The Fairey Swordfish was a torpedo bomber built by the Fairey Aviation Company and used by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy during World War II.
Affectionately known as the Stringbag by its crews, it was outdated by 1939, but achieved some spectacular successes during the war, notably the destruction of the Regia Marina (the Italian Navy) in the Battle of Taranto and the famous crippling of the Bismarck.
It was operated primarily as a fleet attack aircraft, however, during its later years it was also used as an anti-submarine and training craft.
Designed in the 1930s, the Swordfish outlived several types intended to replace it and remained in frontline service through to the end of the war in Europe in 1945.
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Arthur William Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder of Glenguin, was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force and a significant British commander during the Second World War.
He became air commander in the Middle East in 1940 and played an important role in the defeat of Erwin Rommel in the Desert War.
After the successful conquest of Tunisia and Sicily he was appointed as deputy Supreme Allied Commander under General Dwight Eisenhower.
The two men worked closely together in planning the D-Day landings in the summer of 1944.
Tedder was responsible for providing tactical air support and was a strong advocate of destroying Germany's communication system during the invasion.
Tedder's views brought him into conflict with Arthur Harris, Trafford Leigh-Mallory and Carl Spaatz.
The British prime minister, Winston Churchill, who considered Tedder to be too much under the influence of the Americans, also had doubts about the wisdom of carrying out heavy bombing raids on France before the invasion.
In January 1945 Tedder met Joseph Stalin to discuss the war against Germany and on 8th May 1945 he led the Allied delegation to Berlin that accepted the surrender of the government of Nazi Germany.
Tedder became Chief of the Air Staff in 1946.
The Scherenfernrohr (scissors periscope) was an improved model of its predecessor,
the "Hypoplast" which did not allow stereoscopic mode.
This has been achieved by a new constellation of central joint which allowed to bring
the eyepieces in interpupillary distance in both modes.
SF-14 was built by Zeiss for the foot artillery. Its specifications, 10 power and 50 mm
objective, were kept for most of the later models until the end of W.W.II, but the
short design was not retained. The distance from the middle of the ocular to the
middle of the objective is only 220 mm in the SF-14 for foot artillery.
The advantages of this short construction are less weight and a handier form, but
these do not make up for the disadvantage of an insufficient capacity for the observer
to maintain cover.
The Austin K2 was introduced in 1939. and remained in production until 1945.
The K2/Y was the most common British Heavy Ambulance in WWII, known as the
"Katie", used by all services. The body was of simple construction, a wood frame
covered with leather-cloth, insulated and accommodating four stretchers or eight
sitting patients. The body, known as the No. 2 Mk I/L, was developed by the Royal
Army Medical Corps and produced by Mann Egerton. It accommodated an attendant
and four stretchers or ten sitting casualties. The truck/body combination was
occasionally used as van for other roles.
More than 13,000 produced at Austin's Longbridge works where production was
almost continuous from 1940 until the war ended.
