Daniel Knowles

In February 1942, six Swordfish armed with torpedoes encountered heavy anti-aircraft fire in the English Channel and were shot down but not before two torpedoes were launched at a German battleship sailing at high speed. Meer

Prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the US Navy had been in action, but only in the course of carrying out defensive duties such as escorting convoys across the Atlantic. Meer

Referred to by Winston Churchill as `the Beast’, `Tirpitz’ was Germany’s last great battleship and was one of the largest and heaviest battleships ever constructed by a European navy. Meer

Shortly after the end of the Second World War, the United Kingdom was described as one vast aircraft carrier anchored off the coast of Europe. During a seven year period 500 airfields were constructed to serve the needs first of the RAF and later the USAAF as they carried the war to German-occupied Europe. Meer