Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Air and Sea<br />
AIRCRAFT<br />
Listed alphabetically; dimensions in feet unless noted otherwise.<br />
Avro 685 York Ascalon:<br />
Four engines; length 78,<br />
wingspan 102, cruise<br />
speed 210 mph (298<br />
max.), ceiling 23,000,<br />
range 2700 miles. After flying <strong>Churchill</strong>, served in the RAF<br />
Far East Communications Flight; broken up in 1954.<br />
Boeing 314A Berwick and Bristol: Four-engine flying boats;<br />
length 106, wingspan 152, cruise speed 188 mph (210 max.),<br />
ceiling 13,400, range 3685 miles. Sold to World Airways in<br />
1948, scrapped as obsolete 1950-51. (Page 13.)<br />
Consolidated LB-30A Liberator Commando: Four engines;<br />
length 66, wingspan 110, cruise speed 190 mph (270 max.),<br />
ceiling 30,000, range 2900 miles. After serving <strong>Churchill</strong>,<br />
modified with single fin and longer fuselage early in 1944.<br />
Disappeared off the Azores in March 1945. (Page 12.)<br />
de Havilland D.H. 95 Flamingo: Two engines; length 52,<br />
wingspan 70, cruise speed 204 mph (243 max.), ceiling<br />
21,000, range 1345 miles. <strong>Churchill</strong>’s Flamingo was lost in<br />
1942; the last of fifteen was broken up in 1954. (Page 12.)<br />
Douglas C-47<br />
Dakota: Two engines;<br />
length 65, wingspan<br />
95, cruise speed 185<br />
mph (230 max.),<br />
ceiling 23,200, range<br />
2125 miles.<br />
Douglas C-54B Skymaster: Four engines; length 94,<br />
wingspan 117,<br />
cruise speed 180<br />
mph (227 max.),<br />
ceiling 26,600,<br />
range 3,800 miles.<br />
Same as FDR’s<br />
“Sacred Cow.”<br />
<strong>Churchill</strong>’s<br />
Skymaster was returned to the United States in late 1945, and<br />
was eventually junked in China.<br />
Lockheed Lodestar Mk II: Two engines; length 50, wingspan<br />
66, cruise speed 200<br />
mph (266 max.),<br />
ceiling 30,100, range<br />
2,500 miles. VIP<br />
transport from 1941.<br />
SHIPS<br />
HMS Aurora: 5200 tons, length 506, 32 knots. Light cruiser<br />
of the Arethusa class, entered service in 1937, served in<br />
Scandinavian and Mediterranean waters, survived the war.<br />
HMS Duke of York, King George V, and Prince of Wales:<br />
45,000 tons, length 745, 30 knots. Three of a class of five battleships<br />
built 1937-41. Prince of Wales was sunk off Malaya in<br />
December 1941; the rest survived to be broken up in the<br />
1950s. Prince of Wales was the seventh ship to carry that<br />
name—the eighth is a Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier<br />
now under construction. (See FH 139: 43.)<br />
HMS Enterprise: 7550<br />
tons, length 570, 33<br />
knots. The name vessel<br />
for a two-ship light<br />
cruiser class completed 1926, refitted a decade later. She participated<br />
in D-Day action and survived the war.<br />
HMT [His Majesty’s Transport] Franconia: 20,175 tons,<br />
length 601, 16.5 knots. Returned to Cunard after the war, she<br />
was scrapped in 1957.<br />
HMS Kelvin and Kimberley:<br />
1700 tons, length 348, 36<br />
knots. Javelin class destroyers<br />
completed 1939, Kelvin fought<br />
Axis convoys in the<br />
Mediterranean, participated in D-Day and served on the<br />
Atlantic. Kimberley took part in the invasion of Southern<br />
France. Both survived the war; Kelly, a sister, was lost under the<br />
command of Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1941.<br />
HMS Orion: 6985 tons, length 555, 32.5 knots. Light cruiser<br />
of the Ajax class, completed 1934. Saw extensive service in the<br />
Mediterranean and survived the war.<br />
HMT Queen Mary: 80,774 tons, length 975, 30 knots.<br />
Three-funnel, quadruple screw liner. Her final voyage was in<br />
1967 to Long Beach, California where she remains as a<br />
museum and hotel, the sole survivor of the golden age of ocean<br />
liners. (See FH 121:23.)<br />
HMS Renown: 28,000 tons, length 794, 33 knots. One of<br />
two sister battlecruisers (slightly smaller, more lightly armored<br />
and faster than a battleship) completed 1916, both greatly<br />
modernized between the wars. Renown was scrapped in 1946;<br />
her sister Repulse was lost with Prince of Wales in 1941. (See<br />
FH 113:24-25.) ,<br />
Sources<br />
Siegfried Breyer, Battleships and Battle Cruisers 1905-1970<br />
(London: Macdonald and Jane’s, 1973).<br />
David Donald, ed., American Warplanes of World War II (London:<br />
Amber Books, 1995).<br />
Roger Kafka and Roy L. Pepperburg, Warships of the World: Victory<br />
Edition (New York: Cornell Maritime Press, 1946).<br />
David J. March, ed., British Warplanes of World War II (London:<br />
Amber Books, 1998).<br />
FINEST HOUR 148 / 17