The second USS San Jacinto (CVL-30) of the United States Navy was an Independence-class light aircraft carrier. Originally laid down as the light cruiser Newark (CL-100), on 26 October 1942 by the New York Shipbuilding Co., Camden, New Jersey; redesignated CV-30 and renamed Reprisal on 2 June 1942; renamed San Jacinto on 30 January 1943, converted, while building, to a light aircraft carrier and reclassified as CVL-30; launched on 26 September 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Jesse Jones; and commissioned on 15 November 1943, Capt. Harold M. Martin, in command.
C-47 Skytrains carrying elements of the 101st Airborne during operation Market Garden. (Jack Cook Collection)
Operation Market Garden (September 17–25, 1944) was an Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in World War II. It was the largest airborne operation of all time.
The operation plan’s strategic context required the seizure of bridges across the Maas (Meuse River) and two arms of the Rhine (the Waal and the Lower Rhine) as well as several smaller canals and tributaries. Crossing the Lower Rhine would allow the Allies to outflank the Siegfried Line and encircle the Ruhr, Germany’s industrial heartland. It made large-scale use of airborne forces whose tactical objectives were to secure a series of bridges over the main rivers of the German-occupied Netherlands and allow a rapid advance by armoured units into Northern Germany.
Initially the operation was successful and several bridges between Eindhoven and Nijmegen were captured. However the ground force’s advance was delayed by the demolition of a bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal at Son, delaying the capture of the main road bridge over the Meuse until September 20. At Arnhem the British 1st Airborne Division encountered far stronger resistance than anticipated. In the ensuing battle only a small force managed to hold one end of the Arnhem road bridge and after the ground forces failed to relieve them they were overrun on the 21st. The rest of the division, trapped in a small pocket west of the bridge, had to be evacuated on the 25th. The Allies had failed to cross the Rhine in sufficient force, and the Rhine remained a barrier to their advance until the offensives at Remagen, Oppenheim, Rees and Wesel in March 1945.
The United Kingdom bought versions of the McDonnell-Douglas Phantom based on the USN F-4J for use with the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm. The main differences were the use of the British Rolls-Royce Spey engines and of British-made avionics. The RN and RAF versions were given the designation F-4K and F-4M respectively, and entered service as the Phantom FG.1 (fighter/ground attack) and Phantom FGR.2 (fighter/ground attack/reconnaissance).
After the Falklands War, 15 upgraded ex-USN F-4Js, known as the F-4J(UK) entered RAF service to compensate for one interceptor squadron redeployed to the Falklands.
Around 15 RAF squadrons received various marks of Phantom, many of them based in Germany. The first to be equipped was 6 Squadron at RAF Leuchars in July 1969. One noteworthy deployment was to 43 Squadron where Phantom FG1s remained the squadron equipment for a remarkable twenty years, arriving in September 1969 and departing in July 1989. During this period the squadron was based throughout at Leuchars.
The interceptor Phantoms were replaced by the Panavia Tornado F3 from the late 1980s onwards, and the last British Phantoms were retired in October 1992 when 74 Squadron disbanded.
The C.710 were a series of fighter aircraft developed by Caudron-Renault for the French Armée de l’Air just prior to the start of World War II. One version, the C.714, saw limited production, and were assigned to Polish pilots flying in France after the fall of Poland in 1939. A small number were also supplied to Finland.
The original specification that led to the C.710 series was offered in 1936 in order to quickly raise the number of modern aircraft in French service, by supplying a "light fighter" of wooden construction that could be built rapidly in large numbers without upsetting the production of existing types. The contract resulted in three designs, the Arsenal VG-30, the Bloch MB-700, and the C.710. Prototypes of all three were ordered.