Battle of Britain 75th. Anniversary Fly-past.

[Ceptic]

30 +* Spits, 5 +* Hurries & 1 Blenheim split between 10 flight sections / routes.

http://www.battleofbritainday.co.uk/

 

* Edited, as the number of participants increases.  

[Ceptic]

Highlights and coverage of the event to be broadcast on Channel 4, Tues 15th. Sept. 20.00 - 21.00.

[brianusa]

Between the two wars and their battles, how much more can be commemorated?  There have been endless enactments', flypasts and parades already.  Apart from the Blenheim, have we not seen it all?

 

Brian.

[PaulRhB]

I think the reason Brian is the few left now and it's felt keenly by many that the fitting tribute to the last few is to show we appreciate the sacrifice of their friends who died at the time.

 

"We do not want to be remembered as heroes, we ask only to be remembered

for what we did ... that's all"

 

W/C Robert "Bob" Doe

British 234 & 238 Squadrons

Fighter Command

[The Stationmaster]

Between the two wars and their battles, how much more can be commemorated?  There have been endless enactments', flypasts and parades already.  Apart from the Blenheim, have we not seen it all?

 

Brian.

I saw the Blenheim a good few years back - after its first restoration (and before it was wrecked).  Be interesting to see what does, or doesn't, happen tomorrow as the weather is rather grotty but we did have a helicopter round this afternoon flying very much the course which Green Section should be on tomorrow.

[F-UnitMad]

Between the two wars and their battles, how much more can be commemorated?  There have been endless enactments', flypasts and parades already.  Apart from the Blenheim, have we not seen it all?

 

Brian.

If The Few hadn't done what they did at the time, Anniversary celebrations (if any) would have been rather different, & held in German.

Churchill's speeches were often full of rhetoric & hyperbole, but in the case of the 'Few speech', I think he got it spot on.

 

Lest we forget.

[RhBBob]

Between the two wars and their battles, how much more can be commemorated?  There have been endless enactments', flypasts and parades already.  Apart from the Blenheim, have we not seen it all?

 

Brian.

 

Many Great War actions, like the tragedy at Coronel Nov/Dec 1914, have simply been completely ignored.

 

But then it was a suicide mission organised by WLS Churchill and Prince Louis of Battenberg (yes, the latter was on our side !).

[Legend]

I hope they fly many more times. It's not for entertainment it's to commemorate the few brave souls who fought for this country.

 

We can have no idea just what it would have been like that summer. 20,21 year old waiting for a scramble , not knowing if today was your last but carrying out your orders against the odds. That's got to be close to the true sense of the word bravery.

 

Celebrate the few

[The Stationmaster]

Green Section came out of the sun and there were only two aircraft

 

PS Click to enlarge on all pics

 

 

 

But Red Section made up for it with six aircraft  - a long time after Green but they had flown a lot further to reach us.  Rather lucky too to get to see two Sections of the flypast without leaving home.

 

 

[blackpete]

Prince Harry was due to fly in one of the Spitfires. but has given up his seat to a 95 year-old veteran

[PaulRhB]

Prince Harry was due to fly in one of the Spitfires. but has given up his seat to a 95 year-old veteran

Nice to hear that earlier and not surprising as he knows he could get a ride any time.

I know he's done some daft stuff but now he's got purpose with Invictus and all the other injured service personnel I think he's turned out quite well Certainly at the Invictus Games he was everywhere without any big entourage.

[The Stationmaster]

Another six have just gone over - lower than the Green Section were (it's raining so no doubt something to do with VFR?).  I wonder if they were the Pink Section who ended their earlier flight at Colerne - they were on a  totally different heading (southeast) from any of the information show on the weblink.  Totally unexpected so no pics alas .

[Southernman46]

I think he's turned out quite well

Hear Hear !

 

Given that he has also served and along with his brother's effort's too - I would venture to say "very well" - restored my faith in the Monarchy - and I voted for Corbyn too !

 

Didn't see any of today's stuff but did witness a Hurricane "stooging" around over Boscombe down on Sunday - there are two sounds that consistently makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.....

 

A Merlin / Griffon engine or a Deltic in full cry ....................

[PaulRhB]

Yep, I think it's a shame that Williams job was ended 'to conduct Roual duties' only to go and do basically the same thing with the air ambulance. Having known a search and rescue pilot a bit a few years back I have immense admiration for what they do publicly and the training makes them extremely good at the military job too, when they need to drop off troops discreetly.

The skills and dedication are similar to the Few and that's a tribute in itself to the Forces generally.

[62613]

If The Few hadn't done what they did at the time, Anniversary celebrations (if any) would have been rather different, & held in German.

Churchill's speeches were often full of rhetoric & hyperbole, but in the case of the 'Few speech', I think he got it spot on.

 

Lest we forget.

Not really. Even the German General Staff reckoned that to attempt a landing on Britain would have been 'Like putting our troops through a sausage machine' No-one has ever asked the question of how the Germans would have landed tanks across an open beach, without the specialist landing craft required.

 

Churchill thought that an invasion was so unlikely that he sent an armoured brigade to the Western Desert in September 1940.

[F-UnitMad]

Churchill thought a lot of things were a good idea, like the Gallipoli campaign in 1915.

 

Hitler wanted Britain out of the War. One way or another, that was his aim so he could have a One Front war against Russia. Whether or not an actual invasion of Britain was prevented in 1940, the RAF kept Britain IN the war, & from June 1940 to June 1941, effectively alone against Germany, so Hitler ended up with a Two Front war.

The German forces could sustain huge losses & still achieve victory; case in point the invasion of Crete, where I think their Paratroop losses ran at about 50%. Yet they still succeded. Technical questions about how they might have invaded Britain are fortunately academic "what if's".

[Legend]

But we know invasion was their intent. The barges were in place during the Battle of Britain and away afterwards. So let's not re write history. The fact was the country was under threat of invasion before the Battle of Britain and the threat receded after. At the vey least it brought us 6 to 9 months to regroup and reorganise.

[Guest]

Jeez... give it a couple of pages and Hitler's planned domination of Europe will be proven to be a good thing...

Thread-wander is usual, but in this case, can we just stick to admiring the flypast for what it was and remember those who took part and what it must have been like for them?

[PaulRhB]

I watched the programme on C4 and a few nice shots in there though I think I'd rather have had more of them shown during the interview chats to make the most of it. Nice to tell the auxiliary stories again even if brief it made a more rounded tribute. Only shame is it was tucked away in the schedules so I doubt it got high figures. Also that Harry gave up his seat for the guy on the Spitfire scholarship, not the Veteran Tom, and said I've been invited anytime. You could see he was disappointed to miss the event so it made it all the more generous that he recognised his luck in having more opportunities. Sorry I missed the fly past at home but had more important things to attend to unfortunately so it was good to see them all take off even if I couldn't feel it there. Brought back memories of the two Lancs, they were deeply impressive in the air but watching them take off one after the other made the hairs stand up like no flypast does as I thought that's what the ground crews saw as they sent off the crews not knowing who would come back. The comment about feeling the noise last night really made sense as a result.

[brianusa]

Don't get me wrong gents, I was six at that  time and remember it quite well as Plymouth got pretty beaten up.  My question was more rhetorical, how much more is there to celebrate would have been more to the point.  My older cousin flew Lancasters during the war, my Dad earned the GM and my grandfather after being blown up at the Battle of Jutland in No.1, was torpedoed in the Thames estuary on a minelayer in No.2.  So like a lot, we have good reason to remember.

 

Brian.

[ajaxjones]

If it was not for the Battle of Britain and we had lost Germany would have ended up nuked. It was a shame london workers didn't get to see the flypast's and it strange that  4 got it which was odd. At least however it was actually covered and it did look fantastic. Especially liked the air transport story, as an aside have a family connection with the Boulton Paul Defiants which explains a preference for carrots.

[PaulRhB]

I know where you're coming from though and it shouldn't become just a tradition but should be driven by keeping the message of protecting freedom and recognising those who made it possible.

We only have to look at the crisis in Kosovo, Ukraine, Syria etc to see what letting the extremes take power can do. We are incredibly lucky and I do think it's more about remembering the debt and what could have been by holding these tributes especially now to let the last Few know their sacrifice isn't receding even if the War has. I also think it does those of us born since a service in keeping it in memory and to realise how lucky we are with current world events. This was a heartfelt tribute organised by the aircrafts guardians, not politicians, and as the years go by we will have ever less airworthy, (another Spitfire badly damaged only a week ago in a belly landing), so to me a fitting time to say thanks.