a training sortie.
Dzubeks Deblinskis by Ronald Wong
On January 14th, former personnel of the Polish Air Force's
C.W.L.
Deblin training centre were formed into number 315 Deblinski (City of
Deblin) Fighter Squadron at Acklington, England. This was the sixth Polish
squadron formed in the RAF from expatriate airmen to continue the fight
against Nazi Germany. In July 1944, the squadron flying the Mustang MkIII
(P51C), became part of the Air Defence of Great Britain (ADGB) where it's primary
role became "Diver Patrols" against V1 flying bombs from the
Continent, although it continued to fly armed reconnaissance, escort and
other mission over Occupied Europe. At this time the unit was led by the
legendary Squadron Leader Eugeniusz Horbaczewski (nicknamed "Dzubek")
who was to achieve 16½ victories in the air (5½ in the Mustang) plus 4
V1's downed. The stories of his courage were many, the most notable being
the occasion when he landed his Mustang on an uncompleted Normandy landing
strip and flew one of his downed pilots home on his lap. The outstanding
air battle for 315 squadron occurred on August 18, 1944 when it engaged
over 60 Luftwaffe fighters near Beauvais and destroyed 16 ME 109's and FW
190's for the loss of one of their own, which sadly was that of Dzubek
himself.
