Royal Air Force

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Characters Karen Gershon
This is a book about Inge's loves: her lost, buried love for her parents, her all-consuming love for her brother (to whom she feels deeply, inherently inferior), her love for baby Georgie (who, after they...
Characters Andrea Levy
The central events of the novel take place in postwar London over a few weeks during 1948, but those events are shaped by the separate experiences of the central characters before that time. The voices...
Cultural formation H. D.
H. D. first met, after an eighteen-month correspondence, with Hugh, Lord Dowding , who had headed the RAF 's Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain and was now an active spiritualist and theosophist.
Guest, Barbara. Herself Defined: The Poet H.D. and Her World. Collins, 1985.
262
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Dowding
Cultural formation H. D.
H. D. held seances during which believed that she had been given messages by dead RAF airmen warning of an imminent Third World War.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
45
Friedman, Susan Stanford. “’Remembering Shakespeare Always, But Remembering Him Differently’: H.D.’s By Avon River”. Sagetrieb, Vol.
2
, No. 2, 1 June–30 Nov. 1983, pp. 45-70.
52-3
Family and Intimate relationships Anne Ridler
AR and her husband had two daughters and two sons, and in due course six or more grandchildren and the same number of great-grandchildren.
Shattock, Joanne. The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers. Oxford University Press, 1993.
Ridler, Anne. Memoirs. The Perpetua Press, 2004, p. 240 pp.
6
Their daughter Jane was born on the snowy night of...
Family and Intimate relationships Gwen Moffat
He had been diverted from physical training instruction in the RAF in 1951, following a horrific plane crash in Scotland, into the field of mountain rescue. From early 1952 he headed the RAF mountain rescue...
Family and Intimate relationships Margaret Drabble
MD 's father, barrister John Frederick Drabble , also attended Cambridge , and served in the RAF during the second world war. In 1945, newly demobbed, he stood as Labour candidate for the Tory seat...
Family and Intimate relationships Maggie Gee
Her father, Victor Valentine Gee , was dominant in the household.
Gee, Maggie. How May I Speak in My Own Voice? Language and the Forbidden. Birkbeck College, 1996.
8
He was a socialist, an Old Labour man, yet at home he was an unreconstructed conservative authoritarian.
Gee, Maggie. “Serious Fun”. Mslexia, No. 59, Sept. 2013, pp. 12-13.
12
He had been born into...
Family and Intimate relationships Ruth Fainlight
RF married the man with whom she had been living for years, Alan Sillitoe (former RAF radio operator, now a suddenly successful novelist), at Marylebone Town Hall in London.
“Contemporary Authors”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Centre-LRC.
Evans-Bush, Katy. “The Poet Realized. An Interview with Ruth Fainlight”. Contemporary Poetry Review, 2008.
Family and Intimate relationships Alison Fell
Alison's father, Andrew Fell, was an engine mechanic in peace-time and an airman in the RAF during the Second World War, when Alison was born. He bombed Hamburg and Dresden and D Day France, and...
Family and Intimate relationships Rosita Forbes
The opening pages of her second book of memoirs give a sketch of her brother John, farming under dreadful wartime difficulty in Kent, the family estate having been requisitioned for the RAF .
Forbes, Rosita. Appointment with Destiny. Cassell, 1946.
10
Family and Intimate relationships Sarah Waters
Sarah was close to her father, Ron, an engineer working in oil refineries who had done his National Service with the RAF .
Allardice, Lisa. “Uncharted Waters”. The Guardian, 1 June 2006.
Waters, Sarah. The Little Stranger. Virago, 2010.
prelims
McCrum, Robert. “What lies beneath”. Guardian.com.uk, 10 May 2009.
She found him a great inspirer, who made up stories for...
Family and Intimate relationships Anna Kavan
AK 's son , a member of the RAF since the beginning of the war, was reported missing in action.
Callard, David. The Case of Anna Kavan. Peter Owen, 1993.
77
Family and Intimate relationships Elizabeth Taylor
They had met as fellow members of High Wycombe Theatre Club;
Beauman, Nicola. The Other Elizabeth Taylor. Persephone Books, 2009.
57
John's father was then Mayor of High Wycombe. Elizabeth was strongly attracted to John, and was wildly excited when she found herself pregnant...
Family and Intimate relationships Margaret Laurence
Margaret Wemyss , a recent graduate, married Jack Laurence , a fellow-student whose subject was engineering. He was also a war veteran, having been a mechanic with the RAF .
Stovel, Nora Foster. Divining Margaret Laurence. A Study of Her Complete Writings. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2008.
53
Laurence, Margaret. Dance on the Earth: A Memoir. McClelland and Stewart, 1989.
127
King, James. The Life of Margaret Laurence. Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
64

Timeline

1 April 1918: The Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) was founded...

National or international item

1 April 1918

The Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) was founded to employ those women who had worked at air stations during the First World War as members of the British naval or military female forces, the Women's...

1 March 1919: The Royal Air Force began air-mail service...

Building item

1 March 1919

The Royal Air Force began air-mail service between Folkestone in England, and Cologne in Germany, for the British occupation force in the Rhineland.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
192

28 June 1939: The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) was...

National or international item

28 June 1939

The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) was established for duty with the all-male Royal Air Force (RAF) in time of war. It was mobilized two months later, and in the Second World War gave a...

4 June 1940: Winston Churchill made one of his most famous...

National or international item

4 June 1940

Winston Churchill made one of his most famous war speeches in the House of Commons .
Churchill, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer, and Simon Schama. We shall fight on the beaches. Guardian News and Media, 2007.

8 August-31 October 1940: The Battle of Britain was fought over Southeastern...

National or international item

8 August-31 October 1940

The Battle of Britain was fought over Southeastern England between the German Luftwaffe and the English Royal Air Force Fighter Command .
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
236

24 August 1940: German bombs were dropped on London for the...

National or international item

24 August 1940

German bombs were dropped on London for the first time.
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
41
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
387

15 September 1940: This date later became unofficially known...

National or international item

15 September 1940

This date later became unofficially known as Battle of Britain day: a massive Luftwaffe raid intended for the final defeat of the RAF was successfully countered with huge losses of German planes.
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
41
Keegan, John. The Second World War. Viking, 1990.
101
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
387
Figes, Eva. Little Eden. Faber and Faber, 1978.
25

19 June 1941: The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF, later...

National or international item

19 June 1941

The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF, later the Women's Royal Air Force) and the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS, later the Women's Royal Army Corps) were granted military status.
Goldman, Nancy Loring, and Richard Stites. “Great Britain and the World Wars”. Female Soldiers-Combatants or Noncombatants?: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, edited by Nancy Loring Goldman, Greenwood, 1982, pp. 21-46.
22, 30, 34
“WAAF Association Brief History”. Women’s Auxiliary Air Force Association, 7 June 2007.
“A Brief History of the Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps, Auxiliary Territorial Service and Women’s Royal Army Corps”. WRAC Association.

28 March 1942: Arthur Bomber Harris began the RAF offensive...

National or international item

28 March 1942

Arthur Bomber Harris began the RAF offensive against German cities: a night raid dropped incendiary bombs on residential areas in Lübeck.
Wright, Patrick. “Dropping Their Eggs”. London Review of Books, 23 Aug. 2001, pp. 11-14.
11

30 May 1942: A thousand Royal Air Force bombers attacked...

National or international item

30 May 1942

A thousand Royal Air Force bombers attacked Cologne in the first of a series of thousand-bomber raids.
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
101
Perutz, Max Ferdinand. “Diary”. London Review of Books, 6 July 2000, p. 35.
35
Keegan, John. The Second World War. Viking, 1990.
422-3

5 September 1944: Ten days after Paris was liberated from the...

National or international item

5 September 1944

Ten days after Paris was liberated from the occupying Nazis , Le Havre on the French coast was flattened by RAF bombing.
Saint, Andrew. “In Le Havre”. London Review of Books, 6 Feb. 2003, p. 30.
30

22 June 1948: Passengers disembarked from the steamship...

National or international item

22 June 1948

Passengers disembarked from the steamship Empire Windrush at Tilbury in Essex: four hundred and ninety young men from the Caribbean, especially Jamaica, most of them until recently servicemen with the RAF .
Phillips, Mark. “Windrush—the Passengers”. BBC History, 10 Mar. 2011.

11 May 1963: The Committee of 100 (a disarmament group...

National or international item

11 May 1963

The Committee of 100 (a disarmament group with which Pat Arrowsmith was associated, offshoot of CND ) held a demonstration at the RAF base at Marham in Norfolk.
Committee of 100,. Mail Interception and Telephone Tapping in Britain. Hampstead Group, Committee of 100 and Housmans Bookshop, 1965.
14nn3, 4

27 August 1981: A group of thirty-six women left Cardiff...

National or international item

27 August 1981

A group of thirty-six women left Cardiff on foot, to walk the 120 miles to the RAF base at Greenham Common near Newbury to protest against the plan for its use as a home for...

15 April 1986: Following years of deteriorating relations,...

National or international item

15 April 1986

Following years of deteriorating relations, the USA mounted bombing raids on Tripoli and other places in Libya in retaliation for alleged Libyan involvement in a discotheque bomb in West Berlin on 5 April.
Ighneiwa, Ibrahaim. “Libya: The U.S. Air and Sea Attacks on Libya in 1986”. Ibrahim Ighneiwa Personal Page Libya: Our Home.

Texts

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