Suppressing enemy air activity to protect the Allied beachheads in Normandy was one of the RAF's key roles in June 1944. On 7 June, D-Day+1, the Spitfires of 443 Squadron flew cover patrols without incident until their third sortie of the day, when 'B' flight spotted four Luftwaffe Bf109s to the east of Caen.
Flight Lieutenant Hugh Russell and Flying Officer Gordon Ockenden pursued one of them towards the coast, catching up with it "on the deck" at the mouth of the River Orne, just east of one of the British assault beaches, codenamed Sword.
In WWII, the remarkable Air Transport Auxiliary force of civilian pilots freed up Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm pilots for the fighting by ferrying new aircraft from factories to their squadrons or from squadrons to maintenance units for repairs.
Its members, eventually numbering more than 1,300 from 28 countries, were excluded from military service because of their health, age - or sex: 168 of the pilots were women. The ATA's unofficial motto was "anything to anywhere'.
"D-Day Stirlings and gliders" - by Flight Artworks
The picture depicts Operation Mallard on the evening of 6 June 1944 which delivered the British 6th Airborne Division into German-occupied Normandy aboard Airspeed Horsa gliders towed by a variety of heavy aircraft, including these Short Stirlings of Nos 196 and 299 Squadrons. They were escorted by (among others) Mk VA Supermarine Spitfires from No 345 Squadron.
"In Safe Hands" UK Special Forces Medical Group artwork by Stuart Brown.
The Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) aboard a CH47 Chinook above Southern Afghanistan, battles to save the life of an injured soldier. Drawn from all three Armed Services the MERT is a multi disciplinary, highly trained and extremely motivated team whose over arching aim is to save those injured in Afghanistan and beyond. Artwork was commissioned by the UK Special Forces Medical Group.
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