Saturday, 11 July 2015

11th July, 75 years ago; Battle of Britain

75 years ago the skies over the UK was a turning point in WW2, Only around 30 of the surviving RAF pilots who  flew and fought in the air battle are still alive today in 2015,
We owe so much to them, and remember all the pilots who took part. esp the 544 who never returned from defending our skies, a great film of these men who then were just kids did an amazing thing, as against the odds they stopped a Nazi regime that had flattened Europe in under 6 weeks,

A great documentary film talks to some of the surviving heroes...




I have already posted  why i find this part of our history so unreal and today i am pretty much in awe at what these kids - some aged only 18 years old did in the summer months of 1940. Their bravery, and for many ultimate sacrifice , and for many who were horrifically burned, and for some survivors, have lived with the horrors of what they witnessed, and have lived with it for the rest of their lives, and they should never be forgotten and  always remembered.
If the RAF had been defeated and Nazi Germany had invaded in the summer of1940, then the USA would have never been able to attempt the D Day landings against Fortress Europe... and the world would be a very different place...
These young pilots were only a part of the Battle of Britain, behind them was the ground crews, radar and Observer Corps and many more. An Island nation brought together.


Think of those young men buried in War Cemeteries around the UK who never got to grow up and live their lives as we all have...

Dirleton, near the former RAF Drem, here in East Lothian was on the fore front of defence against attacks from Norway on Rosyth Docks at Edinburgh...


Click back through the Battle of Britain posts for more...

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