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RFC 2: A Brief Passing Thought 1914-1918 (Revised)
The Royal Flying Corps (1912-1918) is the very foundation stone of the Royal Air Force, the world’s first independent air force, founded on 1 April 1918 at the height of the First World War.
RFC 1: The Royal Flying Corps ~ An Introduction
I’d enjoyed reading the Biggles stories as a boy in the early 1960s when they came out each Saturday in picture format; and very soon I moved on to the Second World War. Very quickly, the predecessor to the Royal Air Force faded into memory.
Finding this title on a visit to Winchcombe in March 2023 well, what a find! Why so?
RAF 41: Parents Pointed and Whispered to Children … … ‘Spitfire!’ …
“Confrontation at Beachy Head” by William S Phillips, framed signed edition 940/1000 owned by Kenneth Thomas Webb and which is mounted in the Study.
Beachy Head, East Sussex is the prominent headland on the English Channel coast , famous for its chalk cliffs, more than 500 ft (150 m) high, rand which mark the seaward extension of the South Downs.
Here is invader and defender.
RAF 38: ‘And Fifty Nine of Our Aircraft Have Failed to Return’
Flt Lt Ken Webb, the nephew of Sgt Plt Kenneth E Webb, giving an Address at the Memorial Ceremony on 4 August 2018.
I remember this point well. I was remarking that beneath me, the pilot and crew had come to rest, where I stand is the exact outward reach of the shattered cockpit perspex during excavations, and no one in my family would have thought that this would one day happen. That it did, is entirely due to the tireless work of IG HEIMATFORSCHUNG Rheinland-Phalz and the lead archaeologist, Erik Wieman. KTW
RAF 15: Operation Frothblower ~ Plzen 16-17 April 1943 (revised edition)
The starboard wing of a Handley Page Halifax in the Yorkshire Air Museum at the former RAF Elvington, Yorkshire. I took this picture standing just below the cockpit where my father’s brother, Sgt-Plt Kenneth Webb sat in his own Halifax Mk V DK165 MP-E.
Beneath the starboard outer engine stands a Messerschmitt Bf 109. I was really pleased to see how the two aircraft were displayed, for it also shows the size of the attacker and the size of the defender, both lethal in their own way.
Kenneth Webb Flt Lt Rtd
Nephew of Sergeant Pilot Kenneth Webb RAF (1921-1943)
RAF 11: The Free Polish Air Force Guardng Sentinel Britain 1940
A famous Wartime 1940 Royal Air Force Poster that reminded gently and firmly that the Free Polish Air Force was an integral and aggressive part of the Royal Air Force.
The poster is by courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ
RAF 5: Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris GCB DSO OBE and His Tribute to the Polish and Czech Squadrons
A Hawker Hurricane awaits the “scramble”. We get an idea of the kit worn when flying and fighting for one’s life. Image is believed to be of a hurricane Squadron during the Battle of Britain 10 Jul-30 August 1940 ‘somewhere in Britain’, its source possibly being IWM. As soon as the correct sourse and data is located, this will be updated and credited.
RAF 13: THE HALIFAX SQUADRONS
This IWM photograph is captioned CH 10593. Low-level 'beat-up'. A Halifax II JB911/KN-X of No 77 Squadron roars low over an audience of appreciative 'erks' during air tests at Elvington Yorkshire July 1943.
With thanks to IWM for this wonderful insight into our ground and aircrews. KTW
RAF 36: Will They Get Us, Dad? What Are We Going To Do, Dad?
Children watch the battle raging high above the City of London during the Battle of Britain, 1940. Against all odds, and in defiance of those who were cynical, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland held firm. What the British People did in 1940, the Ukrainian People are doing now in 2024, and they are doing it that we who believe in freedom and democracy, will see Putinism defeated.
RAF 30: A Shaky Do ~ The Plzen Raid 16-17 April 1943 by P W Cunliffe ~ Revised Book Review
The author Peter Wilson Cunliffe presenting a copy of the First Edition of A Shaky Do to the Royal Air Force at the book’s launch.
RAF 34: Short Stirling BK716 HA-J (Revised Edition)
1:2 This superb monument is in Almere, near Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Partly made with the engine of Short Stirling BK716 from 218 (Gold Coast) Sqn that was salvaged from the Markermeer. It flew from RAF Downham Market, Norfolk.
2:2 Amongst the wreckage were the remains of the crew (five British and two Canadian) who will be buried in Jonkerbos Military cemetery today. Source: Battlefields Experience, the link to which can be found in this Paper.
RAF 12: When the Most Practical Thing is to Simply Live for the Day ~ THIS Day NOT Tomorrow
Sgt-Plt Kenneth Ernest ‘Ken’ Webb RAF at Craig Field Alabama as an S.A.C. in No 1 Dress Uniform wearing his RAF and USAAF Wings April 1942. The fountain pen is that of his mother, Mrs Isabel Webb which my father gave to me in 1966.
RAF 10: Operation Frothblower and Operation Chubb ~ 16-17 April 1943 RAF Bomber Command
Handley Page Halifax W7805 MP-M 3 April 1943with its Ground Crew on 3 April 1943 at RAF Linton-on-Ouse, North Yorkshire, UK.
RAF 39: Hiding in Plain Sight
To hide in plain sight, to carry false guilt, to know what will happen because texts written thousands of years ago are regarded as at the behest of some Deity… THAT is a glimpse of Hell on Earth
When the English Language is at its Most Eloquent
Portrait of Alexander Hamilton depicting him addressing the Assembly, Congress, Capitol Hill, Washington DC and where the portrait hangs in the Library at Congress. One wonders what would have happened to it had the Rioters succeeded in their storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2021?
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written by Kenneth Webb
