Earl & Dickies

05/03/2022

On this day 5th March in 1936 first flight to the skies.....

A chief test pilot Captain Joseph 'Mutt' Summers, took Type 300 fighter aircraft (K5054) for it's first flight, at Eastleigh airfield, near Southampton.

The new fighter's name was confirmed as the 'Spitfire' on the 10th June, and a legend was born.

05/03/2022

RIP Candy Bomber 🇺🇸
Sadly U.S pilot Gail. S.Halvorsen, known as the “Candy Bomber” who, during the Cold War, dropped sweets from his plane to German children in West Berlin, passed away recently at age 101. When he planned to airdrop sweets he would wiggle the wings of his aircraft so they would know it was him. He asked other pilots to donate their candy rations and have his flight engineer rock the airplane during the drop. Things grew from there, as more and more children showed up to catch his airdrops and letters began to arrive requesting special airdrops at other points in the city. The peculiar wing maneuver was how Halvorsen earned his other nickname: 'Uncle Wiggly Wings.'

22/01/2022

Today marks the 143rd Anniversary of the Battle of Rorke’s Drift in the Zulu war. The battle saw the most Victorian Crosses ever handed out to British soldiers for bravery. The battle was immortalised in the film Zulu featuring Michael Caine.

Below is a photograph of the original Union Flag that flew over Rorke’s Drift 143 years ago and is held in the Museum of the Royal Welsh in Brecon, Mid Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧

11/11/2021

25/09/2021

31/08/2021

1917 estimated costs of equipping a US soldier. Image appeared in Scientific American, December 1917.

06/08/2021

On this day in 1945, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay" dropped atomic bomb “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan. It was the first time an atomic weapon was used in combat.

“Enola Gay” is in our collection. Watch a video on the restoration that took 19 years and over 300,000 hours to complete: https://s.si.edu/3gv3nuS

31/07/2021

I didn’t know what the SAS was when I watched this live on the news as a 12 year old but they certainly made an impression. Good factual film told by the SAS guys themselves.

30/07/2021

From Mobsters and through many Wars the Thompson Sub Machine Gun has had a plethora of nicknames, including "Tommy Gun", "Trench Broom", "Trench Sweeper", "Chicago Typewriter", "Chicago Piano", "Chicago Style", "Chicago Organ Grinder" and "The Chopper".

30/07/2021

24/07/2021