U-Boat Killers

The First U-Boat Sunk With the Aid of Radar

On 17 March 1941 HMS Vanoc, under the command of by Lieutenant Commander James Deneys, became the first ship to detect and sink a German U-boat using radar.

HMS Vanoc, V Class Destroyer

HMS Vanoc was a British V Class destroyer that was launched in 1917. In March 1941 the ship was deployed with the 5th Escort Group in the North Western Approaches to escort Convoy HX112.

She was accompanied by the destroyers HMS Walker, HMS Volunteer, HMS Sardonyx and HMS Scimitar, with the corvettes HMS Bluebell and HMS Hydrangea also in the group.

On the evening of 16 March 1941 the convoy was attacked by U-boat U-100 and the tanker Erodana was badly damaged. HMS Walker, commanded by Captain Donald MacIntyre, Senior Office Escort, launched a series of counter-attacks against the submarine. Later that night U-100 was joined by U-37 and U-99. Together they launched another attack on the convoy and sank five merchant ships.

The story behind the maiden flight of the Aérospatiale BAC Concorde
2 March 1969

Concorde Prototype, Imperial War Museum, Duxford

Without doubt the British Aircraft Corporation's (BAC) most memorable contribution to British aviation was the Aérospatiale BAC Concorde, the world’s only supersonic passenger airliner.

The Concorde 001 made its maiden flight on 2 March 1969, when pilot French Major André Edouard Turcat took-off from Toulouse Airport for the first time. The aircraft made its first supersonic flight on 1 October 1969. The British prototype, Concorde 002, made its maiden flight on 9 April 1969, when pilot Brian Trubshaw flew the from Filton to RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.