Spitfires & such vs V-1 rockets (early form of cruise missiles)

Spitfire flying along England’s south coast

Spitfire

Heroism of Battle of Britain Spitfire ace revealed: Pilot who shot down nine German planes and intercepted two V1 rockets

• Squadron Leader Arthur Charles Leigh's medals and log books sold at auction for £17,360 
• The heroic Spitfire ace intercepted two V1 rockets in dangerous manoeuvres  
• The pilot, who was born in London and lived in Cambridge, saved countless lives 

The remarkable heroics of a Spitfire ace who fought in the Battle of Britain and D-Day were revealed as his medals and log books sold for more than £17,000 - more than double what they were expected to fetch.

Squadron Leader Arthur Charles Leigh, who was born in London and moved to Cambridge before joining the RAF, shot down nine German planes during the World War II and and survived several days adrift in the English Channel. 

His medals and his RAF logbooks, dating from 1940 to 1945, were sold by London auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb for £17,360. 

Sqn Ldr Leigh carried out low-level bombing raids on ground targets, taking out trains and trucks taking weapons and ammunition to Normandy in the aftermath of D-Day.

The medals of the heroic Spitfire ace, who fought in the Battle of Britain and on D-Day, have sold for more than £17,000

The hero flyer saved countless lives by intercepting two V1 rockets bound for London. He also spent many days adrift, with his devastated mother wrongly being told he was killed in action 

His medals and his RAF logbooks, dated from 1940 to 1945, were sold by London auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb for £14,000 - more than double what they were expected to fetch 

With fees added on the oversees buyer paid £17,360. Five per cent  of the fees from the sale will be donated to NHS Charities Together

The hero flyer saved countless lives by intercepting two V1 rockets bound for London in extremely dangerous manoeuvres.

Spitfire pilots scrambled to intercept V1 missiles when one was detected and, as a last resort if they ran out of ammunition, get their plane's wing as close as possible to tip the rockets out of the sky.

Sqn Ldr Leigh was one of the brave pilots who performed the high-risk 'wing-ramming' tactic if it wasn't safe to shoot the 'doodlebug' flying bombs.

The V-1 flying bomb —also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb, or doodlebug, and in Germany as Kirschkern or Maikäfer, as well as by its official RLM aircraft designation of Fi 103—was an early cruise missile and the only production aircraft to use a pulsejet for power 

The risky tactics were used after more than 100 V1 missiles were aimed at the capital each day from 1944. The attacks caused about 23,000 casualties, almost all civilians. 

The life-saving mission involved massive danger including misjudging the distance and crashing if the wings hit each other too hard. 

Not only did Sqn Ldr Leigh save lives with this epic feat but was also shot down twice during his time in service. 

Spitfire pilots saved countless lives by to intercept V1 missiles when one was detected and, as a last resort, tipping the rockets out of the sky with the wing of their plane

He survived an unknown number of days adrift six miles off the French coast when he had to bail out and land in the sea in August 1943.

His devastated mother received a telegram wrongly telling her he had been killed in action before a British Air Sea Rescue launch rescued him.

Sqn Ldr Leigh was awarded the prestigious Distinguished Flying Cross and the Distinguished Flying medal for his achievements.  

THE FLYING BOMB WHICH CAUSED MASSIVE LOSS OF LIFE IN BRITAIN

British fighter pilots, such as Squadron Leader Arthur Charles Leigh, used a courageous manoeuvre called ‘tipping’ to stop ‘doodlebug’ missiles landing on London during World War II.

The V1 rocket was the world’s first cruise missile, causing huge loss of life.

The flying bomb, known as the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug, was developed at Peenemünde Airfield by the German Luftwaffe during World War II. 

They were designed for mass bombing of London and they were fired from launch sites along the French and Dutch coasts. 

Pilots resorted to the incredibly risky tactics in 1944 as more than 100 V1 missiles were aimed at the capital every day. In total the attacks caused about 23,000 casualties, almost all civilians.

The technique - as shown in this sequence of photographs - involved pilots climbing high above the doodlebug.

They dived down and using their plane’s wings to tip the wings of the bomb. 

The aim was to flip it, and send it crashing to Earth.

The fighter planes had to start at a higher altitude than the missile because, without the dive, they did not have the speed to catch the bomb. 

Most aircrafts were too slow carry out the manoeuvre, but Mosquitoes, Hawker Tempests, Gloster Meteors and Spitfires formed ‘diver patrols’ to intercept the V1s. 

Andy Saunders, a military historian and editor of Iron Cross magazine, said: 'Gallantry medals awarded to Battle of Britain pilots, the 'Few', always command very high prices and are much sought after by collectors. 

'There is something special about the bravery of these extraordinary men.

'For that reason, they fetch higher prices than similar medals awarded to others - and that isn't to say others were less worthy or any less brave. It is just the romantic aura, mythology almost, with which they are associated.'

Sqn Ldr Leigh was born in London in 1919 and his family moved to Cambridge and where he worked in a clothes shop.

His heroic career began when he joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve in June 1939 to train as a pilot.

He joined No 64 Squadron and flew Spitfires on his first operational sortie on September 29 before moving on to No 72 Squadron at Biggin Hill in October.

He shared in the destruction of a Dornier 17 bomber on December 17, 1940, followed by eight Messerschmitt 109s between May and September 1941.

In August 1943 he returned from a posting to Gibralter and joined No 56 Squadron at RAF Manston, Kent, flying Typhoon fighter-bombers.

He was shot down on his first sortie over Calais.

Sq Ldr Leigh calmly wrote in his logbook: 'Picked up by ASR Launch. 1 car damaged; gun boat heated up!' 

The squadron converted to Mustang fighter-bombers in April 1944, which was when he strafed German ground targets like trains, lorries and an ammunition barge in France.

On June 6, 1944, or D-Day, he escorted the Airborne Division to the beachhead and took part in bombing and strafing attacks across the month.

He was shot down a second time on June 22 when he was forced to land his Mustang near St Mere Eglise, Normandy. 

He moved to hunting deadly V1 rockets launched from sites in Nazi-occupied Belgium by July 1944.   

Sq Ldr Leigh took part in escort flights over Arnhem for the disastrous Operation Market Garden in September.

His last operational flights before leaving the RAF at age 26 in December 1945 were from October to December 1944. He provided escort cover for RAF bombers on raids over the Ruhr, Cologne, Munster, Frankfurt and Dortmund. 

He began a successful architectural hardware business in Norwich and died in July 2004 aged 84. 

The plucky little plane that helped win the war! A salute to the Spitfire

• Spitfires were a prominent focus of The Royal Air Force's 100th anniversary
• Some 310 worth £1.4 million were ordered within weeks of its first test flights  

There is no other piece of historic machinery which still commands the same respect as Reginald ‘RJ’ Mitchell’s war-winning, history-making masterpiece.

Pilots from all over the world would come to love its agility and elegance. 

‘She was really the perfect flying machine,’ recalled Wing Commander George ‘Grumpy’ Unwin, one of the very first RAF pilots to fly a Spitfire and a Battle of Britain ace, credited with 14 ‘kills’. ‘I’ve never flown anything sweeter.’

Another veteran, Wing Commander ‘Dizzy’ Allen, would talk of a love affair: ‘I have no words worthy of describing the Spitfire. There was only love on my account and on not one occasion did any of these aircraft let me down.’

The Spitfire was unique in that it was in production before war was declared and was still in production years after it was over. It served in every arena of the war. Its power extended far beyond its famous Rolls-Royce engine and its ability to outsmart the deadly Messerschmitt Bf 109 (known as the Me 109) at 400mph.

Flying Officer Leonard 'Ace' Haines  (pictured on his Spitfire in 1940) 

The Royal Flying Corps had existed since 1912, eventually forming separate Military and Naval wings.

By 1917, with increasing German daylight bombing raids against civilians, a decision was taken to amalgamate them. On April 1st of 1918 the RAF was born.

Airmen scramble towards their planes during the Battle of Britain in 1940

In 1940, German forces were soon tearing across mainland Europe, culminating in the fall of France and the British retreat from Dunkirk. There, though, the Luftwaffe began to realise that the Royal Air Force would not be a pushover. ‘The enemy fighters pounced on us with the fury of maniacs,’ wrote Major Werner Kreipe. ‘The days of easy victory were over. We had met the RAF head on.’

That would become very much clearer in the months ahead as Germany brought the war across the Channel. There were 30 Hurricane squadrons and 19 Spitfire squadrons involved in the Battle of Britain – not to mention gallant pilots from many nations (the highest-scorers during the battle were the Poles of 303 Squadron). In no time, the superiority of the Spitfire would become clear. Never mind the aesthetics. It was simply the faster, nimbler combat aircraft, though none could fault the heroism or efforts of the Hurricanes and their pilots. 

RAF crew with their goat mascot in Southern England, 1941

A Spitfire being loaded with ammo in 1940 at a RAF fighter base

 

Spitfire and friends

Spitfire

Spitfires were tasked with downing the German V-1 flying bombs, sometimes flying alongside with the wingtip just six inches from the rocket's wing - the turbulence could knock the missile off course.

On the tarmac

More than 22,000 Spitfires were made between March 1936, when the first prototype made its maiden flight at what is now Eastleigh Airport near Southampton, and 1957, when it flew its last RAF mission in a reconnaissance role. Along the way, the phenomenally versatile aeroplane underwent 24 separate, defined revisions.

In one strange twist of history, it was involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1948-9, serving with the Egyptian and Israeli air forces. In January 1949, three Mark XVIIIs were shot down by Israeli Spitfires.

U. K. News: Majority of Young Muslims in UK Want Islamic Law

 

Majority of Young Muslims in UK Want Islamic Law

Poll shows British Muslims want Islam as the national religion and an Islamic political party.

April 15, 2024, by Daniel Greenfield, Front Page Magazine 

https://www.frontpagemag.com/majority-of-young-muslims-in-uk-want-islamic-law/

1 in 3 Muslims living in the UK want Islam to be declared the national religion and for everyone to live under the brutal system of Sharia law which calls for beheadings and amputations.

Less than 1 in 4 Muslims opposed the move while the majority were unwilling to commit.

Among younger Muslims 18-24, 1 in 5 believed that making Islam “our national religion” was “very desirable”, and a total of 43% supported redefining the UK as an Islamic state.

Only 16% opposed it.

This younger group who are the future of Muslims in the UK was also the one most likely to sympathize with Islamic terrorists.

1 in 4 British Muslim men expressed a positive view of Jihad. 46% of British Muslims sympathized with Hamas as did 58% of younger British Muslims. None effectively sympathize with Israel. Previously 1 in 4 Muslims had sympathized with the 7/7 suicide bombers in London.

52% of Muslims supported a ‘blasphemy’ ban on Mohammed cartoons. This Sharia ‘blasphemy code’ had already been used to justify violence and Islamic terrorist attacks against artists and magazines. Including the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris by heavily armed Muslim terrorists.

A previous poll reported on by The Telegraph in 2015 showed that 1 in 4 Muslims supported the Hebdo attacks.

Among younger Muslim settlers, 59% supported a blasphemy ban, with only 20% opposed.

57% of Muslim settlers in the UK were willing to call for the “compulsory use of Halal food in all schools and hospitals”. Among younger settlers, 67% were in favor of mandatory Halal.

Setting up conflicts with feminists and LGBTQ activists, 1 in 5 Muslims wanted to legalize polygamy and 1 in 4 wanted to ban homosexuality. While a majority of Muslim colonists would not commit to the move, both measures had similar levels of opposition and support.

Imposing Sharia law would be a ban on most of the social and lifestyle choices of the Left. That is a point that the British Left, like its Western counterparts, has not come to terms with, but may have to as Muslims in the UK move beyond supporting non-Muslim parties to forming their own.

39% of UK Muslims supported the formation of a Muslim political party potentially of the kind that had been set up by Muslim Brotherhood movements in middle eastern countries.

Only 16% were opposed.

Among younger Muslim colonists, 46% favored a Muslim political party to contend for power in Britain. Such a party could then be used to impose Islamic law on the rest of the country.

On most issues, with the exception of polygamy, the younger Muslims are more willing to support the imposition of Islam on the United Kingdom than their elders. The truly relevant poll numbers are not those that cover the entire population, but the next generation.

While most polls group together Muslims, this survey broke down different groups of Muslims showing significant differences among white Muslim converts, Arab Muslims, Pakistani Muslims and African Muslims. White converts have been depicted as the most “extreme” due to their “misunderstanding” of Islam and indeed have been involved in terrorism, but the survey shows that they are actually less likely to support the imposition of Islamic law through blasphemy bans on pictures of Mohammed, Halal, homosexuality, polygamy and other Sharia measures.

41% of Pakistani Muslim colonists in the UK want Sharia law and 37% want Islam to become the national religion. Pakistani settlers are the largest single Muslim group surveyed. 61% of Pakistan Muslim settlers supported compulsory Halal and 49% wanted an Islamic political party.

While Muslims women in the UK were distinctly unenthusiastic about bringing back polygamy (15% in favor, 38% against), and an abortion ban (19% for and 28% against) they were even more totalitarian about some elements of Islamic theocracy than the men including compulsory Halal (65% for and 7%) against, and even more likely to sympathize with Hamas than the men.

While the poll commissioned by the Henry Jackson Society and conducted by J.L. Partners which was published by The Telegraph found widespread support for Hamas, it also showed that the backing for the brutal Islamic terror theocracy in Israel also translated  into some support for establishing a similar system to the one Hamas is working toward in the UK.

A growing number of British Muslims not only want to see an end to Israel, but also to the UK with Islam as the national religion, the imposition of Islamic law and an Islamic political party.

The current poll does not show that the Muslim settler perspective in the UK is growing worse rather it shows that Muslims remained fairly consistent while the British have been in denial.

Similar polls expressing high levels of support for sharia law have circulated as far back as 2006 when 40% of Muslims in the UK wanted Islamic law. 18 years later, 36% support Islamic law.

Across nearly twenty years, Muslims in the UK want what they wanted in their home countries, theocratic supremacy and an end to equal rights for non-Muslims. The support for Hamas is an expression of a larger supremacist tendency that killed thousands in Israel, but millions around the world from India to Afghanistan to the Middle East and to London, Paris and New York City.

A majority of young Muslims in the UK want sharia Islamic law and a political party to impose it.

If the current immigration rates and demographic transformation rates continue, the question is not if it will fall to Islamic rule, but, when Britain will fall.

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

Protesters burn UK flag outside UK''s main mosque

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Israel News: Israel shoots down nearly all Iranian projectiles, Hamas rejects hostage deal

Israel shoots down nearly all Iranian projectiles, Hamas rejects hostage deal

Hagari: '99% of Iranian aerial threats were shot down'

Hagari added that zero of the close to 200 drones and zero of the 30 cruise missiles got through to Israeli territory at all.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB, Jerusalem Post, April 14, 2024

https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-796882

      Israeli fighter jets return after successfully intercepting inbound Iranian missiles. April 14, 2024.

                                  (photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

                       IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari (photo credit: IDF)

At 7:15 a.m. IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. (Rear Admiral) Daniel Hagari said that 99% of the aerial threats were shot down, which he said was a strategic achievement.

Zero of the close to 200 drones and zero of the 30 cruise missiles got through to Israeli territory at all.

25 of the 30 cruise missiles were shot down by Israel.

Of 130 ballistic missiles, only a small number got through.

  Objects are seen in the sky above Jerusalem after Iran launched drones and missiles towards Israel, in Jerusalem April 14, 2024. (credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)

Hagari noted that Yemen was involved in the attack, with US reports that America shot down around 70 aerial attacks using naval and aerial power.

      Davids Sling intermediate range AA missile launch - photo credit: Israel Ministry of Defence 

    Arrow 3 stratospheric long range AA missile launch - photo credit: Israel Ministry of Defence 

Air raid sirens go in Jerusalem with missile intercepts in the sky

Nebatim base sustains minor damage

The censor permitted publishing that the base which had minor hits was Nebatim in the desert, a key base for the F-35. Israel also published photos and video which it said were showing Nebatim air base still fully functioning despite the minor hits.

Hagari also alluded to Jordan's assistance along with that of its other allies.     

Live reports: i24NEWS English: IDF says 99 percent of Iranian attack intercepted

Pud says we are now at war and must give our support to the IDF to do it's job and prepare to take the fight into Iran and not continue with our political squabbling.

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed, Genesis 12:3

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Muslims Donate Billions to Influence American Universities

 

Hamas-Supporter Qatar ‘Sponsoring’ What Americans Learn

by Raymond Ibrahim

“Hamas Patron” Qatar has given more than $5.6 billion to 61 American schools since 2007, including Ivy Leagues such as Harvard University, Yale University, Cornell University, and Stanford University, according to a February, 2024 report.

Qatar is not the only nation to be supportive of “learning” in the West while simultaneously having deep ties to Hamas and other terrorist organizations—not to mention exhibiting a very anti-liberal stance and unenlightened mind at home.

According to another report from 2023,

China, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Turkey have poured millions of dollars into the University of Delaware since the school launched the Biden Institute, President Joe Biden’s domestic policy think tank led by his sister….  Since the Biden Institute was established in 2017, the University of Delaware has received $6,704,250 in funding from China, $23,610,996 from Saudi Arabia, $2,513,646 from Oman and $1,673,847 from Turkey, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education.

Every one of these “generous donors” is either explicitly or implicitly hostile to Western civilization and everything it stands for, prompting a simple question:

Why are nations that are notoriously hostile to freedom, diversity, women’s rights—basically all Western values—donating many billions of dollars to fund, of all things, liberal American universities? The answer seems clear enough: elite universities produce American leaders, and foreign money—“donations”—buys power and influence over those very same future leaders, not least by ensuring that what they “learn”—or are indoctrinated into believing—is beneficial to them, the donors, while also detrimental to the U.S.

All of this was made abundantly clear by a blockbuster report published by the Department of Education under the Trump administration in 2020.  It thoroughly documented the “purchased” influence foreign nations have on America’s most prestigious universities and, as a result, on what America’s current and upcoming generations of analysts and policymakers will think and believe.

As seen, among those “gifts” has been a whopping $5.6 billion from the Muslim Brotherhood’s number one state backer, Qatar, which also runs the Arabic propaganda network, Al Jazeera.  Another $1.1 billion came from the chief disseminator of “radical” Islamic ideology, Saudi Arabia, and nearly $1.5 billion came from China.

As the 2020 Dept. of Ed. report explained,

[A]t least some of these foreign sources are hostile to the United States and are targeting their investments (i.e., ‘gifts’ and ‘contracts’) to project soft power, steal sensitive and proprietary research, and spread propaganda.

As one example of how these “hostile donations” work, in March 2019, an event described as a “Three-Day Anti-Israel Hate-Fest” was sponsored by the University of North Carolina’s Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies and the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies—both recipients of big bucks from Islamic nations that hate Israel.

Following this event, the Dept. of Ed. warned the Consortium, in a letter dated August 29, 2019, to stop misusing federal grants by advancing “ideological priorities.” According to the letter:

The Duke-UNC CMES appears to lack balance as it offers very few, if any, programs focused on the historic discrimination faced by, and current circumstances of, religious minorities in the Middle East, including Christians, Jews, Baha’is, Yazidis, Kurds, Druze, and others. Also, in your activities for elementary and secondary students and teachers, there is a considerable emphasis placed on the understanding the positive aspects of Islam, while there is an absolute absence of any similar focus on the positive aspects of Christianity, Judaism, or any other religion or belief system in the Middle East. This lack of balance of perspectives is troubling.

Similarly, a 2018 report found that “elite U.S. universities took more than half a billion dollars” from Saudi Arabia in gifts and donations between 2011 and 2017; as far back as 2005, Georgetown and Harvard each received $20 million “to support Islamic studies on their respective campuses.”

Here, again, the question arises: why would a nation such as Saudi Arabia—which treats women like chattel, insists that all Muslims are obligated to hate all non-Muslims, arrests and tortures Christians for “plotting to celebrate Christmas”—become a leading financial supporter of America’s liberal arts?

The answer should be clear: to influence what students are taught about the Middle East and Islam.

The Dept. of Ed.’s 2020 expose (section E.5) on Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, “exemplifies how foreign money can advance a particular country’s worldview within U.S. academic institutions.”  As such, it is worth quoting at length:

[T]he Center could advance Islamic ideology in a fashion that belittles opposition, threatens academic integrity, and improperly influences future civil servants. The Center also received criticism for deceptively labeling itself as pluralistic; according to critics, the ‘Christian’ studies portion of the Center was a ‘misnomer’ as there was no Christian representation…

This donation empowered the Saudi Arabian government to advance a particular narrative about Islamic society to the West via a legitimate Western institution like Georgetown University…..

The Saudi Arabian government had successfully impacted American foreign policy thinking through money alone. The Saudi Arabian government invested significantly into the dissemination of its favored ideological views at Georgetown University and several other U.S. academic institutions.

The report further adds that, while raking in and failing to report on these billions in foreign “gifts,” these same universities “depend on direct and indirect subsidies from U.S. taxpayers, including through Federal student loans that have encumbered Americans with staggering debt loads, to operate.” Even so, “the evidence suggests institutional decision-making is generally divorced from any sense of obligation to our taxpayers or concern for our American national interests, security, or values.”

In all spheres of life, education is an indicator of the potential for success; its opposite, ignorance—or worse, indoctrination in falsehoods—is an indicator of potential failure. As such, clearly one of the reasons U.S. foreign policy, from China to the Middle East, has been a disaster is because policymakers and the advisors and analysts on whom they depend upon are products of academic indoctrination financed by those who are hostile to the United States.