May 2, 2013

FINEST HOUR 148, AUTUMN 2010

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AIRCRAFT

Listed alphabetically; dimensions in feet unless noted otherwise.

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Avro 685 York Ascalon: Four engines; length 78, wingspan 102, cruise speed 210 mph (298 max.), ceiling 23,000, range 2700 miles. After flying Churchill, served in the RAF Far East Communications Flight; broken up in 1954.

Boeing 314A Berwick and Bristol: Four-engine flying boats; length 106, wingspan 152, cruise speed 188 mph (210 max.), ceiling 13,400, range 3685 miles. Sold to World Airways in 1948, scrapped as obsolete 1950-51. (Page 13.)

Consolidated LB-30A Liberator Commando: Four engines; length 66, wingspan 110, cruise speed 190 mph (270 max.), ceiling 30,000, range 2900 miles. After serving Churchill, modified with single fin and longer fuselage early in 1944. Disappeared off the Azores in March 1945. (Page 12.)

de Havilland D.H. 95 Flamingo: Two engines; length 52, wingspan 70, cruise speed 204 mph (243 max.), ceiling 21,000, range 1345 miles. Churchill’s Flamingo was lost in 1942; the last of fifteen was broken up in 1954. (Page 12.)

Douglas C-47 Dakota: Two engines; length 65, wingspan 95, cruise speed 185 mph (230 max.), ceiling 23,200, range 2125 miles.

Douglas C-54B Skymaster: Four engines; length 94, wingspan 117, cruise speed 180 mph (227 max.), ceiling 26,600, range 3,800 miles. Same as FDR’s “Sacred Cow.” Churchill’s Skymaster was returned to the United States in late 1945, and was eventually junked in China.

Lockheed Lodestar Mk II: Two engines; length 50, wingspan 66, cruise speed 200 mph (266 max.), ceiling 30,100, range 2,500 miles. VIP transport from 1941.

SHIPS

HMS Aurora: 5200 tons, length 506, 32 knots. Light cruiser of the Arethusa class, entered service in 1937, served in Scandinavian and Mediterranean waters, survived the war.

HMS Duke of York, King George V, and Prince of Wales: 45,000 tons, length 745, 30 knots. Three of a class of five battleships built 1937-41. Prince of Wales was sunk off Malaya in December 1941; the rest survived to be broken up in the 1950s. Prince of Wales was the seventh ship to carry that name—the eighth is a Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier now under construction. (See FH 139: 43.)

HMS Enterprise: 7550 tons, length 570, 33 knots. The name vessel for a two-ship light cruiser class completed 1926, refitted a decade later. She participated in D-Day action and survived the war.

HMT [His Majesty’s Transport] Franconia: 20,175 tons, length 601, 16.5 knots. Returned to Cunard after the war, she was scrapped in 1957.

HMS Kelvin and Kimberley: 1700 tons, length 348, 36 knots. Javelin class destroyers completed 1939, Kelvin fought Axis convoys in the Mediterranean, participated in D-Day and served on the Atlantic. Kimberley took part in the invasion of Southern France. Both survived the war; Kelly, a sister, was lost under the command of Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1941.

HMS Orion: 6985 tons, length 555, 32.5 knots. Light cruiser of the Ajax class, completed 1934. Saw extensive service in the Mediterranean and survived the war.

HMT Queen Mary: 80,774 tons, length 975, 30 knots. Three-funnel, quadruple screw liner. Her final voyage was in 1967 to Long Beach, California where she remains as a museum and hotel, the sole survivor of the golden age of ocean liners. (See FH 121:23.)

HMS Renown: 28,000 tons, length 794, 33 knots. One of two sister battlecruisers (slightly smaller, more lightly armored and faster than a battleship) completed 1916, both greatly modernized between the wars. Renown was scrapped in 1946; her sister Repulse was lost with Prince of Wales in 1941. (See FH 113:24-25.)

SOURCES

Siegfried Breyer, Battleships and Battle Cruisers 1905-1970 (London: Macdonald and Jane’s, 1973).
David Donald, ed., American Warplanes of World War II (London: Amber Books, 1995).
Roger Kafka and Roy L. Pepperburg, Warships of the World: Victory Edition (New York: Cornell Maritime Press, 1946).
David J. March, ed., British Warplanes of World War II (London: Amber Books, 1998).