Battle of Britain 70th Anniversary

Whilst the bulk of pilots were British we must acknowledge those others who fought alongside them. Those from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Rhodesia, USA, Belgium, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ireland, France and Israel.

This is the breakdown of numbers and losses: Let us give praise and admiration to.....

The 1,878 British - 348 killed in Action
The 21 Australians - 9 Killed in Action
The 73 New Zealanders - 11 Killed in Action
The 88 Canadians - 20 Killed in Action
The 21 South Africans - 9 Killed in Action
The 2 Southern Rhodesians - 0 Killed in Action
The 8 Irish - 0 Killed in Action
The 7 Americans - 1 Killed in Action
The 141 Polish - 29 Killed in Action
The 86 Czech - 8 Killed in Action
The 26 Belgians - 6 Killed in Action
The 13 Free French - 0 Killed in Action
The 1 Israeli - 0 Killed in Action

Without them the aircraft, the Spitfires and the Hurricanes, could not have taken off and certainly could not have survived the Battle. They were highly trained, intelligent, resourceful and devoted members of a team which kept the RAF flying. Every plane that took off in the Battle did so with the help of the ground staff. When a pilot took off early in the morning, the ground staff would have been working on his plane for several hours before, and perhaps right through the night.

The strain on some squadrons during the Battle of Britain grew almost intolerable. As the demands on the pilots intensified, so did the strain on the ground crews. The ground crew had to snatch a bite to eat when they could, usually while on the job. Some worked and slept in the same uniform day in day out. The fighting record of each squadron depended as much on the efficiency and dedication of the ground crew, as it did on the pilots.

If Winston Churchill was a visionary then his speech on June 18th,1940 could not have been better timed. It was one of many inspiring speeches which gave hope and pride. He needed to galvanise a nation that had become weary of duty and conflict.

Only 22 years had passed since the First World War had ended.The League of Nations proved ineffectual to prevent another. A nation which saw the flower of its youth die on the fields of the Somme and Flanders in the war to end all wars hardly expected, nor was very keen, to embark on another. Appeasement was more favourable to the politicians of the day.

The Great War of 1914 - 1918 had seen the British Empire diminish with not a single family unaffected by death of a loved one, and by 1939 the prospect of another war with Germany filled the people with foreboding. How then could this small nation, with so much history and courage, yet with so much exhaustion, find the resources and fighting spirit to stand and fight again?

Cometh the hour - cometh the man. Winston came and delivered. And he came with this:

"I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization.

Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.

Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, this was their finest hour."

Without whom our world would be very different. Their generation still lives even in death. Those who survived are old yet dignified. As they die, age will not weary them, nor the years condemn, and at the going down of the sun - we will remember them.

For in those emphatic words, always spoken in remembrance, are not just for the dead. They are also for the living, and for those that live on.

They are words which hold as beacons of hope. Words for future generations, their foibles, their weaknesses, their mistakes and materialistic lives, their luxuries, their shallow beliefs, their comforts and possessions, their ignorances, their desires, hopes and glories, their humanity, their kindness, their idiosyncrasies and thoughts, their education, all are a result of freedoms fought and won. Freedoms fought not with words, but blood, sweat, toil and tears.

The greatest loss would be to forget. But hope springs eternal. And hope is the opium of mankind.

The Battle of Britain is remembered because one nation stood alone in adversity. One nation stood her ground. No other was capable. No other nation could fight solidly and be prepared to die for the soil they held dear. No other nation had the pride, power and discipline to rise to the challenge.

History will be the judge and history will remember.

It is this legacy which ensures the survival of civilization. This great Anglo-Saxon and Celtic group of people which gave the world the universal quintet of the English language, democracy, education, healthcare and parliamentary government. It may not be available for everyone, but all aspire to it.

1940 was the defining moment in world history. If you are reading this freely and in English, then that is the legacy.

That is why we celebrate the Battle of Britain