Never Was So Much Owed by So Many To So Few..

The original poster celebrating the airmen of the Battle of Britain and using Winston Churchill's famous words.

".......the Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin, upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization, upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institution and our Empire." --Winston Churchill

A young Hurricane pilot walks from his aircraft at the beginning of the Battle of Britain.

It was Britain's finest hour, in the words of her great leader Winston Churchill. Pilots of the Royal Air Force faced down the attacking tide of Hitler's Luftwaffe in the desperate summer of 1940, and their courage and flying skills forced Hitler to re-consider his "Project Sea Lion", a planned attack on England. England was saved, not only to fight another day, but to become the jumping-off point for thousands of British, Canadian, Australian and other Allied bombers and fighters as the war continued to rage. And when the final land invasion of 'fortress Europe' began on D-Day, it was launched from British soil.

In this painting by Robert Taylor, a aerial battle rages over the English coastline during the Battle of Britain.

It is impossible to over-state the importance of this air battle, fought by 2,936 Allied pilots against the mighty Luftwaffe. Flying Hurricanes and Spitfires, the young men came from all walks of life, and many had been civilians a brief time before. During the Battle of Britain, 544 of them lost their lives, most killed in action. And lest we forget, over 1,000 Luftwaffe planes were lost as well, each manned by some of Germany's finest aviators at the time. Despite the fanatical evil of their leader, no one can argue with the courage and skill of the Luftwaffe flight crews.

Often overshadowed by the flashier Spitfire, the Hawker Hurricane was the unsung hero of the Battle of Britain.

If you have time, take a moment to click on the link below and scroll through the Aircrew Roll of Honor, remembering how much we owe to the names listed here. [ AIRCREW ROLL OF HONOUR ]

Over the years, there have been several moving memorials built to honor 'The Few'. I am featuring both of them here. One was just a few years ago in London.

At the Battle of Britain Memorial in Folkstone, a young RAF pilot waits for his call to scramble.


The Memorial at Folkstone is in the shape of a giant propeller, with the lone airman in the center of the hub.



Unveiled in 2004, the new Battle of Britain Memorial is located on the Victoria Embankment, London.
A graphic showing the entire sculpture. The scrambling pilots in the center seem to be running out of the sculpture, ready to save Britain once again.


Albert Gregory, 219th Squadron, spends a moment with the new sculpture at the unveiling. What thoughts must be going through this aging fighter pilot's mind?

I recommend for further reading the Official Battle of Britain Historical Society Webpage--http://battleofbritain.net/bobhsoc/index.html

The movie 'Battle of Britain' is also very well-done and available on DVD.

There are many good books about the battle. I like Len Deighton's 'Fighter' the best. Here is the Amazon link for this excellent book: http://www.amazon.com/Fighter-True-Story-Battle-Britain/dp/0785812083

High Flight--A Great Air War Poem

High Flight


Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .


Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew
—And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.


— John Gillespie Magee, Jr


John Gillespie Magee, Jr., was born in Shanghai, China, in 1922 to an English mother and a Scotch-Irish-American father, He was 18 years old when he entered flight training. Within the year, he was sent to England and posted to the newly formed No 412 Fighter Squadron, RCAF, which was activated at Digby, England, on 30 June 1941. He was qualified on and flew the Supermarine Spitfire.

Flying fighter sweeps over France and air defense over England against the German Luftwaffe, he rose to the rank of Pilot Officer.

On 3 September 1941, Magee flew a high altitude (30,000 feet) test flight in a newer model of the Spitfire V. As he orbited and climbed upward, he was struck with the inspiration of a poem — "To touch the face of God."


Once back on the ground, he wrote a letter to his parents. In it he commented, "I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet, and was finished soon after I landed." On the back of the letter, he jotted down his poem, 'High Flight'.


Just three months later, on 11 December 1941 (and only three days after the US entered the war), Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., was killed. The Spitfire V he was flying, VZ-H, collided with an Oxford Trainer from Cranwell Airfield flown by one Ernest Aubrey. The mid-air happened over the village of Roxholm which lies between RAF Cranwell and RAF Digby, in the county of Lincolnshire at about 400 feet AGL at 11:30. John was descending in the clouds. At the enquiry a farmer testified that he saw the Spitfire pilot struggle to push back the canopy. The pilot, he said, finally stood up to jump from the plane. John, however, was too close to the ground for his parachute to open. He died instantly. He was 19 years old.

Read more about Magee and his poem at http://www.skygod.com/quotes/highflight.html

The poem was made famous by President Ronald Reagan. Speaking at the memorial service for the Challenger Space Shuttle astronauts, Reagan said:

"We shall never forget them nor the last time we saw them, as they prepared for their mission and waved good-bye and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God."

Funny Story about the U.S.'s first Jet Aircraft

This seems to be Britain and Commonwealth week at the Untold Valor Blog. My friend Marilyn sent me a copy of an email she got from a former RCAF airmen with a funny story, which I'm going to quote exactly below.

"USA's First Jet Aircraft --A well kept secret indeed!

This was America's first Jet airplane - the P-59-- first flown in Oct. 1942. Volunteers have spent the last 10 years restoring this extremely historic and very rare airplane, and they put the wings back on just last weekend ...and just in time to be on static display at an air show this weekend. In 1942, this was a Top Secret project located at Edwards AFB in California. When the dry lake flooded, they had to transport it by road ......so it was disguised with a dummy wooden propeller on the front and covered with a shroud.

There is also a story behind the derby hats the fellows are wearing in the photo below. On one test flight this Top Secret aircraft was spotted by some pilots getting checked out in their P-38's that were operating from Van Nuys Airport in 1942. When the P-38 pilots then reported seeing a strange airplane with no propeller, their account met with some obvious skepticism. But the story kept circulating, so on a subsequent flight the test pilot of the P-59 dressed up in a gorilla mask, put on a derby hat, and smoked a cigar. He then made a point to fly next to the P-38 pilots and waved at them. When the P-38 pilots got back to the base, they told everyone about the plane with no propeller.....being flown by a gorilla wearing a derby and smoking a cigar. The result of their report was total disbelief .....so the airplane remained a secret until after the war."

Brothers Serving Together--And Dying Together

A reader made a good observation concerning the story posted today on the RCAF Wellington bomber that crashed in England, killing the crew. There were two brothers on the crew, Flight Lieutenant Frank Lorne Burston, age 30, and Flying Officer Glen Richard Burston, age 28, both of London, Ontario. The reader wondered how common this was. The only instance I know about is that of the Sullivan Brothers, who all served together on the U.S.S. Juneau in World War Two.

Their strange and tragic story follows, quoted from the U.S. Navy website.

"Albert, Francis, George, Joseph and Madison Sullivan were born in Waterloo, Iowa, between 1914 and 1920. George and Francis enlisted in the Navy in 1937. Their three younger brothers joined the service in early 1942. All five were assigned to the commissioning crew of USS Juneau (CL-52) in February 1942. They remained with the ship through her Atlantic shakedown operations and subsequent combat actions in the Guadalcanal Campaign. All were lost with her on 13 November 1942, a tragedy that received wide publicity in the United States and resulted in a new Navy policy discouraging family members from serving together in the same ship.

For more information on this subject, see The Sullivan Brothers ...

In February 1943, the destroyer Putnam, then under construction at San Francisco, California, was renamed USS The Sullivans (DD- 537) in honor of the Sullivan Brothers. More recently, an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, DDG-68, was named USS The Sullivans. This ship was commissioned in 1997."

For more on this story, go to this link: http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq72-1.htm

Does anyone know of any situations involving air crews where brothers served on the same aircraft? Please contact me if you do.

Great question, Richard.

My friend Moofy in England, 8th Air Force researcher extraordinaire, sent me this photo to add to this blog. It was shown her by her late friend Jack Ilfry, the fighter pilot. In it, Ilfrey is meeting Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan, the parents of the Sullivan Brothers.