Photos WW2 British & Commonwealth Forces

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There is often a price to pay
‘One more beat-up, me lads.’ Flying Officer Cobber Kain, DFC, a New Zealander and the RAF’s first ace of the Second World War makes a fatal mistake. On the 6th of June 1940, Kain was informed he would be returning to England the next day. The following morning, a group of his squadron mates gathered at the airfield at Échemines, France to bid him farewell as he took off in his Hurricane to fly to Le Mans to collect his kit. Unexpectedly, Kain began a “beat-up” of the airfield, performing a series of low-level aerobatics in Hurricane I L1826. Commencing a series of “flick” rolls, on his third roll, the ace misjudged his altitude and hit the ground heavily in a level attitude. Kain died when he was pitched out of the cockpit, striking the ground 27 m in front of the exploding Hurricane. Kain is buried in Choloy War Cemetery.
Image and caption thanks to www.vintagewings .ca

 

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Wing Commander W G G Duncan-Smith, Wing Commander Flying, No. 244 Wing RAF, with "Bonzo", a bulldog mascot of one of the squadrons of the Wing, standing by his personal communications aircraft, a commandeered Italian Saiman 202, at Tortorella, Italy.
Duncan-Smith joined the RAFVR as a Sergeant pilot before the War and flew his first operations with No. 611 Squadron RAF in October 1940. As his successes steadily mounted he was commissioned in spring 1941 and was then posted as a flight commander to No. 603 Squadron RAF in August 1941. Following a period of illness he was posted as adjutant to Southend airfield in January 1942, but eventually joined No. 411 Squadron RCAF as flight commander. In March 1942 Duncan-Smith was given the command of No. 604 Squadron RAF, and then led the Norwegian Spitfire Wing at North Weald until December 1942 when he was appointed Wing Commander Tactics at HQ Fighter Command. In May 1943 he arrived in the Mediterranean theatre, temporarily commanding the Luqa Fighter Wing on Malta before becoming Wing Leader of No. 244 Wing RAF in late July. Duncan Smith was promoted Group Captain in November 1943 and took command of of No. 324 Wing RAF with whom he continued to fly operationally until March 1945. His final victory score was 17 enemy aircraft confirmed destroyed and two shared.
Source: IWM

 

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Papua New Guinea. What was the cost for all. Invaded by a foreign military force the local papuans worked tirelessly to protect their lands.An ill-fated team of Coastwatchers on the U.S. Submarine DACE, about to be landed at night on beach near Hollandia, New Guinea. They were ambushed and all killed.

 

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Lt Fathergill, CO of 'B' Squadron, 107th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps, 34th Tank Brigade, with two of his crew cleaning a Besa machine-gun in front of their Churchill tank, 17 July 1944.

 

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The Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Winston Churchill, MP, with men of the 50th Division who took part in the D-Day landings. Behind the Prime Minister is General Sir Bernard Montgomery. Caen, France. 22 July 1944.

 

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A group of gunners from Robin Force standing around one of two six inch heavy coastal artillery guns in a battery recently completed at Ouen Toro, a position overlooking Noumea.
The two six inch New Zealand manufactured guns were part of the reinforcements sent by the Australian War Cabinet to bolster the Free French forces defending New Caledonia. Robin Force consisted mainly of the 3rd Independent (Commando) Company, but also included an artillery component commanded by NX71033 Captain (Capt) Charles Harris Arnell Carty-Salmon, Royal Australian Artillery (RAA). The gunners and supporting engineers arrived at Noumea on 21 July 1941 and commenced work on the two gun positions. Capt Carty-Salmon's team quickly constructed the gun emplacements, assembled the guns with support from local labour and trained the Free French Militia in their use.
New Caledonia - May 1941.

 

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WW2 - Men of the 6th Inniskillings, 38th Irish Brigade (Irish infantry regiment of the British Army) searching houses during mopping up operations in Centuripe, Sicily, August 1943. (IWM NA 5388) (my colorization)
The landing in Sicily (codename Operation Husky) was carried out by the Allies on the Sicilian coast on July 9, 1943, during the Second World War, with the aim of opening a front in continental Europe, invading Italy and, finally, to concentrate their efforts against Nazi Germany later. After the fall of Pantelleria (Operation Corkscrew), it was the first major operation of the allied troops on Italian soil during the war and marked the beginning of the Italian campaign.

 

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1st Corps Troops
Royal Canadian Army Service Corps (Res.)
Petawawa, July 4, 1945
Circled is Royal Lavoie

 

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Gunners of the 2nd Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, pushing a 3.7-inch anti-aircraft gun through mud, Dunkirk, France. 1 February 1945.

 

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Private Robert A. Boicey of the Signals Platoon, 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, cleaning his weapon in a German home, Lembeck, Germany, 29 March 1945.

 

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South African soldiers inspect an abandoned Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor captured in an airfield in the mediterranean island of Rhodes.
The year is 1945.

 

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Tommies, somewhere in Germany in early 1945.

 

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British paratroopers in firing position, overlooked by the Acropolis, Athens, Greece during the ‘December Events’. 1944.

 

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German POWs help unload a truck from a tank landing craft LCT 2045 near Ouistreham, Courseulles, 11 June 1944.
Source: IWM

 

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A sniper from C Company, 5th Battalion, The Black Watch , 51st Highland Division, taking aim in the loft space of a ruined building in Gennep, Holland. February, 14 1945.

 

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Royal Navy Bomb Disposal Personnel examine an Italian Motobomba FFF Air-Dropped Torpedo in Algiers during Operation Torch - November 1942
The Motobomba FFF was an electric torpedo which was parachute dropped, once in the water it was designed to run concentric spirals of between 550-4370 yards (500-4000m) until it found a target, it weighed 770 lbs (350 kg)
They were also used by the Luftwaffe, with the most successful use of them being on December 2, 1943 when a force of 105 Ju 88s attacked Bari Harbor in Italy with Motobomba FFFs, destroying 16 Allied ships including the SS John Harvey, which was carrying mustard gas

 

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Infantrymen of The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, who are wearing British winter camouflage clothing, on patrol near Nijmegen, Netherlands, 22 January 1945.

 

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Gunners from Canadian Royal Artillery.

 

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Montgomery with his dogs, Hitler and Rommel... Normandy, 1944.

 

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On the 3rd of February in 1943, 416 squadron, RCAF, had a disastrous day - four pilots were shot down, by FW190s of JG26, though only one lost his life, F/O Robert Jack 'Paddy' Turp...
'Paddy' was brought up labouring on his family's farm in King, Ontario, and had never even flown in an aircraft prior to enlisting in the RCAF, in 1940. On his enlistment paperwork, he wrote that he intended to study voice after completing his war service. He wanted to become a concert baritone singer - an aspiration he never fulfilled.