Battle of Britian Memorial Flight

Saturday the 5th of May saw a formation flight of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at Duxford. This must have been an amazing flight with the new painted Lancaster, which now appears in the markings of EE139 of 100 Squadron, Phantom of the Ruhr. The flight also consists of 5 Spitfires and 2 Hurricanes of various markings. The sound of 8 Merlin and 3 Griffon engines must have been a sight to behold.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the flight formation so it is great that thy have been able to get all of the aircraft flying together. I would suggest reading the forward to the flights webpage by Squadron Leader B.G ‘Stapme’ Stapleton DFC, DFC (Dutch). It makes for some interesting reading especially his comments on revisionism to the Battle of Britain. Much of it is a good warning about how far we as historian can remove reality from an event. As he comments, ‘To us the German advance had to be stopped, and we, in our capacity as RAF fighter pilots, ably supported from many quarters, achieved just that.’

Here are some pics of the day that I have managed to find.

You can find details about flight here.

Latest Acquisition - T C G James - ‘Air Defence of Great Britain, Volume 2: The Battle of Britain’

The latest book added to my ever growing library, my wife never stops complaining about it too, is T C G James’ history of the Battle of Britain. This book forms part of the Whitehall series of RAF Official Histories originally published by Frank Cass but now done by Routledge. The book is one the narratives written by James while he was at the Air Historical Branch. It is the second of a two volume set looking at the development of the air defences from 1936 onwards. These histories were never meant for public consumption and therefore, do not necessarily have the rhetoric which the other ‘Official’ histories have. Thus, the narratives tend to give a clearer cut picture of the events they were written to analyse. As such this volume is full of interesting information and its layout has been mimicked by many historians since. A fuller account of this will follow soon but by the looks of it this is a very interesting addition to the collection.