On This Day...November 12th.

A really nice photo of a SBD-5 Dauntless flying over the USS Washington (with the USS Lexington in the beckground) heading toward the Gilbert Islands, 12 Nov 1943.

In this photo, members of an RAF technical intelligence team are seen climbing over a Dornier 217 that crash landed on October 12, 1941 near Rye in South East England. The Dornier crew had fallen victim to a regular mistake with pilots in the war, confusing the Bristol Channel (between Wales and Cornwall) for the English Channel (between England and France). Running out of fuel the pilot crash landed in what he thought was inland Northern France. The aircraft was dismantled and transported to the RAF at Farnborough, where it underwent detailed examination and testing.

A superb photo of a Universal Carrier (of 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment) literally flying down a hill , 12 November 1942 at 'Battle School' in Scotland.

On 12th November, 1944, thirty two RAF and RAAF Lancaster bombers left England for Norway flying at at low level to attack the Tirpitz. This photo reconnaissance shot shows the last moments of the destroyer in the the fjord at Tromso. Operation 'Catechism' was the ninth attempt by the RAF to sink the German battleship Tirpitz and the twenty-fifth by British forces in general.