Search Results: Royal Air Force

A photograph of a group of Supermarine Spitfires of the Royal Canadian Air Force at Goubrine in the North Africa Campaign during the Second World War (1939-45). (Imperial War Museums)

A photograph taken in May 1943 showing Supermarine Spitfire fighter planes of the Royal Canadian Air Force over the Tunisian desert during the North Africa Camapign of the Second World War (1939-45). (Imperial War Museums)

Crowded and uncomfortable air raid shelters became a feature of the urban landscape across Britain during the Second World War (1939-45) as the bombers of Nazi Germany systematically hit cities from 1940. The London Blitz was a particularly...

Britain's integrated air defence system in the Second World War (1939-45), known as the Dowding System after the air chief marshal of that name, included code-breakers, radar stations, observers, searchlights, barrage balloons, anti-aircraft...

The Battle of Britain, dated 10 July to 31 October, 1940 by the UK Air Ministry, was an air battle between the German Luftwaffe and British Royal Air Force and allies during the Second World War (1939-45). The Luftwaffe failed to achieve...

A photograph of members of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France during the Phoney War. Taken in January 1940. (Imperial War Museums)

The Allied strategic bombing of Germany during World War II (1939-45) involved British and U.S. bomber planes attacking industrial cities, factories, railways, airfields, and dams. Over 600,000 civilians died as a consequence. The campaign...

Air Chief Marshall Hugh Dowding (1882-1970), Commander-in-Chief of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain of 1940.

The Hawker Hurricane was a single-seat fighter plane, Britain's first monoplane, which fought in the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940. Slower but more numerous than the Supermarine Spitfire, the Hurricane was used by the Royal Air...

The bomber raid on Dresden was a controversial and highly destructive combined operation by Royal Air Force Lancaster bombers and United States Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress bombers on 13, 14, and 15 February and 2 March 1945. The raid was...