10 Replies to “Battle of Britain Day”

  1. I saw the “Battle of Britain” at CFB Trenton Air Cadet Camp in the summer of 1973 in a outdoor theater being eaten alive by mosquitoes and ducking 25 cent balsa airplanes.
    I didn’t wind up in a blue role in the CF, but I did several B’o’B day parades during my career. Red Deer Alta in ’83 we had a fly past by a CF-104 and a CF-5 at what seemed like roof top level. They came in so low we didn’t hear them until they were right on top of us. We didn’t know the flypast was planned and the sudden roar of those jet engines scared the daylights out of us. I think it quite upset a couple of the vets from what I overheard at the legion later on.

  2. The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day, but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate, careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power. On no part of the Royal Air Force does the weight of the war fall more heavily than on the daylight bombers who will play an invaluable part in the case of invasion and whose unflinching zeal it has been necessary in the meanwhile on numerous occasions to restrain…
    The Abodes of the Guilty still exist, they are inside our own shores.

  3. The picture of Squadron Leader Sandy Lane is haunting to say the least. The documentary was fascinating. It certainly changed my perception that England was on her knees. The pilots to aircraft ratio was very revealing.
    My father was posted to England in aircraft maintenance in 1944 after training in Canada for about 1 1/2 years. He never talked much about what he experienced other than having to clean out remains of bomber crews on their return from bombing missions over Germany. He was 21.
    Not in the doc but I read that the Hurricane was a redesign of a WW I biplane. Their sole advantage seemed to be a tighter turning radius than what the ME 109 could do.
    I am always humbled when reading or watching what these heroes did to save our way of life. I despair watching today’s news to see how far the world has sunk.

  4. I was just visiting my grandmother and hearing her stories about living in Britian, along the flight path between France and London during the war. Her and her mother were blown off their feet while shopping in a store by a German bomb. The shed in the backyard was hit and a dud landed in their front yard,which should have blown them to bits. She was going to work (14 at the time) and watched a Brit and German dogfight in the sky over head. The Brit shot down the German and she said the plane looked like it was coming right at her. She dove in the ditch and was later found there by the home guard who were looking for the German pilot who had parachuted out. A lot to live through, without RAF pilots I wouldn’t be here right now.

  5. CT, the Hurricane was an all new design. There is no way the fabric and wood wing of a biplane could be modified to hold the landing gear and machine guns. If you look at the old biplanes their landing gear was attached to the fuselage so the wing bore very little stress. The early Hurricane did have a wood and cloth covered wing structure but soon the wing and cockpit area were all Duraluminium. The tail section was wood and fabric. Note that the Spitfire which was all stressed skin construction had fabric covered control surfaces (ailerons, rudder and elevators) as did the DC-3 so it wasn’t uncommon to have a mixture of different materials. Incidentally, DC3 pilots I know who have flown the aircraft with both fabric and aluminium control surfaces prefer the fabric covered ones, they feel better.

  6. Shut off that documentary in five minutes.
    An aerodrome close to my hometown was the first RAF S.F.T.S. transferred to Canada in 1940 and the instructors were former Battle of Britain pilots. Instructing young pilots was considered a “rest cure” although a few died during the training, but as one said: I didn’t have to keep watching my tail.
    Of course things were as dire as has been said, regardless of the second-guessers who rewrite history. The officers and all the ground crew who served here knew it. As one said: “If Hitler had known how ill-prepared we were, he would have invaded.”

  7. In the end all that bravery, sacrifice, blood shed. Has amounted to nothing.Freedom of conscience with individual rights have been betrayed by collectivist fanatics.No less so than Nazis. England is now a Muslim sharia ridden vassal of Islam. It politicians traitors to its own population. Its police with multiple thousands of cameras, a police State. The only thing not done under this increasing totalitarian state, is killing its Jews, which when Muslims take up full power will happen. As well as Christians which Muslims are exterminating in every Nation they reside with a majority.Britain has become just a colony for invaders implementing Islamic Theocracy.
    These brave men who turned back a monstrous regime, have been betrayed by latter generations. Its people will soon be in chains because of the poisen of multiculturalism. That has lead England into a conquered Country by its own corrupt political , academic, social system. Run for the gain of the few.

  8. I am impressed with that brief documentary (for the subject).
    It represents much of my impressions about the sequence of events.
    One factor which IMO was pivotal/critical was the world’s first comprehensive air defense system….of which radar was a component
    Then the simple reality that if a German bailed out safely over Britain or the channel he was a loss whereas a similar Brit pilot
    was not a loss…..simple attrition.
    The rifle caliber armament versus cannon was very controversial for the longest time. The mixed armament of both camps reflects this. The, for the most part, late/post war adoption of cannon reflects the emphasis on destroying bombers.

  10. In regards to your “lighter note” i recall back in the day, at a now defunct air base on the Miramichi River in New Brunswick, there were external luggage carriers for T-33s that were modified to transport lobster to our brothers-in-arms in the rest of Canada. Our long range maritime patrol comrades were also very adept at loading cases of spirits from Puerto Rico in the Argus to the point of having a TD fudge factor to account for the weight and balance calculations.
    There is no underestimating the power of boosting the troops morale.

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