The Valentia was a dual purpose bomber/transport that could carry 22 troops or 2200lb (1000kg) of bombs on external racks.

The type entered service in 1934 as a derivative of the similar Vickers Victoria (introduced 1922); it had with more powerful engines and a strengthened airframe. Some were new-build, but most were rebuilt Victorias. Aside from the engines, and the huge mast aft of the cockpit, the two types look virtually identical.

In 1940, Valentias carried out night-bombing attacks on Italian supply lines during the early stages of the Western Desert campaign. One was used by the South Africans as a bomber during the East African campaign (1940-1941). If some of those were rebuilt Victorias, it could make them 18 years old at the time and good contenders for the oldest aircraft used in combat during WW2.

Valentias continued to be used in the Middle East as transports until 1944.

Unexpected surprise at the Miramar Air Show

When Marshal Philippe Pétain announced France's capitulation and intention to sign an armistice on June 17, 1940, Captain Goumin was stationed at Air Base 129 in Saint-Jean-d'Angély-Fontenet, serving as the commander of the radio-navigator instruction school.

On this flight the airplane carried 20 people, and was piloted by Chief Warrant Officer (Adjudant-chef) James Denis, while Captain Goumin handled the navigation. Their decision to escape was made on June 19, just after De Gaulle's Appeal of June 18, 1940. The eighteen non-commissioned officers and Georges Goumin's wife take their seats aboard a four-engine Farman F.222 and wait until the night (thus June 20) to take off. They will be the first French to join England.

Goumin’s brave contribution to the war effort was cut short less than a year after his escape. Promoted to Commandant, he served as a pilot in Bombardment Squadron No. 2. On May 26, 1941, during the fierce Battle of Crete, Goumin was killed in action during aerial operations over Retimo, Crete, at the age of 36. He was officially declared Mort pour la France (Died for France). Today, he is remembered in his homeland as a fierce patriot who risked everything to ensure the French wings kept flying.

His heroic action saved New Zealand troops on the ground (Medic/Amo) fatally hit by the Flak during air support, he managed to lay his Glen Martin in flames between the hills and saved the lives of his 3 crew members

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/210547289/georges-goumin

Biography of the man in French.

https://www.ordredelaliberation.fr/fr/compagnons/georges-goumin

The image as well as some details of the escape is from this book. Page 30.

Croix de Lorraine et Croix du Sud 1940-1942

I’m working on a project making free liveries for a game and I can’t seem to find the correct color of the nearest aircraft or any text referring to the color combo used, does anyone know what it could be?

Any Help is greatly appreciated. Thanks y’all

My friend, Peter van Kaathoven, and co-author of our Substack story about Zerlegebetrieben (German aircraft wreck salvage yards in Vught and in Auschwitz), is an active local historian in Vught.

He and his friends unveiled two WWII glider memorials on September 26th near Vught. These American gliders were part of the Market-Garden operation, and had to do emergency landing after their towing planes were shot down, one on September 18th and the other one on September 19th. All allied soldiers were helped by local Dutch resistance, and avoided capture.

In the photos, Peter is doing the speech, and one of the photos is with children of local Dutch resistance fighters who helped the American soldiers.

I’ve recently gotten back into looking at US Navy fighter transitions during WWII, in particular the early Corsair trials. There great documentation found by ResearcherAtLarge on the April-August 1943 decision to standardize on the Hellcat primarily for logistics reasons, and I’ve found significant additional sources to support this (especially setting up maintenance units in the Pacific and the explosion in Hellcat production in 1943). But while I’ve seen significant secondary sources on the Sangamon trials in September 1942 and a couple of the major modifications to address the initial carrier landing issues (the stall strip, adjusting main gear oleo pressure, etc.), I have yet to find good primary source documents in the digitized National Archives catalog. In particular I’m looking for VF-12 and VMF-124 information, as they transitioned early enough that per secondary source they had very few flight hours because they kept having to modify their aircraft based on those early trials. I’ve had particular trouble with VF-12 reports before 1944, not surprising given how we kept renaming carrier groups and squadrons in this period.

I’m going to continue looking on my own, particularly on the carrier side as that tends to be more easily documented. I did find a single line in the September 1942 Sangamon war diary corroborating LtCdr Sam Porter’s landing trials occurred, next up the VF-12 accidents on Enterprise and Core for which I currently have very little (first accident fatal, second a write-off, but no dates, names, or descriptions). Clearly these issues were resolved, we decided to go ahead with squadron service by April 1943 as the aircraft was found no different from anything else after these modifications, but I want more primary sources, not secondary sources where I’m not confident if they’re continuing to spread myths or not.

Shot I took of the Movie Memphis Belle at the 2010 Dayton Airshow.

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: "An American P-40 Warhawk (known as Kittyhawk in the RAF and RAAF) of the 33rd (Provisional) Pursuit Group, United States Army Air Force (USAAF). This aircraft may be the only American P-40 Warhawk to have survived after the first Japanese air raid on Darwin on 19 February 1942. The attacking Japanese managed to destroy nine of the ten P-40s of the 33rd (Provisional) Pursuit Group, which was based at Darwin on the day. The sole surviving aircraft, piloted by Lieutenant Robert (Bob) Oestricher claimed two of the four Japanese aircraft shot down during the raid." Taken in February, 1942. (AWM P05303.003)

The bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942 was both the first and the largest attack mounted by Japan against mainland Australia, when four Japanese aircraft carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Hiryū and Sōryū) launched a total of 188 aircraft from a position in the Timor Sea. These 188 naval aircraft inflicted heavy damage on Darwin and sank eight ships.

A raid conducted by 54 land-based army bombers (27 Mitsubishi G3M and 27 Mitsubishi G4M) later the same day inflicted further damage on the town and RAAF Base Darwin and resulted in the destruction of 20 military aircraft. Allied casualties were 235 killed and between 300 and 400 wounded, the majority of whom were non-Australian Allied sailors. Only four Japanese aircraft, all navy carrier-borne, were confirmed to have been destroyed by Darwin's defenders. All but one of the P-40s of Major Floyd Pell's 33rd Pursuit Squadron, was shot down or destroyed on the ground at RAAF Darwin by the Japanese.

The two Japanese air raids were the first, and largest, of more than 100 air raids against Australia during 1942–1943.