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Volume 53 Number 36
www.couriernews.ca
September 22, 2020
“Never was so much owed by so many to so few”
The Battle of Britain THE COURIER “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few,” was part of a wartime speech given by the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on 20 August 1940. Pilots who fought in the battle have been known as The Few ever since. It is for The Few that we take time to commemorate the Battle of Britain. September 20, 2020 marks the 80th anniversary of The Battle of Britain and The Few that Churchill mentions in his speech were pilots of the Royal Air Force (RAF) Fighter Command. The Battle of Britain was a major air campaign fought over southern England in the summer and autumn of 1940. Germany had been banned from having an air force after the First World War, but the Luftwaffe (air force) was re-established by the Nazi government and by 1940 it was the largest and most formidable air force in the world. A large portion of continental Europe had fallen to the Nazis and Hitler was preparing to launch a fullscale invasion of Great Britain. But first, he needed to dominate the airspace over the English Channel. To do so, his Luftwaffe needed to destroy the RAF. The RAF met this challenge with some of the best fighter aircraft in the world – the Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire. The average age of an RAF fighter pilot was just 20, and many were as young as 18. At the time, you had to be 21 to vote so many of these young men were risking their lives in defence of a democracy they were not yet old enough to participate in. Nearly 3,000 men of the RAF took part in the Battle of Britain. While most of the pilots were British, Fighter Command was an international force. Men came from all over the Commonwealth and occupied Europe – from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Belgium, France, Poland and Czechoslovakia. There were even some pilots from the neutral United
Cpl Justin Roy, 4 Wing Imaging
Wing Commander, Col Moar (far left) and members of 4 Wing Cold Lake salute while the playing of O’Canada, during the Battle of Britain Parade Ceremony, being held at the Fallen Airmen Memorial, 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alberta, on September 20, 2020. States and Ireland. Meanwhile, RAF Bomber all but impossible. British victory in Many people in addition to Command began attacking German the Battle of Britain was decisive, but Churchill’s ‘Few’ worked to defend industry, carrying out raids on ports ultimately defensive in nature – in Britain. Ground crew – including where Germany was assembling its avoiding defeat, Britain secured riggers, fitters, armourers, and repair invasion fleet, and reduce the threat one of its most significant victories and maintenance engineers – looked posed by the Luftwaffe by targeting of the Second World War. It was after the aircraft. Factory workers airfields and aircraft production. able to stay in the war and lived to fight helped keep aircraft production up. The Although Fighter Command another day. Ultimately, the Luftwaffe Observer Corps tracked incoming raids suffered heavy losses and was was defeated by Fighter Command, – its tens of thousands of volunteers often outnumbered during actual forcing Adolf Hitler to abandon his ensured that the 1,000 observation engagements during the Battle of invasion plans. posts were continuously manned. Anti- Britain, the British out produced the Victory in the Battle of Britain did aircraft gunners, searchlight operators Germans and maintained a level of not win the war, but it made winning and barrage balloon crews all played aircraft production that helped them a possibility in the longer term. Four vital roles in Britain’s defence. Members withstand their losses. The Luftwaffe, years later, the Allies would launch of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force with its lack of heavy bombers and failure their invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe (WAAF) served as radar operators and to fully identify critically important – Operation ‘Overlord’ – from British worked as plotters, tracking raids in targets, never inflicted strategically shores, which would prove decisive in the group and sector operations rooms. significant damage. It suffered from ultimately bringing the war against The Local Defence Volunteers (later the constant supply problems, largely as a Germany to an end. Home Guard) had been set up in May result of underachievement in aircraft Winston Churchill summed up 1940 as a ‘last line of defence’ against production. Germany’s failure to defeat the battle with the words, at times German invasion. By July, nearly 1.5 the RAF and secure control of the skies being specially commemorated on 15 million men had enrolled. over southern England made invasion September, “Battle of Britain Day”.