Lincoln City follower for years. #imps..lived in Sunderland..like History, Nostalgia, GB sport, M/cycles, Cars, Aviation & keeping sane in these crazy times !!
French Navy Short Sunderland MR5 (ML892) being escorted into Milford Haven by an Avro Shackleton of 201 Sqn RAF in 1963.
Donated to the town of Pembroke Dock, it was later gifted to the @RAFMUSEUM in Hendon, where it still resides today.
F-4 Phantom the manual is avail from https://t.co/LLSLPrxtwG 111 Sqn operated the FG1 version ( along with 43 Squadron ) after a short spell with the FGR2- The Navy FAA only operated one front line squadron 892 Squadron with 767 a training unit - Image at RAF Wildenrath 1987?
They called them flying coffins. The men who volunteered to fly them knew exactly why.
The Allied gliders of D-Day were made of fabric stretched over a frame of wood and metal tubing. They had no engine. No armor. No weapons. No parachutes for the men inside. They were towed to France at 130 mph on the end of a 300-foot nylon rope attached to a C-47, and when the rope was cut, there was one chance to land.
One. No go-arounds. No second approach. Whatever was below you was where you were going.
What was below them was Normandy at night.
The Germans had spent weeks preparing. Under orders from Field Marshal Rommel, they had driven wooden stakes into every open field in the region, angled to impale gliders on landing. The French called them Rommelspargel. Rommel's asparagus. Thousands of poles, many with mines or artillery shells wired to the tips, packed into every field large enough to land on.
What the glider pilots had not been properly told was the scale of the Norman hedgerows. The bocage. These were not English garden hedges. They were ancient earthen walls, some dating back centuries, topped with dense root systems and trees, rising 50 feet in places, bordering fields barely 200 yards long. A Horsa glider coming in at 100 mph hitting a hedgerow did not survive it. Neither did most people inside.
Some fields were flooded. Some were mined. Many were both.
517 gliders went into Normandy. 97 percent were abandoned in the field by the end of the operation. Most were destroyed.
General Don Pratt, assistant commander of the 101st Airborne, was in the first glider wave. His pilot managed to find a field near Hiesville and brought the glider down. It slid across the wet grass without slowing and hit a hedgerow at speed. The co-pilot died instantly. The pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Murphy, broke both legs. General Pratt suffered a broken neck. He became the first American general to die in the Battle of Normandy. His glider had landed in one piece.
Sergeant Eric Wilson's glider did not. It hit a building at high speed. Both of Wilson's legs were broken. He was trapped inside the wreckage, unable to move, in enemy-held Normandy, for two and a half days before anyone reached him.
Lieutenant Den Brotheridge had come in earlier than anyone, in the first glider to land in France, the silent coup de main assault on Pegasus Bridge just after midnight. His glider stopped 47 yards from its target. He led his men out at a run, reached the bridge, and was shot. He died within minutes, the first Allied soldier killed by enemy fire on D-Day.
The men who survived the landing did not get to stop. Glider pilots were not assigned to combat units. Once down, they were expected to fight as infantry, dig foxholes, guard prisoners, carry ammunition, do whatever was needed. Most of them had trained to fly, not to fight on the ground behind enemy lines in the dark.
They did it anyway.
Of the 517 gliders that went in, 222 were Horsa gliders. Most were destroyed either on landing or by German fire in the hours that followed. The Waco CG-4As fared slightly better but 97 percent of all gliders from the entire operation were eventually abandoned in Norman fields, broken and empty.
The men who flew them were not pilots in the traditional sense. They were soldiers who had been given just enough training to put an unarmed, engineless box of fabric and wood into a dark foreign field at 100 mph, full of men and equipment, with one attempt and no margin for error.
Many of them got it exactly right.
Many of them did not come home.
Today is June 6th.
Remember them too.
🚨 Bristol City confirm Michael Skubala has joined from Lincoln City.
Lincoln had initially been optimistic on keeping Skubala, but talks advanced with Bristol City over the past few days after Tommy Elphick turned down the role.
Lincoln tried to offer Skubala a new contract but couldn’t compete with Bristol City’s offer.
Lincoln are set to receive in excess of £1m in compensation.
🗣️ Lincoln CEO Liam Scully: “Michael has made a significant impact during his time at Lincoln City and leaves with our sincere thanks and best wishes.
“From the moment he arrived, he embraced everything about this football club and represented the club with real integrity and professionalism.
“We are proud that Lincoln City continues to be recognised as a stable place where talented people develop and Michael leaves with the gratitude and respect of everyone connected with the club.”
Sensible choice...a quick appointment stops the speculation and panic among some of us...crucially we didn't want to lose Tom & Chris aswell they know the set up players tactics probably assisted by experienced players
Didn't Brentford have joint coaches in the championship
Bristol City are closing in on the appointment of Lincoln boss Michael Skubala after they made an improved offer for his services. #BristolCity#WeAreImps
Might be a blessing in disguise....we get an established championship manager on a season contract to help us adapt to the new league & get the maximum compensation we can get for a manager whose stock may drop from this high point...good luck Michael that's football #impsasone
#BristolCity are close to appointing Michael Skubala as their new head coach. Skubala has been offered the job and is set to leave Lincoln City after achieving promotion from League One. Negotiations ongoing but close to an agreement. Three-year deal
🏟️ Want to own a piece of Imps history? We're replacing the seats in the Greenlinc Renewables Stand and fans have an opportunity to buy a seat as a memorable souvenir.
Some thing for the weekend - https://t.co/l1EkGwYzI5 this weekend if you need a Lightning fix head to Gatwick museum where Milton and his team will be firing up the F53