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| Signatures on this item | |
| Name | Info |
| Pilot Officer Tom Wilson | A pilot with 192 Sqn he flew 13 operations on Wellingtons. In May 1943 whilst his crew was carrying out a top secret mission to test a captured German Radar his aircraft was shot down by a German night fighter and he served the rest of the War as a PoW. |
| Warrant Officer Dennis Slack | Upon completing his training on Wellingtons, Dennis was assigned to 158 Sqn as a Bomb Aimer on Halifaxes. In 1943 he was shot down whilst on a raid to Berlin and spent the rest of the war as a PoW in Stalag Luft IV b. |
| The Aircraft : | |
| Name | Info |
| Me109 | Willy Messerschmitt designed the BF109 during the early 1930s. The Bf109 was one of the first all metal monocoque construction fighters with a closed canopy and retractable undercarriage. The engine of the Me109 was a V12 aero engine which was liquid-cooled. The Bf109 first saw operational service during the Spanish Civil War and flew to the end of World War II, during which time it was the backbone of the Luftwaffe fighter squadrons. During the Battle of Britian the Bf109 was used in the role of an escort fighter, a role for which it was not designed for, and it was also used as a fighter bomber. During the last days of May 1940 Robert Stanford-Tuck, the RAF ace, got the chance to fly an Me109 which they had rebuilt after it had crash landed. Stanford-Tuck found out that the Me109 was a wonderful little plane, it was slightly faster than the Spitfire, but lacked the Spitfire manoeuvrability. By testing the Me109, Tuck could put himself inside the Me109 when fighting them, knowing its weak and strong points. With the introduction of the improved Bf109F in the spring of 1941, the type again proved to be an effective fighter during the invasion of Yugoslavia and during the Battle of Crete and the invasion of Russia and it was used during the Siege of the Mediteranean island of Malta. The Bf109 was the main fighter for the Luftwaffe until 1942 when the Fw190 entered service and shared this position, and was partially replaced in Western Europe, but the Me109 continued to serve on the Eastern Front and during the defence of the Reich against the allied bombers. It was also used to good effect in the Mediterranean and North Africa in support of The Africa Korps. The Me109 was also supplied to several German allies, including Finland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Slovakia. The Bf109 scored more kills than any other fighter of any country during the war and was built in greater numbers with a total of over 31,000 aircraft being built. The Bf109 was flown by the three top German aces of the war war. Erich Hartmann with 352 victories, Gerhard Barkhorn with 301 victories and Gunther Rall with 275 kills. Bf109 pilots were credited with the destruction of 100 or more enemy aircraft. Thirteen Luftwaffe Aces scored more than 200 kills. Altogether this group of pilots were credited with a total of nearly 15,000 kills, of which the Messerschmitt Bf109 was credited with over 10,000 of these victories. The Bf109 was the most produced warplane during World War II, with 30,573 examples built during the war, and the most produced fighter aircraft in history, with a total of 33,984 units produced up to April 1945. Bf109s remained in foreign service for many years after World War II. The Swiss used their Bf109Gs well into the 1950s. The Finnish Air Force did not retire their Bf109Gs until March 1954. Romania used its Bf109s until 1955. The Spanish Hispanos flew even longer. Some were still in service in the late 1960s. |
| Anson | |
This Week's Half Price Art | |||
  Desert Prang by Geoff Lea. Half Price! - £20.00 |   easyJet Airbus A319 by Ivan Berryman. (P) Half Price! - £700.00 |   Sunday Afternoon by Geoffrey R Herickx. (Y) Half Price! - £25.00 |   Immelmanns Last Flight by Ivan Berryman. (Y) Half Price! - £40.00 |
  Jaguar Flight Test On by Geoff Lea (P) Half Price! - £1300.00 |   Hurricane Mk.IIC by Ivan Berryman. Half Price! - £45.00 |   Sinking of U-Boat 347 by Tim Fisher. Half Price! - £22.00 |   Summer of 44 by Nicolas Trudgian. Half Price! - £100.00 |
| Battle of Britain Timeline of Related Info : 25th May | |||
| DAY | MONTH | YEAR | DETAILS |
| 25 | May | 1942 | Former Belgian Battle of Britain pilot, P/O R. G. C. de H. De Grunne of 32 Squadron, was Killed. |
| 25 | May | 1942 | Former British Battle of Britain pilot, P/O J. B. Kendal of 66 Squadron, was Killed. |
| 25 | May | 1942 | Former Polish Battle of Britain pilot, P/O J. S. DFC Jankiewicz of 601 Squadron, was Killed. |
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