RAF’s Douglas Dakota Mark IV, KJ994, of the SHAEF Communications Squadron, and the personal aircraft of Air Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, Deputy Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces, parked at Campoformido airfield, Udine, North-East Italy, Spring or Summer 1945. Victor Sierra

VIP Dakota

'One more beat-up, me lads.' Flying Officer Cobber Kain, DFC, a New Zealander and the RAF's first ace of the Second World War makes a fatal mistake.  On the 6th of June 1940, Kain was informed he would be returning to England the next day. The following morning, a group of his squadron mates gathered at the airfield at Échemines, France to bid him farewell as he took off in his Hurricane to fly to Le Mans to collect his kit. Unexpectedly, Kain began a "beat-up" of the airfield, performing a series of low level aerobatics in Hurricane I L1826. Commencing a series of "flick" rolls, on his third roll, the ace misjudged his altitude and hit the ground heavily in a level attitude. Kain died when he was pitched out of the cockpit, striking the ground 27 m in front of the exploding Hurricane. Kain is buried in Choloy Military Cemetery. 

greetz,brummbar

When your luck runs out...

Men of 2 Batt., South Wales Borderers, advancing in France as part of British 49th Division, 30 September, 1944.  This was the only "Welsh" unit to take part in the Normandy campaign.  Under their previous designation of 24th Regiment of Foot/2nd Warwickshire Regiment, the SWB had taken part in the 1879 Zulu War.  On 22 January of that year, one company of 2nd Batt. shared the fate of 5 companies of 1st Batt. in being annihilated by Zulu forces at Isandlhwana, Zululand, a defeat that resulted largely from command ineptitude on the British side, including the failure of force commander General Lord Chelmsford to follow his own declared strategy.  Matters were somewhat redeemed when, over the following 36 hours, another company of 2nd Batt., along with a small number of local volunteers, successfully defended the very difficult position of the Rorke's Drift mission station, across the Buffalo River in Natal, against three Zulu regiments (three to four thousand warriors) who had not been involved in the main battle and attacked across the Buffalo against explicit orders.  Best regards, JR.