This Date in Aviation History: May 19 - May 22

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 05/22/2018 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, planelopnik history, Planelopnik

9

10

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Welcome to This Date in Aviation History , getting of you caught up on milestones, important historical events and people in aviation from May 19 through May 22.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Author unknown)

May 19, 1891 – The birth of Oswald Boelcke. When WWI broke out in Europe in 1914, only 11 years had passed since the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! took the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. But aircraft development in the intervening years had been rapid, and it wasn’t long before airplanes were appearing over the battlefield. At first, they were scout planes, providing reconnaissance on enemy positions in a similar fashion as the original scouts on horseback, and opposing pilots often passed each other with a friendly wave. But it wasn’t long before the pilots and scouts began taking pistols and rifles into the air, which then gave way to machine guns. Soon, scout planes had become dedicated fighter planes, and pilots wheeled and turned in combat in the rarefied air high above the mud and blood of the trenches. At first, aerial combat was very much a one-on-one affair, with lone pilots ranging across enemy lines seeking out an opponent. But it quickly became evident that groups of aircraft were more effective than a single fighter, and one man, Oswald Boelcke, was the first to codify the tactics of aerial combat.

Fokker E.I monoplane of the type flown by Boelcke (San Diego Air and Space Museum)

Bolcke was born in Giebichenstein in eastern Germany, joined the military in 1911, and eventually becoming an officer in the Prussian Army. He started flying in 1914 and, by 1915, he was assigned to an observer unit. Before long, Boelcke, who was flying with another fighter pioneer, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , received a new !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighter that had a machine gun synchronized to fire through the propeller. Along with his comrades, Boelcke soon became an ace, and eventually led his own fighter squadron. He also tutored !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , better known as The Red Baron. But Boelcke’s most lasting contribution to combat aviation came in his list of fighter tactics known as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Contrary to the single combat practiced at the beginning of the war, Boelcke advocated fighting in groups, and many of his tenets still hold true to this day.

Try to secure advantages before attacking. If possible, keep the sun behind you.

Always follow through an attack when you have started it.

Fire only at close range, and only when your opponent is properly in your sights.

Always keep your eye on your opponent, and never let yourself be deceived by ruses.

In any form of attack it is essential to assail your opponent from behind.

If your opponent dives on you, do not try to evade his onslaught, but fly to meet it.

When over enemy lines, never forget your line of retreat.

For the Jasta (squadron): Attack in groups of four or six. When the fight breaks up into a series of single combats, take care that several do not go for one opponent.

Obviously, in the modern age of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (BVR) missiles and radar, some of these tactics must be modified. But the concepts of placing the sun at your back, never fighting without a wingman, and keeping sight of your opponent, still hold true today. As tactics evolved into the Second World War, Dicta Boelcke served as the basis for others to expand upon, such as the RAF ace !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! who put forth 15 rules, and RAF pilot and ace !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , who had his own set of ten rules, again expanding on the groundbreaking work of Boelcke.

Boelcke’s Fokker D.III on display at the Zeughaus museum in Berlin. Boelcke scored eight victories in this aircraft in 1916, but was destroyed by Allied bombers in 1943. (US Navy)

There is a well-known axiom in the world of fighter pilots: “There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.” Such was the fate of Oswald Bolcke, who was bold, but did not grow old. On October 28, 1916, Boelcke set out on his sixth sortie of the day with five other pilots, including two of his brightest students, Manfred von Richthofen and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . While attacking a British !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighter, Bolcke and Böhme collided. Bolcke managed to land, but his improperly secured lap belt did not restrain him, and he was killed. Boelcke was only 25 years old.  

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Library of Congress)

May 21, 1927 – Charles Lindbergh completes his solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.   !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was an English mountaineer who made three unsuccessful attempts to climb Mt. Everest in the early 1920s. When asked why he wanted to risk his life climbing the world’s tallest mountain, Mallory famously replied, “Because it’s there.” Unfortunately for Mallory, his third attempt cost him his life, and his frozen body wasn’t found until 1999. But the urge to conquer natural obstacles wasn’t limited to those on the ground. As the history of aviation progressed from the earliest attempts at flight, it was natural that aviators would seek to break through barriers of speed, altitude and distance, and traverse natural boundaries that had never been crossed before. One of the first early maritime obstacles was the English Channel, but beyond that, the oceans seemed an insurmountable barrier between continents.

The Ryan NYP, better known as the Spirit of St. Louis (Donald Hall Collection)

By the time of Charles Lindbergh decided to have a go at it, the need to cross the Atlantic Ocean was no longer just because it was there, but because there was money to be made. Though he made an international name for himself with his crossing of the Atlantic, Lindbergh was by no means the first, nor the first to make the trip nonstop. That honor goes to the British duo of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , who made the flight from Newfoundland to Ireland in 1919 flying a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . By the time Lindbergh made his flight eight years later, he was the 19th person to cross the Atlantic. But what made his flight significant was that he did not fly from the closest points between the continents. Instead, he flew between two major cities from which future passenger flights might originate. And he flew alone.

A cutaway drawing of the Spirit of St. Louis showing the huge fuel tank in the front of the aircraft, as well as the fuel tanks in the wings. (National Air and Space Museum)

In the shadow of more famous aviators who tried—or died trying—to claim the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a $25,000 award to the first aviator to fly from New York to Paris, or vice versa, Lindbergh was a relative unknown, a civilian air mail pilot who struggled to find financial backing to fund his flight. Starting with $2,000 of his own savings, he eventually secured a loan from investors to purchase a custom built Ryan monoplane, officially known as the NYP (for New York to Paris). The aircraft was dubbed the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!   in honor of the bankers and other financial supporters in the Missouri city who bankrolled his endeavor. The NYP was designed by Lindbergh and the Ryan Company’s chief engineer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as a high-wing monoplane with a fabric skin and powered by a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engine that gave the aircraft a top speed of 133 mph. A 450-gallon fuel tank sat directly in front of the cockpit, and was separated from the engine by an oil tank. This meant that the Spirit had no front windscreen, and visibility was limited to two side windows. To see forward, Lindbergh had to yaw the aircraft to the left or right. The first flight of the NYP took place on April 28, 1927, just three weeks before Lindbergh’s attempt to cross the Atlantic.

On the morning of May 20, weighed down by 2,700 pounds of fuel, the Spirit of St. Louis struggled to leave muddy Roosevelt Field on Long Island, only just clearing telephone lines at the end of the field. Once in the air, the early spring weather proved treacherous, and Lindbergh dealt with towering storm clouds and icing, flying as high as 10,000 feet to pass a storm, and sometimes dropping as low as 10 feet above the waves in an effort to rid the wings of ice. Navigating by the stars at night and sometimes dead reckoning, Lindbergh landed at Le Bourget airport in France 33 hours after takeoff. He was greeted by 150,000 French spectators, who mobbed him and his aircraft and carried him triumphantly around the field before both he and the Spirit were rescued by French troops. Lindbergh returned to the US as an international hero, and was feted with a ticker-tape parade in New York City. President Calvin Coolidge presented him with both the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the President of France awarded Lindbergh with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , France’s highest honor. Lindbergh’s later life would be troubled by the kidnapping and murder of his son, his views on racism, and his opposition to the war in Europe. Nonetheless, he supported the American war effort once the war began, even flying combat missions as a civilian pilot. Towards the end of his life, Lindbergh became a staunch advocate for environmental issues, and died in Hawai’i on August 26, 1974.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Short Takeoff

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

May 19, 2008 – The first flight of the Sukhoi Superjet 100, a twin-engine, fly-by-wire airliner designed to compete with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and other similarly-sized aircraft built by Bombardier and Embraer. The Superjet 100 is powered by a pair of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbofan engines built as a partnership between !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of France and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of Russia, and the airliner can carry up to 108 passengers in a dense, single-class configuration. The Superjet made its first revenue flight on April 21, 2011 by Armenian carrier Armavia, though that company went out of business in 2013. As of April 2018, a total of 159 have been built, and work is underway to develop the larger Superjet 130.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

May 19, 1967 – The first flight of the Dassault Mirage 5, a supersonic, delta wing attack jet that was derived from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The Mirage 5 was developed by request of the Israeli Air Force, who believed that removing avionics from behind the cockpit would allow for more fuel for long-range attack missions. Due to tensions in the Middle East, the French government refused to deliver the fighters to Israel, though they eventually received them through outside sources. The Mirage 5 was also developed into reconnaissance and two-seat variants, and proved popular with export customers, serving in the air forces of 15 nations. A total of 582 were built, and the Israelis eventually used the Mirage 5 as the basis for the domestically-built !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighter.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(US Navy)

May 19, 1952 – The first flight of the Grumman XF10F Jaguar, a prototype !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighter developed for the US Navy. As fighter design progressed into the 1950s, the trend was moving towards larger, heavier aircraft with greater speed. While swept wings were good for high speed, they weren’t well-suited to low-speed landings, particularly on the straight decks of the carriers of the day. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! devised an aircraft that could straighten the wings for landing and takeoff, while sweeping the wings back for high-speed flight. The Jaguar was hampered by unreliable engines and poor flight characteristics, and the development of larger carriers with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! eliminated the immediate need for such an aircraft. However, much of what was learned with the Jaguar was later used on the extraordinarily successful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Author unknown)

May 19, 1934 – The first flight of the Tupolev ANT-20 Maxim Gorky, an eight-engine transport aircraft and one of the largest aircraft of its era. Its wingspan was nearly that of the modern !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! jumbo jet, and it remained the largest aircraft until the arrival of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! long range bomber. Named after !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a Russian and Soviet writer and founder of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the ANT-20 was an all-metal aircraft based on the construction techniques pioneered by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in WWI. It was intended to be used as a Soviet propaganda office outfitted with a powerful radio, printing presses, a library and a movie projector. The first ANT-20 crashed, killing 45 people, so a second aircraft was built with s more powerful engines. It, too, crashed when the pilot allowed a passenger to take the controls and the passenger unwittingly disengaged the autopilot. All 36 passengers were killed.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

May 20, 1965 – The first flight of the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, a 19-seat twin-engine passenger and utility plane developed from the single-engine !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The Twin Otter is powered by a pair of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turboprop engines which gives it significantly greater capability than its single-engine predecessor. The primary design consideration for the Twin Otter was to replicate the Otter’s short takeoff and landing (STOL) characteristics which made them popular with bush pilots and airlines servicing small or remote airstrips. Production aircraft were delivered with either floats, skis, or tricycle landing gear, and Twin Otters remain in service the world over. Production was taken over by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 2006, and over 900 have been built to date.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Author unknown)

May 20, 1941 – Germany invades Crete in Operation Merkur . Beginning in 1940, the British occupied the strategic island of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and used it as a base from which to harass German troop movements in the area and to attack Romanian oil fields at Ploiesti. With the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to Germany in 1941, Hitler set his sights on Crete, believing that taking the island would help protect his forces in the Mediterranean as well his supply of oil from Romania. Operation Merkur ( Mercury ) was carried out by more than 7,000 airborne troops ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , or paratroops), either parachuting from !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! transports or arriving in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! gliders, marking the first large-scale airborne invasion in military history. Though the invaders were initially slowed by the island’s garrison, German soldiers eventually captured the Maleme airfield, which allowed additional troops to be brought by air. Despite stiff resistance, Crete finally fell to the Germans on June 1, 1941 after just 13 days of fighting.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Imperial War Museum)

May 20, 1937 – The Fairey Battle enters service with the Royal Air Force. The Battle was originally conceived as a replacement for older biplane bombers and, though it was powered by the same !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! V-12 engine used in some of the most successful aircraft of WWII, it was hampered by its size and weight. The Battle took its maiden flight on March 10, 1936, and it was a significant improvement over the aircraft it replaced. However, it was completely obsolete by the outbreak of WWII. In addition to its slow speed and average handling, it also lacked an armored cockpit and self-sealing fuel tanks, making it vulnerable to antiaircraft fire and enemy fighters. Nevertheless, Battles saw extensive though often futile service in the early days of the war, and were withdrawn from frontline service by the end of 1941.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(National Air and Space Museum)

May 20, 1932 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to make a solo flight across the North Atlantic. Five years after Charles Lindbergh’s famous solo flight across the Atlantic, Earhart took off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland and, after facing strong northerly winds, icing conditions, and mechanical problems, landed in a pasture at Culmore, Northern Ireland just under 15 hours later. Upon landing, one of the local farmers who witnessed her arrival reportedly asked Earhart, “Have you flown far?” “From America!” she replied. Earhart was awarded the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for her achievement, but five years later she was lost at sea, along with her navigator !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , during their attempt to circumnavigate the globe.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

May 20, 1977 – The first flight of the Sukhoi Su-27, (NATO reporting name Flanker), a highly maneuverable air superiority fighter designed by Sukhoi as a direct competitor to the American !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The Su-27 entered service in 1985, where its primary mission was the defense of the Soviet Union from American bombers such as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Though it was designed initially as an air superiority fighter, the Su-27 has proven to be adaptable to a wide range of missions. Sukhoi developed numerous variants, including the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a two-seat deep strike aircraft, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! naval variant, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! strike fighter/bomber and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Author unknown)

May 20, 1971 – The US House of Representatives votes to end government funding of the Boeing 2707 supersonic transport. In 1961, the US government committed to building its own supersonic transport (SST) to compete with the European !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and Russian !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Coming late to the challenge, the Americans decided to compete by making an SST that was larger than either of its competitors, accommodating as many as 247 passengers. However, the realities of supersonic transport were hard to conquer, and high fuel consumption in an era when the general public was starting to take a concern in the health of the environment, along with worries over sonic booms and ozone pollution, made SSTs unpopular. By 1971, despite orders for 115 aircraft from 25 airlines, Congress cut funding for the B2707. The two prototypes were never completed, and Boeing was forced to lay off as many as 60,000 employees who had been working on the project.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(US Air Force)

May 20, 1951 – US Air Force Captain James Jabara becomes the first American jet fighter ace. Following two combat tours in Europe flying the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! during WWII, Jabara transitioned to the the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and continued his service as a fighter pilot during the Korean War. Fighting against Soviet-built !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighters, Jabarra scored his first victory on April 3, 1951, and scored his fifth and sixth victories on the same day a month later. Jabara ended the war with 15 victories, earning him the title of “triple ace.” He was awarded the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Jabara went on to various commands after the war, but died along with his daughter in a car crash in 1966. Jabara and his daughter are both interred at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Washington, DC.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

May 21, 1995 – Boeing B-29 Superfortress Kee Bird catches fire and burns during an attempt to take off from Greenland. On February 21, 1947, a US Army Air Force !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! crash landed in Greenland during a secret Cold War spying mission. The crew was rescued after three days on the Arctic ice, but the damaged plane, though mostly intact, was left behind. Beginning in 1994, restoration crews dug the plane out of the ice and snow and began working to restore the aircraft to flying condition so it could be fully restored. By the spring of 1995, Kee Bird was ready to be flown. As Kee Bird rolled on takeoff, a fuel tank rigged to the B-29’s auxiliary power unit started leaking, leading to an uncontrollable fire. The crew escaped without serious injury, but Kee Bird was completely destroyed, and its !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! still lie on the Greenland ice.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

May 21, 1975 – The first flight of the Rutan VariEze, a composite, homebuilt aircraft designed by aeronautical engineer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that features a forward canard control surface and swept wing based on Rutan’s earlier work with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Rutan debuted the aircraft at the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he set a distance record for its class of 1,638 miles. Rutan designed the VariEze specifically to help reduce the plane’s susceptibility to spin/departure and stalling when compared to other homebuilt aircraft, and he began selling the designs to aircraft homebuilders in 1976. By the end of 1979, he had sold 4,500 sets of plans. Rutan stopped selling plans for the VariEze in 1985 to focus on his company !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

May 22, 1946 – The first flight of the de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk, a tandem, two-seat primary trainer and the first aviation project to be undertaken by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! following WWII. The Chipmunk was developed as a replacement for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! biplane trainer and was initially adopted by the Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force. It was ultimately flown by 19 other nations, and also became a popular civilian aircraft used for training, aerobatics and crop spraying. Some were modified for aerobatics as the Super Chipmunk, with strengthened fuselage and wings, retractable landing gear, clipped wings and a more powerful engine. Almost 1,300 were produced from 1947-1956.  

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Connecting Flights

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

If you enjoy these Aviation History posts, please let me know in the comments. And if you missed any of the past articles, you can find them all at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . You can also find more stories about aviation, aviators and airplane oddities at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Spaceball-Two > ttyymmnn 05/22/2018 at 12:44

2

Kee Bird. Too soon! That was absolutely heart breaking.

ttyymmnn > Spaceball-Two 05/22/2018 at 12:46

1

It really was. Imagine having to stand there and watch it burn, after all of that work. And money.

Ash78, voting early and often > ttyymmnn 05/22/2018 at 12:51

1

The DeHavilland Twink Otters, live tonight at 10pm and midnight, only at The Leather Emporium!

/love that plane

HammerheadFistpunch > ttyymmnn 05/22/2018 at 12:51

1

You know as cool as the SST would have been and how much of a bummer it would have been to be one of the 60,000 laid off employees it was the right call. 60,000 employees to build 115 examples of a plane that was never going to remain financially viable...and we were using tax payer money?

ttyymmnn > HammerheadFistpunch 05/22/2018 at 12:56

1

Dude, you’re harshing my mellow.

But yes, it was a boondoggle.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > ttyymmnn 05/22/2018 at 13:06

2

a dense, single-class configuration

Which would come as a surprise to nobody

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > HammerheadFistpunch 05/22/2018 at 13:10

0

I haven’t read into the specifics of it so I don’t know for sure how the finances ended up with it, but my $0.02:

It was being developed as a matter of national pride as much as anything. The US didn’t care about the Concord, but they didn’t want to have to look up to the “Concordski”... which in the end didn’t amount to anything anyway. My feeling is the project should never have been started in the first place, but having started, should have continued. It was never about money anyway.

But like I said I really don’t know anything about it

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > ttyymmnn 05/22/2018 at 16:06

0

Although it’s a minor battle in WW2, Crete is a big deal in New Zealand, as a good chunk of the NZ Division was there and a Kiwi (Freyberg) was in charge. There’s a good, if NZ-centric, description of the battle here: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/the-battle-for-crete . From personal experience, Crete is still a good place to be a Kiwi - the Cretans remember

Crete was also where all-around badass Charles Upham won his first VC. Upham was one of only 3 men ever awarded the VC and Bar, the only one in WW2, and the only combat soldier (the other two were field medics). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Upham

ttyymmnn > Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen 05/22/2018 at 16:13

0

I look forward to reading this. Thanks.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > ttyymmnn 05/23/2018 at 22:37

2

A great book is Atlantic Fever. also bill Brysons 1927, is very revealing on the hell Lindbergh went through from his landing till death.