Battle of Britain Day: Sept 15

Last Sunday I went for a lovely walk (no. 23) in Bromley and on the way there and back drove past Biggins Hill airport.

There are original Battle of Britain Hurricane and Spitfire fighterplanes on fixed display as you drive past.

Next time you pass park up and have a look around.

This picture left is of a Spitfire that was flown by pilot officer G.A Wellum who was based at Biggins Hill from 10 July to 31 October 1940.

The BBC website has some superb stories here on the Battle of Britain and this special day.

First Light

BBC2 showed "First Light" last night, an excellent recreation of what is was like to have been a Spitfire pilot in the Battle of Britain, based on the memoirs of Geoffrey Wellum, who, aged 18 at the time, was one of the youngest pilots in the RAF. If you missed it, catch it on iPlayer. You can also read here how the producers worked hard to make the programme look and sound authentic. It was certainly fascinating to have the film introduced and narrated by Wellum, now aged 89, and was full of personal details that broke through the usual stereotypes.

PS: The BBC's detailed Battle of Britain site is also worth a look, with archive footage and clips from past programmes. Other programmes to be shown in the season can be found here.

70th Anniversary today of the Blitz

Today is the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Blitz - the German luftwaffe's campaign to bomb Britain into submission. The start focused on London and lasted for 76 consecutive nights. See the Guardian for an interesting article and a great interactive map showing where the bombs fell on the first night. See also the BBC History site where there are clips of interviews with those who remember the onslaught.

Welcome back!

A great deal of news and comment over the summer holidays to catch up on. From Obama's trials with Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin to the Labour party leadership battle in Politics to celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and Tony Blair's new autobiography in History - there is never a dull moment!
In the coming weeks look out for trouble at the party conferences in the UK and/or the papal visit and the build-up to the mid-term elections in the USA.

"Never was so much owed by so many to so few"

The 70th "anniversary" of the Battle of Britain was marked today by a reading of the famous Churchill "few" speech by actor Robert Hardy in Whitehall. 

Hearing his stirring words were actual veterans of the conflict and (Newham born) Dame Vera Lynn.

This was followed by a flypast by  Spitfire and Hurricane fighter planes.

If it was not for their incredible bravery and self sacrifice of the (whole) RAF at this time it would have been very likely that we would have been defeated in the Second world war and would all been subject to Nazi rule.

I hope all members of the Nazi BNP feel deeply ashamed of themselves on such a day.

Equally those cowardly armchair warriors on the ultra left who sneer on those who actually had the courage to put themselves in harms way and actually fight fascism.

Two sides of the same debased coin.

303 Squadron

Channel Four have been busy with history documentaries this week and have also produced a fascinating account (which you can watch here) of the contribution of Polish Pilots to the Battle of Britain. When it became clear that Poland would fall to the Nazis, over 8000 Polish airmen escaped to Britain at the beginning of the Second World War, and a Polish government was set up in exile. The Royal Air Force was initially indifferent to the skills of these pilots, but they quickly proved themselves as the pressure from the Luftwaffe mounted. 303 Squadron was formed specifically for Polish pilots, and by the end of war had one of the most impressive records of any squadron, shooting down 126 planes. The programme is based on the diary of one of the pilots on the squadron, who recorded his experiences until his death in 1942. His son is interviewed for the programme here. He is very proud of his father's contribution, but angry at how an image of a Spitfire has been used by the BNP despite the fact the markings show that the pilot is clearly Polish... (See image below - many thanks to Dr Dixon for this)



PS: More information here from a website about the Polish contribution to World War II

PPS: Here are pages on the Battle of Britain from the RAF, the BBC and Robert Fisk in the Independent.