Battle of Britain 75th Anniversary

Gallery Article by Ian Buick on Sept 15 2015

Battle of Britain Day 1940

 

      

The Battle of Britain was waged throughout the summer of 1940 and quite literally saved the nation from Nazi rule. Without the victory won by a handful of courageous men and women of many nationalities, Britain would have been knocked out of the war for sure, and most probably invaded. The legacy of such a defeat would have had ramifications for the whole World and it's resistance to Nazism. It is completely right and proper that we remember the bravery and sacrifice of those young men and women who risked, and gave, everything, and why Churchill's tribute was so apt when he said: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few"

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The 72nd scale models are all from varying generations of Airfix kits, the new mould Airfix Spitfire being a particularly nice kit to put together. However, the old Airfix Spitfire still stands-up well beside it's newer relation, summing-up what a good kit this was when it was first released so long ago. 

Included in my pictures is the statue to New Zealander Keith Park at the RAF Museum who, alongside Hugh Dowding, directed the defence of Britain during that desperate summer, and who both deserve the same plaudits given to Nelson and Wellington. 

The models depict aircraft of two squadrons heavily engaged in the battle; 43 Squadron flying Hurricanes out of RAF Tangmere, and 603 Squadron flying Spitfires from RAF Hornchurch.

Hurricanes of 43 Squadron (Fighting Cocks). RAF Tangmere, summer 1940.

P3386 `FT-H` is credited as probably 43 Squadron's most successful aircraft during The Battle with twelve aerial victories including three JU-87 in one day, and three JU-87 and a Bf-109 on another.

L1592 `FT-C` had an eventful war which it survived being forced-down by an Me-109, crashing, repaired, and returned to service to eventually become centerpiece of the aviation hall in The London Science Museum, where it remains to this day with a new serial number.

P3784 `FT-U` shared in the destruction of one He-111. Later in the battle, it took off without engine oil after the log had been signed to say this had been done. The engine seized and the pilot made a wheels-up landing without injury. The worried sergeant who had missed this gaffe drove out to the crash site with cans of oil and told the soldiers guarding the airframe that oil was needed to stop `corrosion`. He filled up the engine and neither soldiers, pilot, or The RAF was any the wiser until after The War!
The aircraft was repaired and may have been used as a `one-shot` CAM fighter catapulted off a freight ship.

Spitfires of 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron. RAF Hornchurch, August/September 1940.

R6835 `XT-W` Variously described as the most successful pilot/aicraft combination of the battle, New Zealander Brain Carbury would claim 15.5 victories during 1940, eight of them in `XT-W`, including the famous `Ace-In-A-Day` exploits when, on the 31st August, he shot down three Bf-109 and two He-111 in three successive patrols.

R6626 `XT-Y` Ronald Berry used `XT-Y` to shoot down Bf-109 `yellow 4` which crashed landed in the mud at Shoeburyness in sufficiently good condition for it to be recovered and exhibited around the country for morale purposes. Berry would go on to achieve 17 victories with other shared victories, probables, and several aircraft destroyed on enemy airfields.

X4348 `XT-R` Credited with destroying and damaging several German aircraft when flown by B.G. Stapleton. Stapleton would go on to shoot down Franz Von Werra famed as the only downed German airman in the battle to escape back to Germany.

X4277 `XT-M` On the 3rd September 1940 Flight Lieutenant Richard Hillary had just shot down his fifth confirmed Bf-109 when he was, himself, shot down and bailed-out.
Seriously burned, he spent his recovery writing the classic wartime account of the Battle of Britain `The Last Enemy`.

Ian Buick

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Photos and text © by Ian Buick