Photos - Second World War

The Royal Air Force: The rear gunner in his position in a Wellington bomber.

Flying Officer Neville Duke of No 92 (East India) Squadron with his Spitfire at RAF Biggin Hill, 1941. After the war, Neville Duke became one of Britain's leading test pilots and broke the World Air Speed Record in 1953

Winston Churchill stands on a Covenanter tank of 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, to take the salute at an inspection of 9th Armoured Division near Newmarket, Suffolk, 16 May 1942.

Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC, Commanding Officer of No. 617 Squadron (The Dambusters) at Scampton, 22 July 1943.

Women welders making stirrup pump handles during the Second World War.

Wing Commander Raymond Harries, commanding the Tangmere Wing, in the cockpit of his Spitfire Mk XII, 1943.

Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC, Commanding Officer of No. 617 Squadron (The Dambusters), May 1943.

Ground staff refuelling a Supermarine Spitfire Mk IIA of No. 19 Squadron RAF at Fowlmere, near Duxford in Cambridgeshire, September 1940.

Sergeant Bohumil Furst of No. 310 (Czechoslovak) Squadron is greeted by the squadron mascot on returning to Duxford after a sortie in his Hawker Hurricane Mk I, 7 September 1940.

Interior of RAF Fighter Command's Sector 'G' Operations Room at Duxford, Cambridgeshire, September 1940.

Winston Churchill, accompanied by Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery and Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, inspects tanks of 7th Armoured Division in Berlin, 21 July 1945.

The crew of a Short Stirling bomber of No. 622 Squadron RAF being debriefed by the intelligence officer at Mildenhall, Suffolk, after returning from the major raid on Berlin of 22/23 November 1943.

Hurricane Mk IIBs of 'B' Flight, No. 601 Squadron, based at Duxford, 21 August 1941.

HQ of 1st Airlanding Light Regiment, Royal Artillery, unload a jeep and trailer from their Horsa glider at the landing zone near Wolfheze in Holland, during Operation 'Market Garden', 17 September 1944.

Squadron Leader Douglas Bader, CO of No. 242 Squadron, seated on his Hawker Hurricane at Duxford, September 1940.

A Hawker Typhoon Mk IB of No. 486 Squadron RAF, 27 October 1943.

Avro Lancasters of No. 57 Squadron lined up at dusk before an operation, Scampton in Lincolnshire, February 1943.

Squadron Leader M.G.F. Pedley, the CO of No. 131 Squadron RAF, about to set out on a sweep in his Supermarine Spitfire Mk VB from Merston, a satellite airfield of Tangmere in Sussex, June 1942.

POWs at Stalag 11B at Fallingbostel in Germany welcome their liberators, 16 April 1945.

Flight Sergeant J Morgan, the rear gunner of an Avro Lancaster of No. 630 Squadron RAF at East Kirkby, Lincolnshire, checks his guns before taking off on a night raid on the marshalling yards at Juvisy-sur-Orge, France, 18 April 1944.

North American Mustang Mark IIIs of No. 19 Squadron RAF based at Ford, Sussex, 21 April 1944.

Hawker Sea Hurricanes of the Fleet Air Arm, based at RNAS Yeovilton, flying in formation, 9 December 1941.

A Norwegian child being carried to an ambulance from HMS ONSLAUGHT at Gourock, 1 March 1945. She was one of over 500 civilians recued by the Royal Navy after hiding from the Germans on Soroy island.

Troops and transport of British 50th Division on the Normandy beaches, 7 June 1944.