First aces

Fritz Kosmahl, destined to become one of Germany’s most highly decorated two-seater pilots, was born in Leipzig on 5 September 1892. His early interest in aviation led him to undertake pilot training

When Buckingham Palace was hit by bombs on 15 September 1940, it brought the war to the very front door of King George VI and his wife Elizabeth, the Queen consort. Just over two weeks later, the war

Flight’s glamorous beginnings

This fantastic plan, which led the then Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (DCAS), Air Vice-Marshal Arthur T Harris, to remark ‘the story, that appears too fantastic for words, might have a fortunate outco

Subordinate to Dr Joseph Goebbels’ Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda) but reporting through the Wehrmacht Propaganda department of O

On a muggy night in late August 1940, Hinnerk Waller’s fraying tether had finally snapped. Relentlessly deployed in the Battle of Britain as part of the Luftwaffe fighter wing JG 52, Waller was paying