Yesterday Today

One of the Biggest Air Battles in History – the Battle Of Britain in 39 Amazing Photos

It may be almost impossible to imagine today, but not long before the Nazi campaign against Britain got underway, Hitler mused that England might capitulate to Germany without putting up much of a fight at all.

Apparently he underestimated Winston Churchill, the British prime minister, much the same way he would later underestimate Josef Stalin, when he invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.

Britain wasn’t about to give up control of the skies easily, quietly or quickly. Although Germany had the Luftwaffe, which was equipped with excellent aircraft, when up against the fighter planes of the Royal Air Force (RAF) it was no contest.

Nonetheless, Hitler ordered the bombing of Britain to commence on July 10th, 1940, and the two countries fought almost constantly until October 31st, when victory went decidedly to Great Britain. It became known as the Battle of Britain, an aerial campaign that was, in some respects, a fight for Britain’s very soul as a military champion on the right side of history.

By the time the conflict subsided, almost 3,000 civilians had lost their lives.

It was a gruelling campaign for both sides. But the RAF had Spitfires and Hurricanes and skilled pilots to steer them, and it wasn’t long before Germany’s fantasies of an easy fight evaporated like so much dust in a sandstorm.

The Battle of Britain is not only an example of the RAF’s skill. It was the first battle fought solely in the air, a battle that cost Germany more than 1,500 fighter planes. Hermann Goering, chief of the Luftwaffe had mistakenly, just like his boss, thought that Britain would be quickly and easily defeated.

He soon realized Germany was in for the fight of its life, a fight that of course it wound up losing, in 1945 when it completely surrendered to the Allies.

**German Heinkel He 111 bombers over the English Channel. 1940.**

A still from camera-gun film taken from a Supermarine Spitfire Mark I of No. 609 Squadron RAF, flown by by Pilot Officer J D Bisdee, as he dives on a formation of Heinkel He IIIs of KG 55 which had just bombed the Supermarine aircraft works at Woolston, Southampton. 1940.

A still from camera gun film shows tracer ammunition from a Supermarine Spitfire Mark I of No. 609 Squadron RAF, flown by Flight Lieutenant J H G McArthur, hitting a Heinkel He 111 on its starboard quarter. These aircraft were part of a large formation from KG 53 and KG 55 which attacked the Bristol Aeroplane Company’s works at Filton, Bristol, just before midday on 25th September 1940.

Messerschmitt Bf110 fighter of Zerstörergeschwader 76 heavy fighter squadron over the English Channel, Aug 1940. These were the first fighters with the shark’s mouth that inspired the RAF in Africa and the AVG in China.

**A flight of German Do-17 Z bombers of Kampfgeschwader 3 over France or Belgium, possibly en route to Britain, September-October 1940**.

**Supermarine Spitfire Mark Is of No. 610 Squadron based at Biggin Hill, flying in ‘vic’ formation, 24 July 1940.**

Hawker Hurricanes of No 1 Squadron, Royal Air Force, based at Wittering, Cambridgeshire, followed by a similar formation of Supermarine Spitfires of No 266 Squadron, during a flying display for aircraft factory workers, October 1940.

A still from camera-gun film taken from a Supermarine Spitfire Mark I, flown by the Commanding Officer of No. 609 Squadron RAF, Squadron Leader H S Darley, as he opens fire amongst a formation of Heinkel He 111s of KG 55 which have just bombed the Supermarine aircraft works at Woolston, Southampton.

A still from camera-gun film taken from a Supermarine Spitfire Mark I of No. 609 Squadron RAF, flown by Flying Officer Tadeusz “Novi” Nowierski (formerly Polish Air Force) as he closes in on a formation of Dornier Do 17Zs of KG3 south-west of London at approximately 5.45 pm on 7 September 1940, the first day of the Blitz. Tracer bullets from the intercepting Spitfires can be seen travelling towards the enemy aircraft which were heading back to their base after bombing East London and the docks.

**A Dornier Do-17 medium bomber dropping a string of bombs on London. 20 September 1940.**

**A portrait of Air Vice Marshal Sir Keith Park while commanding RAF squadrons on Malta, September 1942. In Germany, he was supposedly known as “the Defender of London”.**

**A Spitfire aircraft going down after being hit by a German Heinkel III in a dog fight.**

**A Spitfire pilot of No. 610 Squadron recounts how he shot down a Messerschmitt Bf 110, Biggin Hill. September 1940.**

**Bf-109 after an emergency landing on its way back to France across the English Channel. 1940.**

**Bomb with sign Extra-Havanna für Churchill. August 1940.**

**British fighter Supermarine Spitfire flies in front of the cab of the German Heinkel He 111.**

**British pilots running towards their fighters (Spitfires) on the air-raid alarm.**

**Camera gun footage of a Ju 87 Stuka being shot down by an RAF fighter, 1940.**

**Destroyed German bomber Heinkel HE 111.**

**German Do 17 bomber and British Spitfire fighter in the sky over Britain. December 1940.**

**German Heinkel He 111 flying towards their targets in the United Kingdom.**

**German Heinkel He 111s which went into service in 1937. Some 6000 Heinkel He 111s were built but were found to be a poor match for Hurricanes and Spitfires during the Battle of Britain.**

**German Officer examines the bullet holes on the fuselage of Heinkel He 111. The damage was caused by 7.69mm machine guns of British aircraft.**

**Ground staff refueling a Messerschmitt Bf 110.**

**Hawker Hurricane Mk I aircraft of No 85 Squadron, Royal Air Force on patrol during the Battle of Britain.**

**Hawker Hurricane Mk Is of No. 242 Squadron during the Battle of Britain, 1940.**

**Hawker Hurricanes of No. 85 Squadron RAF, October 1940.**

**Heinkel HE-111 aircraft of the Luftwaffe being shot down during the Battle of Britain.**

**Hurricanes of No. 85 Squadron in flight in search of the enemy, October 1940.**

**Sergeant Schnell Siegfried of the 4.JG2 Squadron presents the marks of victories on the tail of his Messerschmitt fighter Bf 109E.**

**KG 76 on their way to the target, 18th August 1940.**

**Pattern of condensation trails left by British and German aircraft after a dog fight.**

**Spitfire pilots pose beside the wreckage of a Junkers Ju 87 Stuka, which they shot down as it was attacking a Channel convoy, 1940.**

**Supermarine Spitfire Mk VBs of No. 131 Squadron RAF being prepared for a sweep at Merston, a satellite airfield of Tangmere, Sussex. June 1942.**

**The Crew and a ground staff of the Luftwaffe prepare the start of the bomber Junkers Ju-88.**

**The front of a Heinkel He-111 medium bomber in flight during a bombing mission to London. November 1940.**

**Two Dornier Do 17Z of the KG76 Squadron on London’s West Ham sky.**

66 Amazing Vintage Pictures of St.Louis in the early 20th Century

St. Louis is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers, on the western bank of the latter. As of 2020, the city proper had a population of around 301,500, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which extends into Illinois, had an estimated population of over 2.8 million, making it the largest metropolitan area in Missouri, the second-largest in Illinois, the seventh-largest in the Great Lakes Megalopolis, and the 20th-largest in the United States.

Before European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. St. Louis was founded on February 14, 1764, by French fur traders Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent, Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, who named it for Louis IX of France. In 1764, following France’s defeat in the Seven Years’ War, the area was ceded to Spain. In 1800, it was retroceded to France, which sold it three years later to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase; the city was then the point of embarkation for the Corps of Discovery on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In the 19th century, St. Louis became a major port on the Mississippi River; from 1870 until the 1920 census, it was the fourth-largest city in the country. It separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. St. Louis had a brief run as a world-class city in the early 20th century. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics.

**A boy on stilts stands in front of the produce stands in front of the F.J. Voepel Market, 1906**

**A man peers out of the window at Cole Brothers Lightning Rod Company at 316 S. Seventh Street, ca. 1900s**

**An empty cart for distributing beer in front of a bar on a street, ca. 1900s**

**Broadway and Locust, southwest corner, 1909**

**Broadway looking north from Keokuk Street, ca. 1900s**

**C.J. Reilly Horse Shoer shop at 308 North Leonard Avenue, 1906**

**Carr Street north of Eleventh Street, ca. 1900s**

**Charles Meder Grocery store at the corner of Ninteenth and Dodier Streets, ca. 1900s**

**Colonel Frederick Dent Residence at the southwest corner of Fourth and Cerre Streets, 1915**

**Construction of North Taylor Avenue at the intersection of Florissant Avenue, 1906**

**Delmar Boulevard from Kingshighway, 1914**

**Grand Avenue and Olive Boulevard, south side, street under construction, 1907**

**Gravois Road looking east at River des Peres, 1914**

**Group of men standing in front of the Globe Shaving Parlor at 1015 Carr Street, 1910**

**Horse-drawn cart stopped at the curb of a street in St.Louis, ca. 1900s**

**Intersection of Fifteenth Street and Franklin, looking northwest, ca. 1900s**

**Intersection of Sixth and Walnut Streets, 1907**

**Lawton Street looking west to Beaumont, 1910**

**Market Street Grocery Company building, ca 1900s**

**Missouri Athletic Club fire wreckage at the northwest corner of Fourth Street and Washington Avenue, 1914**

**Mound City Buggy Company on east side of Broadway between Papin and Chouteau, ca. 1900s**

**Mutoscope Parlor and Theatre on the northwest corner of Olive Street and Leonard Avenue, 1912**

**Nineteenth Street looking north from Dodier Street, 1900**

**Nineteenth Street looking south across Morgan and Lucas Streets, ca. 1900s**

**Northeast corner of Third Street and Lucas Avenue, ca. 1900s**

**Northwest corner of Eighth and Pine Streets, 1910**

**Olive Street looking toward Sarah Street. 1910**

**Pedestrians on the sidewalk near the intersection of Sixth and Locust Streets, ca. 1900s**

**Pedestrians passing the F.W. Woolworth Company store at 413 N. Sixth Street and the Strand Theater box office, 1914**

**Seventh Street looking north towards Locust Street, ca. 1910s**

**Sidewalk in front of 1006 Olive Street, ca. 1900s**

**Sidewalk on Olive Street looking west from Seventh Street, ca. 1900s**

**Sidewalk on the 3500 block of Olive Street, 1907**

**Sidewalk scene on a street in St. Louis, ca. 1900s**

**Sixth Street looking south from Lucas Avenue, 1906**

**Snow Truck and Cleaning crew on the 2800 block of Chouteau Avenue, 1909**

**Southwest corner of Leonard Avenue and Locust Street, ca. 1900s**

**Spruce Street looking toward Second Street, ca. 1900s**

**St. Louis Public Library at 1301 Olive Street, 1910**

**St. Nicholas Hotel, 407 North Eighth Street (northwest corner of Eighth and Locust Streets, also known as the Victoria Building), 1905**

**Store front window of a liquor store on Chouteau Avenue, ca. 1900s**

**Store front window of M.E. Croak and Company Clothier on the southeast corner of Olive and Tenth Streets, 1904**

**Store front windows for Fellhauer Brothers (August and Martin) Saloon at 3315 Olive Street, 1907**

**Street cleaner at work on Twelfth Street between Olive and Locust Streets, 1909**

**Street pavers at work on Compton Avenue north of Meramec, 1906**

**Street workers and carriages on a street in St. Louis, ca. 1900s**

**Street workers using a steam roller to repair Twelfth Street between Chestnut and Pine Streets. 1910.**

**Talbot’s Hippodrome posters posted on buildings at 1123 – 1131 Market Street, ca. 1900s**

**Third Street, looking north to Chestnut Street, ca. 1900s**

**Trorlicht, Duncker and Renard Carpet Company on Washington Avenue east of Third Street, 1904**

**Twelfth Street north of Market Street, 1909**

**Two girls standing in front of Henry Heier Undertaker and Embalmer shop at 3432 Shenandoah Street, 1906**

**U.S. Mail Carriage parked on Olive Street near Grand Avenue, 1906**

**Union Station from Eighteenth and Market Streets, 1904**

**Wash Street, between Eighteenth and Nineteenth Streets, ca. 1900s**

**Washington Avenue looking east from Seventh Street. Photograph, ca. 1912.**

**Washington Avenue looking east from Seventh Street, ca. 1910**

**Washington Avenue west from Eighth Street, 1903**

**Washington Avenue west from Ninth Street, 1903**

**Washington Avenue west from Seventh Street, 1900**

**Washington Avenue west from Sixth Street, 1906**

**Washington Street east from Tenth Street, 1905**

**Workers using a crane to tear up the road on Chestnut Street west of Ninth Street. Photograph, 1914.**

**Wrecked car parked outside of Neal O’Donnell’s Practical Horse Shoeing shop at 3148 Chouteau Avenue, 1906**

29 Wonderful Color Photos Showing Everyday Life in South England During the Late 1930s

Classic Blonde Bombshell: 40 Glamorous Photos of Susan Denberg in the 1960s

Born 1944 as Dietlinde Zechner in Bad Polzin, Germany, German-Austrian model and actress Susan Denberg was a chorus dancer and 1966 Playboy playmate, who made a brief brush with an acting career in the late 1960s. In addition, she did stage and dancing in London and Las Vegas.

Denberg’s best known acting role was in the Hammer horror film, Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), opposite Peter Cushing. However, Denberg’s voice in the film was dubbed, as her Austrian accent was considered too strong. One of her few other acting roles was in the Star Trek episode, “Mudd’s Women” (1966).

After becoming immersed in the 60s high life of drugs and sex, Denberg left show business and returned to Austria. News interviews at the time show a depressed Denberg in the company of her mother, at home in Klagenfurt. These news items, repeated in fan periodicals for years, gave the impression Denberg was suicidal or had already died. Actually, she is still alive.

These glamorous photos captured portrait of young Susan Denberg showing her beauty in the 1960s.

Style in the Jazz Age: 20 Vintage Photos Showing Beautiful Women’s Fashions in the Roaring Twenties

The Jazz Age was a period in the 1920s and 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles rapidly gained nationwide popularity in the United States. The Jazz Age’s cultural repercussions were primarily felt in the United States, the birthplace of jazz. Originating in New Orleans as mainly sourced from the culture of the diaspora, jazz played a significant part in wider cultural changes in this period, and its influence on popular culture continued long afterwards. The Jazz Age is often referred to in conjunction with the Roaring Twenties, and in the United States, it overlapped in significant cross-cultural ways with the Prohibition Era. The movement was largely affected by the introduction of radios nationwide. During this time, the Jazz Age was intertwined with the developing youth culture. The movement also helped start the beginning of the European Jazz movement. American author F. Scott Fitzgerald is widely credited with coining the term, first using it in his 1922 short story collection titled Tales of the Jazz Age.

25 Stunning Photos of Victorian Women From the Late 19th Century

The fashion of the 19th century is renowned for its corsets, bonnets, top hats, bustles and petticoats. Women’s fashion during the Victorian period was largely dominated by full skirts, which gradually moved to the back of the silhouette.

However, towards the end of the period, the less restrictive Aesthetic style began to emerge. Take a look at these glamorous photos to see the fashion styles of late Victorian women from between the 1870s and 1890s.

30 Awful Album Covers Volume 3

45 Beautiful Photos of Shirley MacLaine in the 1950s and 1960s

Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty, April 24, 1934) is an American actress, singer, author, activist, and former dancer. In a career which spans seven decades, she is known for her portrayals of quirky, headstrong, eccentric women. MacLaine is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award.

Born in Richmond, Virginia, MacLaine made her acting debut as a teenager with minor roles in the Broadway musicals Oklahoma! and The Pajama Game. Following minor appearances as an understudy in various other productions, MacLaine made her film debut with Alfred Hitchcock’s black comedy The Trouble With Harry (1955), winning the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress. She rose to prominence with starring roles in Around the World in 80 Days (1956), Some Came Running (1958), Ask Any Girl (1959), The Apartment (1960), The Children’s Hour (1961), Two for the Seesaw (1962), Irma la Douce (1963), and Sweet Charity (1969). A six time Academy Award nominee, MacLaine won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the comedy-drama Terms of Endearment (1983). Her other prominent films include The Turning Point (1977), Being There (1979), Madame Sousatzka (1988), Steel Magnolias (1989), Postcards from the Edge (1990), The Evening Star (1996), Bewitched (2005), In Her Shoes (2005), Valentine’s Day (2010), and The Little Mermaid (2018).

MacLaine has been the recipient of many honorary awards. She was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2012, Gala Tribute from the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 1995, and Kennedy Center Honor in 2013 for her contribution to American culture, through performing arts. In 1998, she was awarded the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award. Apart from acting, MacLaine has written numerous books regarding the subjects of metaphysics, spirituality, reincarnation as well as a best-selling memoir Out on a Limb (1983).

These stunning photos that show the beauty of young Shirley MacLaine in the 1950s and 1960s.

29 Vintage Color Photos of San Francisco during the 1940s and 1950s

San Francisco was founded on June 29, 1776, when colonists from Spain established the Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate and Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away, both named for Francis of Assisi. The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856. San Francisco’s status as the West Coast’s largest city peaked between 1870 and 1900, when around 25% of California’s population resided in the city proper. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a major port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. It then became the birthplace of the United Nations in 1945. After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, significant immigration, liberalizing attitudes, along with the rise of the “beatnik” and “hippie” countercultures, the Sexual Revolution, the Peace Movement growing from opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines.

A popular tourist destination, San Francisco is known for its cool summers, fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, and landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the former Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, Fisherman’s Wharf, and its Chinatown district. San Francisco is also the headquarters of companies such as Wells Fargo, Twitter, Square, Airbnb, Levi Strauss & Co., Gap Inc., Salesforce, Dropbox, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Uber, and Lyft. The city, and the surrounding Bay Area, is a global center of the sciences and arts and is home to a number of educational and cultural institutions, such as the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), the University of San Francisco (USF), San Francisco State University (SFSU), the de Young Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the SFJAZZ Center, and the California Academy of Sciences.

(Photos: Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection/Indiana University Archives)

29 Vintage Photos of Sam Cooke, “The King of Soul”, in the 1950s and 1960s

Samuel Cook (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964), known professionally as Sam Cooke, was an American singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. Considered to be a pioneer and one of the most influential soul artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred to as the “King of Soul” for his distinctive vocals, notable contributions to the genre and high significance in popular music.

Cooke was born in Mississippi and later relocated to Chicago with his family at a young age, where he began singing as a child and joined the Soul Stirrers as lead singer in the 1950s. Going solo in 1957, Cooke released a string of hit songs, including “You Send Me”, “A Change Is Gonna Come”, “Cupid”, “Wonderful World”, “Chain Gang”, “Twistin’ the Night Away”, “Bring It On Home to Me”, and “Good Times”. During his eight-year career, Cooke released 29 singles that charted in the Top 40 of the Billboard Pop Singles chart, as well as 20 singles in the Top Ten of Billboard’s Black Singles chart.

In 1964, Cooke was shot and killed by the manager of a motel in Los Angeles. After an inquest and investigation, the courts ruled Cooke’s death to be a justifiable homicide; his family has since questioned the circumstances of his death.

Cooke’s pioneering contributions to soul music contributed to the rise of Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Billy Preston, and popularized the work of Otis Redding and James Brown. AllMusic biographer Bruce Eder wrote that Cooke was “the inventor of soul music”, and possessed “an incredible natural singing voice and a smooth, effortless delivery that has never been surpassed”.

Cooke was also a central part of the Civil Rights Movement, using his influence and popularity with the white and black population to fight for the cause. He was good friends with boxer Muhammad Ali, activist Malcolm X and football player Jim Brown, who together campaigned for racial equality.

Take a look at these fantastic vintage photos that captured portrait of Sam Cooke in the 1950s and 1960s.