Great Britons

~Battle of Britain Day Sept 15 ~

Picture from the opening of the Battle of Britain monument unveiled at Victoria Embankment in London last year. On my list of beautiful places to visit in my city. The monument is made up of two bronze friezes set in an 82ft-long granite structure, not all of it is shown here, obviously!

Seventy surviving pilots and their families attended the ceremony alongside the Prince of Wales and his Duchess. Jack Toombs, 78, above, was a seventeen year old rear gunner during the battle. What a lovely photo of a wonderful Briton. One frieze depicts all the achievements of Fighter Command and the other focuses on the people of London, featuring St Paul's and an Anderson shelter.

There is a plaque on the monument which lists the names of 2,936 servicemen and women from 14 countries who took part in the struggle against the Luftwaffe in 1940. 35 000 Londoners died during the Blitz.

It is engraved with Sir Winston Churchill's famous phrase:

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few".

As we all know the Battle of Britain was fought between July 10 and October 31 1940, when the RAF and the Germans fought for supremacy over Britain. Despite being outnumbered four to one, on September 15 1940, RAF Fighter Command claimed victory over the Luftwaffe after a day of bombing raids ended in heavy losses for Germany. And shortly after, Hitler postponed and then cancelled invasion plans, turning his attention to the defeat of Russia. If the RAF had not succeeded the Germans would have been able to invade the UK easily and the course of the war would have been somewhat different for everyone.

Post from last year, reposted to commemorate Battle of Britain Day Sept 15.