Photos WW2 British & Commonwealth Forces

[BravoZulu]

A shot-down Hawker Typhoon IB of 245 squadron RAF. The fuselage shows extensive flak damage and some blackening from fire. The aircraft still bears its invasion stripes from the D-Day landings and in the foreground is a 3 and a quarter inch (60 pound) rocket.

On 2 August 1943, Hampden torpedo bombers of No 455 Squadron RAAF attacked a convoy off the Norwegian coast. This aircraft (L4105/D) suffered massive flak damage to its tail – half the elevator was blown away, the starboard fin twisted and the port rudder fouled by debris. The crew were forced to lash a rope around the rudder bar and took turns helping the pilot, Flying Officer Iain Masson, hold the aircraft straight as they limped back to Leuchars for a crash-landing.

A Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vb from No. 92 Squadron (QJ-E), Royal Air Force, which made a forced landing near El Alamein, just off the main Alexandria-Mersa Matruh road.

Avro Lancaster B Mark I, ME590 ‘SR-C’, of No. 101 Squadron RAF, lies on the FIDO (Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation) pipework at Ludford Magna, Lincolnshire, after a successful crash-landing on returning from a raid to Augsburg on the night of 25/26 February 1944.

Flying Officer Lee Turner RAAF (navigator, left) and Flying Officer Steve Sykes RAAF (pilot, right) of No. 455 Squadron RAAF, inspect the top of an armed trawler’s mast which became embedded in the nose of their Bristol Beaufighter TF Mark X during a low-level attack on enemy shipping in the harbour of Marsdiep, Holland, by the combined Langham and North Coates Strike Wings on 12 September 1944. Sykes brought the damaged aircraft back to Langham and made a successful crash-landing, in which Turner was slightly injured.

An Advanced Servicing Unit dismantles Supermarine Spitfire Mark IX, EN459 ‘ZX-1’, of the Polish Fighting Team, attached to No 145 Squadron, RAF in Tunisia. The aircraft was damaged on 6 April 1943 when, after shooting down a Messerschmitt Bf 109, it was attacked by another Bf 109 and hit in the engine. The pilot, Flight Lieutenant Eugeniusz Horbaczewski, was able to glide in to Gabes for a forced landing.

A German soldier near a crashed Curtiss Kittyhawk I fighter from No. 260 Squadron, Royal Air Force (squadron code A-HS), in North Africa.

 

[Bombardier]

ON BOARD HMS KING GEORGE V WHEN SHE TOOK LORD AND LADY HALIFAX TO AMERICA IN JANUARY 1941.. © IWM (A 2856) IWM Non Commercial License


BRITISH SUBMARINE TAURUS HOME FROM THE EAST. 2 JULY 1944, AT HMS FORTH, GREENOCK. THE RETURN OF THE TAURUS AFTER A SUCCESSFUL PATROL OF 19 MONTHS IN EASTERN WATERS. HER JOLLY ROGER SHOWS 18 GUN ACTIONS, INCLUDING ONE WITH A WARSHIP; 6 SHIPS SUNK BY TORPEDO AND ONE DAMAGED; ONE U-BOAT PROBABLY SUNK; FIVE SPECIAL MISSIONS; AND 24 MINES DESTROYED.. © IWM (A 24615) IWM Non Commercial License


ON BOARD THE BATTLESHIP HMS NELSON AT SEA. 1940.. © IWM (A 1995) IWM Non Commercial License


ASDIC APPARATUS. 21 JULY 1944, HMS OSPREY, DUNOON, SCOTLAND.. © IWM (A 24878) IWM Non Commercial License


FLEET AIR ARM ACTIVITIES AT HMS SPARROWHAWK, ROYAL NAVAL AIR STATION HATSTON. MARCH 1942.. © IWM (A 9023) IWM Non Commercial License

 

[Bombardier]

Hey @BravoZulu should I change the title to read

WW2 British & Commonwealth Forces ?

 

[BravoZulu]

Hey @BravoZulu should I change the title to read

WW2 British & Commonwealth Forces ?

Excellent idea and done and dusted mate

 

[BravoZulu]

40 mm (2pdr) Mk VIII pompoms on Mk VII mounting aboard HMAS Nizam (G38)

8-barrelled "Chicago piano" on HMS Rodney, viewed from below

Gunners on HMCS Assiniboine fire their 2 pdr while escorting a troop convoy from Halifax to Britain, 10 July 1940.

A stack of 14 linked rounds of naval pom-pom ammunition.

Pom-pom directors, Mk IV on HMS King George V. The large rectangular box centered above the director contains the gyro rate unit. This image was taken early in King George V's career as the directors do not yet have Type 282 radar.

 

[BravoZulu]

Kamikaze attack on HMS Suffolk

 

[BravoZulu]

King George V class battleship HMS Howe

HMS Montclare (F85) a passenger ship requisitioned by the Royal Navy and converted to an Armed Merchant Cruiser.
On 28 August 1939 the Montclare was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted to an Armed Merchant Cruiser being commissioned as such in October 1939. On 2 June 1942 she was sold to the Admiralty. Now HMS Montclare, she was converted to a Destroyer Depot Ship, completing in 1944. She sailed from the Clyde on 1 March 1945 in convoy via the Suez Canal, arriving in Sydney on 20 April 1945. She then sailed to Manus in the Admiralty Islands to support the destroyers of Task Force 57 on Operation Iceberg – the conquest of Okinawa and Sakishma Gunto islands. Rear Admiral D. B. Fisher CB CBE then took her as his flagship for the Pacific Fleet Train (Task Force 112) with the British Pacific Fleet until the war finished. She remained mainly in Manus until 4 September 1945, when she sailed to Hong Kong arriving on 9 September for the re-occupation of Hong Kong. She finally left Hong Kong on 3 January 1946, her crew having played a vital part in getting the Colony back on its feet again. She arrived back in Portsmouth on 21 February 1946, and was reduced to Reserve status prior to conversion to Submarine Depot Ship, in which role she spent a lot of time at Rothesay.[3] In 1953 she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

In October 1954 HMS Montclare was decommissioned, being replaced as the 3rd Submarine Flotilla depot ship by HMS Adamant and laid up on the Gare Loch and then at Portsmouth. In January 1958 she was sold for scrap to Thos W Ward at Inverkeithing. Arriving there on 2 February, the scrapping commenced the next day.

HMS Rodney, cleaning of the boom while at anchor - HMS Renown is in the right background, 1940.

Aircraft Maintenance Vessel HMS Unicorn and HMS Saumarez in July 1943.

https://militaryimages.net/threads/navies-of-all-nations.8692/page-59

 

[BravoZulu]

Churchill tanks of 107th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps (King's Own), 34th Tank Brigade, at the start of the Reichswald battle, 9 February 1945

 

[BravoZulu]

July 1944 Normandy. Collection point for wrecks. A knocked out Canadian Sherman, likely from the ambush of the 11th June 1944. 1st Hussars clashed with 12th SS Hitler Jugend Division at Mesnil Patry.

 

[BravoZulu]

Canada:
"Bert" from the Calgary Regiment, Dieppe, 19th August 1942

 

[BravoZulu]

Australian members of the 2/1st Armoured Brigade Reconnaissance Squadron (officially the Armoured Squadron (Special Equipment) demonstrating a Matilda Frog flamethrower tank to senior officers from the Australian Army's I Corps and 7th Division at Morotai, 10 June 1945

 

[BravoZulu]

Canada:
HMCS Haida moored as museum ship at Hamilton, Ontario. Photo taken on December 2, 2006

 

[BravoZulu]

New Zealand:
HMNZS Leander underway on the Brisbane River. Photographed taken from Australian auxiliary cruiser HMAS Kanimbla, 1941

 

[BravoZulu]

HMS Campbeltown being inspected by German officers shortly before she explodes, killing 250 and rendering the drydock she rammed useless for the remainder of the war.

The obsolete battleship HMS Centurion dressed up as HMS Anson for Operation Vigorous, June 1942

https://militaryimages.net/threads/navies-of-all-nations.8692/page-61

 

[uktabber]

I have always wanted to see (maybe they're out there and I just missed them) pictures of HMS Campbeltown and the locks after see exploded to see what the damage was she inflected. What a mission, and of course all the dock workers and Kregsmarine & Nazi ofcrs standing around admiring their misperceived luck! BOOM!!

 

[digrar]

The St Nazaire Raid really needs another movie made about it. 89 awards, 5 VCs, it's a big story.

 

[BravoZulu]

I have always wanted to see (maybe they're out there and I just missed them) pictures of HMS Campbeltown and the locks after see exploded to see what the damage was she inflected. What a mission, and of course all the dock workers and Kregsmarine & Nazi ofcrs standing around admiring their misperceived luck! BOOM!!

Close up of the fo'c'sle and damage by guns and fire

The only image I have found on the aftermath, The wrecked Campbeltown (her foreends towards the camera) inside the lock. Note the Normandie's docking blocks, the ruined caisson at the right rear of the lock and the sand wall sealing all.

Aerial photo taken some months after Operation 'Chariot'. The Normandie Dock has been sealed and work is in progress restoring the facility In the middle of the pic, the stern half of the Campbeltown sits on the bottom, the forward section having been blown to pieces.
**That's a sand wall at left of the image, the dock was out of commission until the 1950's**

 

[uktabber]

Wow, thank you BZ, some great pictures there of that operation!! Lads did a brilliant job of it!

 

[BravoZulu]

A Canadian member of the joint American-Canadian landing force squints down the sights of a Japanese machine gun found in a trench on Kiska Island, Alaska, on August 16, 1943

 

[BravoZulu]

HMS Hood

HMS Hood at anchor off Newcastle, Northern Ireland.

HMS Duke of York, in 1943 prior to the Battle of North Cape. Seen here off Iceland

HMS Duke of York, June 1943. In this configuration she fought the Scharnhorst

HMS King George V, in late 1945