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david leigh-smith
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On This Day…December 14th

December 14, 2018 · in News · · 10 · 2K

On 14th December, 1931, Douglas Bader crashed his Bristol Bulldog while executing a roll at ‘naught feet’ in response to a dare. In the first photo below his shoes can clearly be seen in the foreground of the devastated Bulldog. He famously returned to flying after losing both legs in the accident, accruing 22 ‘kills’ before being shot down in France, ultimately ending the war in Colditz.

‘Operation Hurricane’ was a 24 hour continuous bombing strategy that was designed and executed to demoralise & panic Germans while showing the overwhelming strength of the allies air superiority. Over 24 hours on December 24th, 1944 Bomber Command flew 2,589 sorties, lost 24 aircraft, dropped Over ten thousand tons of bombs and killed over 2,500 civilians in Duisburg alone. The Lancaster on the left (below) is seen dropping 4 lb incendiary bombs; on the right the aircraft is releasing 36 lb incendiaries and a 4, 000 lb ‘Blockbuster’ bomb.

December 14th, 1984 saw the first flight of the Grumman X-29.

Missouri Infantrymen (19th Infantry Regiment) pose for an early New Year message for the folks back home, Kumsong front, Korea, 14 December 1951.

M4 Sherman, Italy, Dec14th, 1943.

Reader reactions:
10  Awesome

10 responses

  1. Great Japanese propaganda cover, but I guess they would see it as a patriotic cover.

  2. David, my friend. I’m sending you some very peaceful regards from Germany. And with a great fellow countryman of yours:
    All we are saying is give peace a chance.

  3. Aquí en Toledo también le damos a la Guinness alguna que otra vez. Soy admirador de Bader y los Hurricane.Hace años me llamó la atención la geometría del X-29. Cuando sacó Hasegawa el
    X-29 a 1/72 no pude resistir hacer uno.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

  4. Johannes, it’s a strange thing that most modellers focus on the wars. There are never any winners in war, never. Talking, connecting, helping each other; that’s the way forward. In the wars, the ‘good’ side did bad things, and the ‘bad’ side did good things.

    Johannes, I send you peaceful regards to Germany from Scotland (but living in London, and very much an anti-brexit person).

  5. Gracias, mi amigo Europeo!

  6. Anti-Brexit. (or Anti-Brixit, as originally said) There's a new one on me! @dirtylittlefokker

    Peaceful greetings from Indianapolis!

  7. We've got a mock-up of the X-29 in storage at the Cradle of Aviation museum.

  8. You've come up with another excellent set of pictures. Thanks for posting my friend. I really look forward to this article every day.

  9. Very nice, as usual. The Lancaster photo has me wondering... the markings are the same aircraft. The clouds are different and there is a very slight angular change when looking at the forward antenna. I'm wondering if that is different payloads on the same flight, or what else might be going on. Are they able to carry that type of load?

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