The Battle of Britain

[Papa Lazarou]

70 years on.


Lest we forget, when Britain stood alone and stopped the Nazi invasion.


Anniversary today.

[Smeggy]

70 years on.


Lest we forget, when Britain stood alone and stopped the Nazi invasion.


Anniversary today.

There's less and less of 'The Few' every year and I think we should always remember to salute these heroes.

My Dad also was a Spitfire pilot during WW2 (tho' not during the BoB) and I have his DFC, flight log book, RAF wings that were on his leather flying jacket and his silver USAF wings here at home. They are priceless prized poccessions of mine which will be handed down to my son some day.

[Liftrat]

My deepest respect goes out to those men, and all who were involved in the struggle for liberty. Things must have seemed pretty bleak then, but they gave their all, unflinchingly.  And 70 ears ago! That's starting to become real history.

[ANZAC]

Hats off to our cousins across the water    The Spitfire, Hurricane and defending your homeland are tough to beat.

I will be watching the Battle of Britain tonight in your honor      I have it in my luggage here in China - one of my favorties along with "Patton" which I watched last night and "A Bridge Too Far" Monty's plan to bring the boys home by Christmas - too bad it didn't work.

[birdrunner]

Hats off to our cousins across the water    The Spitfire, Hurricane and defending your homeland are tough to beat.

I will be watching the Battle of Britain tonight in your honor      I have it in my luggage here in China - one of my favorties along with "Patton" which I watched last night and "A Bridge Too Far" Monty's plan to bring the boys home by Christmas - too bad it didn't work.

Monty was an idiot who ignored any intelligence that didn't mesh with his dreams of glory,  causing needless casualties.



Also,    Britain wasn't "Quite"  alone during the BOB.   The Americans were just late to the party,    again.

[ANZAC]

One of the last scenes in Battle of Britain Goering asks Adolph Galland what he needs and he said "A squadron of Spitfires"

I love this movie as it has all the British greats like Michael Cain, Sir Laurence Oliver, Trevor Howard and of course Susannah York    Great aerial scenes with lots of vintage aircraft  

[Snowdog]

One problem with the film "The Battle of Britain" is that the actors playing the pilots were too old. The real pilots were mostly in their late teens and early twenties. To me that makes all the more remarkable that they put their lives in the line day after day when their chances of survival were so slim.

My Dad tried to join up in 1939 but was turned down on medical grounds, instead he went into engineering and made aircraft parts (and the odd other thing -  I have a lighter he made from a duralumin off cut).
Two of my uncles, Dad's brother and brother in law, were in the RAF though not BoB pilots, one ground crew and one in Sunderland flying boats submarine hunting for Coastal Command.

[katrider]

I had the opportunity to visit a couple of museums during my visit to N. England: one in Manchester up the way from Man U's stadium and one at an airbase out in the country from where I stayed in Chapel-en-le-Frith. The Manchester museum had a small dedicated area to the BoB, but the one out at the airbase had an entire hanger on the subject, alas unavailabe due to renovations!!! So we snuck around outside and found the planes staged behind the hangers and mostly covered with tarps, but we did get some nice pictures none the less.

I would hope the the UK and it's people would keep these memories alive for generations, the sacrafice and ultimate victory so astounding that the battle needs to be celebrated and remembered for all time...

[Ralf]

There's less and less of 'The Few' every year and I think we should always remember to salute these heroes.

My Dad also was a Spitfire pilot during WW2 (tho' not during the BoB) and I have his DFC, flight log book, RAF wings that were on his leather flying jacket and his silver USAF wings here at home. They are priceless prized poccessions of mine which will be handed down to my son some day.

I thought I recall you saying he flew a Mosquito?

BTW, anybody hear of this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_von_Werra

[birdrunner]

remember,  they weren't all blood thirsty Nazis.



This is a true story  http:// http://www.snopes.com/military/charliebrown.asp


 

Charlie Brown was a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 379th Bomber Group at  Kimbolton , England . His B-17 was called 'Ye Old Pub' and was in a terrible state, having been hit by flak and fighters. The compass was damaged and they were flying deeper over enemy territory instead of heading home to Kimbolton.
After flying the B-17 over an enemy airfield, a German pilot named Franz Steigler was ordered to take off and shoot down the B-17. When he got near the B-17, he could not believe his eyes. In his words, he 'had never seen a plane in such a bad state'. The tail and rear section was severely damaged, and the tail gunner wounded. The top gunner was all over the top of the fuselage.  The nose was smashed and there were holes everywhere.
Despite having ammunition, Franz flew to the side of the B-17 and looked at Charlie Brown, the pilot. Brown was scared and struggling to control his damaged and blood-stained plane.
     BF-109 pilot Franz Stigler                                B-17 pilot Charlie Brown.
      
Aware that they had no idea where they were going, Franz waved at Charlie to turn 180 degrees. Franz escorted and guided the stricken plane to, and slightly over, the North Sea towards  England . He then saluted Charlie Brown and turned away, back to  Europe .  When Franz landed he told the CO that the plane had been shot down over the sea, and never told the truth to anybody. Charlie Brown and the remains of his crew told all at their briefing, but were ordered never to talk about it.
More than 40 years later, Charlie Brown wanted to find the Luftwaffe pilot who saved the crew. After years of research, Franz was found. He had never talked about the incident, not even at post-war reunions.
They met in the  USA  at a 379th Bomber Group reunion, together with 25 people who are alive now - all because Franz never fired his guns that day.
 
  (L-R) German Ace Franz Stigler, artist Ernie Boyett, and B-17 pilot Charlie Brown.
 
When asked why he didn't shoot them down, Stigler later said, I didn't have the heart to finish those brave men.  I flew beside them for a long time.  They were trying desperately to get home and I was going to let them do that.  I could not have shot at them.  It would have been the same as shooting at a man in a parachute.
Both men died in 2008.

Turns out after the war,  Charlie Brown lived in Seattle, and Franz lived in Vancouver,  only 200 miles apart.

Cool.