I have always been interested in WW2 and esp the Battle of Britain and Spitfires and what happened here in East Lothian at the time.
As i grew up my dad would often mention that he used to go fishing with men who once flew Spitfires.
Then as an apprentice greenkeeeper at Gullane Golf Club i would chat daily to elderly members who were Battle of Britain Veteran's, though they wouldn't talk about it unless you asked them. During the war some of them were based here at RAF Drem.
RAF Drem;
602 Sqn
I made a film about RAF Drem a few years ago...
Those old veteran pilots i spoke too as a teenager would be very modest when you asked them about the war and would say they were just normal people who "did what they had to do" and "did there bit".
What there friends would then often tell you was of there bravery and medals won.
They were a lot more than just normal men...
If you do the sums, the eight 303 calibre machine guns were set to cross at 250 yards to provide the maximum damage. If a Spitfire was diving at approx 400 mph on a bomber at 200 mph then that 250 yards disappears very quickly, that's how close fighting it was.
Oh and the 8 guns had 3 belts of 100 rounds per gun, that only lasted 14.3 seconds, so those young men had to learn fast to shoot carefully to conserve ammunition.
I was a similar age then in 1987 to what the Battle of Britain pilots would have been in 1940 but i cannot imagine now at 44 years old myself doing at the age of 19 what those brave men, then just boys really did...
Iconic picture of those young pilots running to their fighters...
What they did was quite an extraordinary feat of bravery, as they actually faced a near impossible task given the odds stacked against them.
They often trained flying Tiger Moths or Gladiator bi- planes, and during the summer months of 1940 with a quickening shortage of pilots often it was only 8 hours flying time then they would be posted to a fighter squadron and go on to fly Spitfires and Hurricanes. 8 hours to learn and then fly cutting edge fighter planes capable of over 400 mph, this was in 1940 when those speeds were hard to believe possible.
They would fly these fighters into battle against armed German bomber crews and escort fighter pilots who were already battle hardened by there war in Spain.
Outnumbered at odds of 6-1 which is by the way Russian roulette odds, they bravely didn't fold under the German Luftwaffe onslaught over the summer of 1940 as expected by the axis forces.
In June 1940 only 1000 RAF pilots were ready and faced the impossible and by September 15th approx 3000 pilots from Commonwealth countries all around the world would have helped stop the fall of the RAF and Germany withdrew its planned land invasion of Britain.
446 RAF fighter pilots would pay the ultimate price in the summer of 1940 and many more would be horrifically burned and crippled.
The skies over southern England was where those dog fights took place, in full view of the very people they were fighting for. Also attacks by enemy bombers at docks over NE England and East Scotland including here in the Firth of Forth which were intercepted by RAF Fightors, Never had anything like this had been seen in the air over Britain...
If you can sign in then this hour programme on CH4 is a great insight to what went on during those darks days of 1940...
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/battle-of-britain
A great book to read is `First Light` by Geoffrey Wellum who was the youngest surviving RAF pilot of the Battle of Britain...
Not even 19 years of age and given the fastest fighter plane in the world...
Here is a clip from the BBC Docu Drama `First Light`...
And the trailer...
More reading on the Battle of Britain Here...
We owe them a lot for their courage and the sacrifice...
Well said bro!
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