#OTD VE Day on the airfield. May 8, 1945. The Orderly Room celebrating Victory in Europe at RAF Andover in Hampshire.

Mask and eye-shield worn by British women as protection from incendiary bombs, London, 1941. By Lee Miller.

It’s actually not too bad. Prefer it to the Blackburn Botha.

Pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group (aka the "Tuskegee Airmen") show off their P-40 Warhawks at Oscoda Army Air Field before heading overseas.

What an absolutely fantastic day we had yesterday celebrating & commemorating VE Day 80 at our historic hangars here at Old Sarum Airfield. We are so pleased so many visitors, participants and supporters had such a great day with us and the many external organizations involved.

This escape button belonged to an airman who flew from RAF Beaulieu. The buttons were sewn onto tunics + a hidden compass inside to give a chance of escape if shot down over enemy territory. I reveal the compass in 3 tweets 🧵

Few days ago I shared photos of the escape compass hidden in a RAF tunic button belonging to an airman who flew from RAF Beaulieu. Here's another escape compass of his - but this time hidden into a collar stud. Watch the short reveal 🧵

Today is the anniversary of the Dambusters Raid, 17 May 1943. Here's footage of a Mosquito testing the Highball variation of the bouncing bomb on heathland at Ashley Walk, New Forest. One of the Dambuster Lancasters did actually crash at Ashley Walk during tests (no fatalities).

A lovely day, so it was fitting to get the model control tower out of the RAF Ibsley Heritage Trust archives... plus it had a special visitor in the sun, a model of Spitfire BL924 ('AZ-G' 'Skagen Ind'). 🧵

The view of what was the RAF Lymington N to S runway. P47 Thunderbolts of the USAAF would have sped down that field on Sommerfeld wire tracking, then formed up over the Isle of Wight in the distance. Photo taken by an estate agent, not me.

Great news this evening that Wiltshire Council has launched a legal challenge to the Planning Inspector's ruling over 300+ houses applied to be built on the airfield site. This unique Conservation Area & heritage site will be irreversibly damaged if the houses go ahead. #SOS

A few days from D-Day on June 6, and here's the view the Wrens would have had from the Lepe House signals tower as they used Aldis lamps and morse code to direct landing craft from the mouth of Beaulieu River and down the shore to Lepe Beach and into the Solent. 🧵

RAF Typhoon pilots in France at their "Ritz Hotel".

On this day, 5 June 1944, Squadron Leader David Ross made the ultimate sacrifice. 24 hours before D-Day, he took off from Needs Oar Point in the New Forest, leading his squadron on a mission to attack a German radar station in France. Tragedy struck on the return flight...

81 years ago this morning, USAAF P-47 Thunderbolts of the 365th Fighter Group, aka the Hell Hawks, took off from Beaulieu in the New Forest for D-Day. 47 took off, 45 returned.

If you are reading this tweet around the time I posted it this evening on Saturday, it's around the same time Chilton Forrest was lost in the English Channel and never seen again. 81 years ago he came to England, was thousands of miles from home...

Timely...

The control tower / watch office at the former RAF Ibsley today. As many will know, it's the subject of a possible renovation to save it. There are more planning meetings with relevant parties this month, so hopefully, it will bring positive news by the end of the summer.